by Eric Vall
Paige caught the sandy blonde haired woman. The woman looked scared to death. She was still sobbing and she threw her hands up over her face as the brunette wrapped one arm around the other woman’s waist.
The red-haired woman fell into Tara, almost knocking her backward. Tara quickly grabbed the woman and held onto her for a second before she gently pushed her to her feet.
These National Guard guys really did a number on these people. As happy as I was that they were safe now, it did nothing to quell my rage at what these soldiers had become. They were supposed to protect these people and instead they had made their lives a living hell.
I looked back out the door just in time to see one of the men’s heads explode from Rolly’s SAW.
“What the fuck!” another one yelled, and then he turned to run back toward us, but was quickly taken out by a headshot that I assumed was from Bailey.
The last guy looked at his dead buddies and simply dropped to the ground and cowered. Then his body went limp, and his brains spread out behind him as Bailey landed another headshot.
“Oh shit,” Anna laughed. “Guess I forgot about our backup.”
“Tav didn’t,” Paige said as she smirked at me.
“You could’ve just told us that was your plan,” Tara said with an eye roll as the door shut.
“Where’s the drama in that?” I asked with a grin.
“Are you okay?” Paige asked the sandy blonde with a frown.
The women were visibly shaken, but they nodded.
“Leave me alone.” The man reached for a nearby flashlight and held it in front of him in a way that suggested he would use it as a weapon if necessary.
“Calm down,” I told him. “We’re not here to hurt you.”
“Right,” he said as he shook his head. “I’m sorry, it’s just…” he trailed off as he set the flashlight down and looked at the floor.
“Hey,” Anna said to him, “It’s fine to be scared, but we’re here to help.”
“Why would you do that?” the short red-haired woman asked.
“We’re kind of, like, the good guys around here,” Tara said with a smile.
“You won’t have to worry about these guys much longer,” Paige chimed in as she nodded her head towards the door.
“Can you introduce us to the people along the wall?” I asked the man.
“Uh, sure,” he stuttered.
“We just want to make sure everyone is alright,” I said and I nodded to Paige. “Paige is a nurse of sorts. She’ll double check everyone once this is over, but for now I need to let them know we’re on their side.”
“I don’t think that will be too hard,” the short woman said. “I mean, after all, you did just save us.”
“You’re a nurse?” the red bearded man asked as he looked at Paige.
“Of sorts,” Paige answered with a smile.
“She was pre-med,” Anna added.
“Yeah, but we do know another woman who was a nurse before all this happened,” Tara said in reference to Marla.
Tara made a good point, there were a lot of people here, and if Paige got in over her head, it would be nice to have Marla there to help.
“Is anyone seriously injured?” Paige asked.
“I’m honestly not sure,” the man responded. “But I know some of the women will probably need to be looked at.”
Tara gave a sad nod, and she looked at the women.
The sandy blonde had finally recovered, she wiped her tears as she stood, and then she reached for the short red-haired woman and hugged her before she looked up at our group.
“Thank you,” she said with bloodshot eyes.
I could tell from the demeanor of the women that it wasn’t just about those goons that were using them as shields, they were thanking us for saving them from all the fucked up things each of those so-called soldiers did to them.
I felt myself get emotional, but took a deep breath to steady myself.
“You’re safe now,” I told her as I met her gaze and then I turned back to the male civilian. “Now, let’s introduce ourselves.”
Chapter 11
Before we made it halfway across the gym people started to rush over to our group, and the sandy blonde woman ran to hug a younger blonde-haired girl who looked like she could be her daughter. As the people gathered around us I raised my hand to silence them.
“I’m sure everyone has questions,” I started. “I’m Tav, and this is Tara, Anna, and Paige.” I gestured to each member of my group as I spoke.
“What’s going on out there?” a tall black-haired man asked.
“We’re taking out the National Guard assholes,” Tara spoke up.
“Are you military too?” a small woman asked after she noticed our combat gear.
“No, not exactly,” Anna said.
“I used to be an Army Ranger,” I informed them. “I did three tours in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Sierra Leone.”
“What about them?” another man asked as he gestured to my team.
“I’ve been training them,” I told him. “And together we took out the bikers that were causing trouble in this area.”
“What can we do to help?” the red-bearded man asked.
“We still have two people outside,” I said. “They’re taking out guys shooting from the windows of the main building.”
“Wait, there’s only six of you?” the sandy blonde woman asked.
“Yes,” I nodded. “But we’re more than capable.”
“You got that right,” Tara said, and she cocked her hip out to the side.
“Right now the best thing you can do is arm yourselves with whatever you have on hand and stay here until this is over,” I told them.
“But we want to help,” the black haired man said.
“I assure you we have it under control,” I said.
“Yeah,” Anna chimed in. “You all have been through enough already. Let us handle it.”
“But why are you doing this?” another woman asked, and she tilted her head to the side.
“We just want to help,” Paige told her with a soft smile.
“These guys started taking from the local farms,” Tara said. “Once we found this outpost and saw what they were doing, we couldn’t just sit by.”
“Are you the reason the other group never came back?” the red bearded man asked.
“Yup,” Anna said. “We took them out.”
“Another group went out looking for them,” the sandy blonde woman offered. “They could still be out there.”
“Already taken care of,” Tara assured her.
“Right now we need to get back to our group and finish this,” I said.
“Are you sure there isn’t anything that we can do?” the black haired man asked.
“Have any of you been inside the main building?” I questioned.
The group looked around at each other until a short brown haired woman spoke up.
“I’ve been there a couple of times,” she said.
“Can you give us a layout of the building?” I asked.
“It’s pretty small,” she started. “There’s only maybe twelve classrooms, plus a teacher’s lounge.”
“Is the hallway split?” I asked.
“Yeah,” she said. “There’s one classroom to your right as you walk in and an office area to the left, and then the hallway splits to your right and left and there are classrooms on both sides.”
“Where is the teachers’ lounge?” I asked.
“It’s on the left-hand side all the way to the back of the hallway,” she said.
“Is that where The Colonel stays?” I asked her.
“Yes,” she responded. “He has kind of an office in there.”
“There were seven men in the yard when we arrived,” I said. “They are safe, but is everyone else accounted for?”
The group looked around, and the red bearded man nodded.
“Thank you,” I told the brown haired woman as I looked her in the eyes.
“You’ve been a great help.”
She gave me a small smile before I turned to face my group.
“Let’s go get this done,” I told them.
“Wait,” the red-haired woman said. “Does this mean we’re free to go?”
“You will be as soon as this is over,” I told her.
“But where would we go?” the black haired man asked.
“We can figure that out after we’ve eliminated the rest of the soldiers,” I told him.
“But we don’t have any guns,” the brown haired woman protested.
“How will we protect ourselves if you leave?”
“You can barricade the door,” Paige suggested.
“This shouldn’t take long,” Tara added with a cocky smile.
“The rest of the soldiers are in the main building,” I told them.
“You’ll be safe here until this is over.”
“We’ll make sure to announce ourselves when we come back,” Anna said.
“I know there is a lot to consider,” I told the group. “But right now my people are out there holding off the men in the building. We need to go get this taken care of.”
“You’ll come back though, right?” the red bearded man asked quickly.
“I assure you, we will be back,” I told him with a hand out to calm him. “We’ll figure everything out after these assholes are dealt with.”
“I know you’re scared,” Tara said softly as she stepped toward the group. “But you’re going to be fine. We’re going to get these fuckers and we’ll come right back for you. I promise.”
The way she looked at the women must have given them some comfort because the group nodded their heads.
“Okay,” Anna said. “Let’s go check on Rolly and Bailey.”
“Stay safe,” I told the civilians before I opened the gym doors and walked outside. As we came out, I only heard three rounds go off from Rolly and Bailey’s direction so I looked at the windows of the main building, but I couldn’t make out any gun barrels.
“We’re going to make our way back to Rolly and Bailey,” I said as I turned to face my team.
“Should we go back along the fence line?” Paige asked.
“Yes,” I nodded. “There doesn’t appear to be much fire coming from the building, but we don’t want to take any chances.”
“Right,” Anna agreed.
“Follow me,” I told them, and I started to follow the fence line back toward the guard towers. I scanned the dead bodies as we moved and thought we would probably be able to get some good gear from this mission, but if anything we would have the two trucks that were in the yard, though I wasn’t sure how much damage they had taken in the initial fight and how much gas they had left.
We reached Bailey first, and I called out to make her aware of our presence.
“Hey,” I said. “It’s us.”
“Hey,” Bailey said, but she didn’t look up from her scope.
“How’s things going over here?” I asked the pretty blonde hippie.
“It seems like most of them have fallen back from the windows,” she announced.
“Any sign of The Colonel?” I asked.
“I don’t think so,” she said, and then she pursed her lips. “I haven’t even heard anyone yelling orders.”
“Man, these guys are so unorganized,” Tara scoffed.
“Yeah,” Anna agreed. “We would have had a plan for this the first day.”
“Well these guys don’t appear to be the brightest bulbs in the shed,” Rolly called out.
“Or the bravest,” I agreed. “They’re probably just playing turtle right now.”
“You mean they’re just, like, gonna sit in there and wait for us to attack them again?” Tara asked.
“Probably,” I nodded. “What would you do in this situation?”
“Not that,” Tara said with a shrug. “Bunch of pussies.”
Anna laughed, and then lightly elbowed her friend as they smiled at each other.
“I mean, it makes sense,” Bailey chimed in. “We have taken out a lot of their men already.”
“Yeah,” Rolly agreed. “I might not be the bravest in that situation either.”
I smiled up at Rolly. This old man had already proven himself to be one of the bravest men I’d ever seen, he had to be in his seventies, but he was still out here putting up one hell of a fight.
“I don’t believe that for a second,” Bailey said.
“Yeah,” Anna added. “What’s that they say? You’re a tough old dog.”
“Pretty sure it’s bird,” Rolly laughed but didn’t look away from the windows. “So, what do we do now, boss?”
“We stick to the plan,” I said. “More guys got in there than we wanted, but we knew there would be men in the buildings, regardless.”
“So we breach the building,” Paige said.
“Yes,” I agreed. “The Colonel must be in there.”
“The lady in the gym said his office was in the teacher’s lounge,”Anna reminded me.
“Right,” I said. “If we can get to him, we should be able to end this quick.”
“Those dicks are pretty hell bent on protecting him,” Bailey piped up as she took out a guy who had tried to sneak his way into the window.
“They may be dogs, but they’re loyal dogs,” I said.
“Hey now,” Paige said. “There’s no reason to insult dogs.”
“Right,” I allowed myself to laugh, and then I put my serious face back on. “Now, let’s get down to business. Rolly and Bailey, keep kickin ass. Tara, Paige, Anna, you’re with me again.”
“You got it chief,” Rolly shouted.
“Oh, and Rolly,” I called up. “If you think you can manage that .50 cal go right ahead.”
“I think I can handle it,” he said, and the old man flashed a toothy smile that made his wrinkles grow deeper.
“You sure you can handle that thing?” Anna asked with a wry smile as Rolly moved toward the .50 cal.
“Oh yeah,” he said with a grin.
Bailey kept her MK14 pointed at the windows of the main building.
“I got you,” the blonde hippie called. “Go for it.”
“Ready?” I asked my team.
“Let’s do this,” Anna said.
“Fuck yeah,” Tara responded.
“These bastards are in for it,” Paige smiled.
“Alright,” I clapped and reached for my pistol. “Let’s go.”
We raced across the yard to the front of the main building. The guys must have moved back into one of the classrooms because neither Bailey nor Rolly fired as we made our way across the lawn.
Just as we reached the front door I heard gunfire from behind me, so I flipped around to see three men trying to make their way toward the tower where Bailey was posted.
“Shit,” I said as I raised my pistol and started to run back toward the tower.
These assholes must have gone around the back and found another way. Maybe they were smarter than we gave them credit for. How did they slip past us, and why didn’t they shoot at us when we were standing by the tower?
The shots had intensified as I ran, and I saw Bailey duck behind the dead guy once more.
They wanted the .50 cal.
Rolly quickly took aim and used the .50 cal to suppress them and one guy went down in an explosion of gore, but it didn’t deter the other two.
“They’re after Bailey and Rolly,” Anna said as she ran beside me.
“What do we do?” Paige asked as she breathed heavily.
“How many guys are there?” Tara asked.
“Two,” I stated. “We’ve got to take them out before Bailey or Rolly gets hurt.”
“Are they okay now?” Anna asked, and I could hear the worry in her voice.
“They’re okay,” I nodded. “Bailey ducked behind the guard we took out and Rolly has the .50 cal. As long as he doesn’t go through that ammunition box he should be fine. Paige, fall back to the tree where the guy y
elling orders was. Keep an eye on the windows and the side of the building.”
“On it,” she said as she started to run toward the tree.
“Where do you want us?” Anna asked as she kept pace with me.
Just then Rolly let out a burst of suppression fire, and I grabbed Anna and Tara and took them to the ground with me. The last thing we needed was to get hit by a stray bullet.
Rolly was in a bad position, and at the rate he was firing he would have to reload soon, and the two guys could use that time to take him out.
Bailey needed to keep cover so she wouldn’t be much help to him.
“Fuck,” I said through clenched teeth.
“We’re in deep shit, aren’t we?” Tara asked.
“It’s not good,” I said. “Rolly is going to need to reload soon.”
“What can we do?” Anna asked.
“Tara,” I started. “Head towards Paige’s tree and go around by the wood pile. When you have an opportunity, take them out, but use your silenced pistol. Don’t let them hear you coming.”
“I’m on it,” she said and then she crawled toward Paige.
The two men had taken cover behind a pile of un-chopped wood, but I didn’t have an angle to get a kill shot.
Just then Rolly’s firing stopped, and I heard him curse before he ducked behind the dead man in the tower.
The two soldiers opened fire, and one aimed directly at the towers.
“We need to cover Rolly,” I said to Anna.
“I don’t have a shot on these guys,” Anna said.
“It’s okay,” I told her. “We don’t need a clear shot, we just need them to duck down and stop firing.”
“How will that help Rolly?” she asked.
“If we can suppress these guys for a minute, then he may be able to reload that .50 cal,” I said.
I wasn’t sure if Rolly knew how to do that, but I had faith in the old geezer.
“Okay,” she nodded. “Let’s do this.”
Anna lined up Rolly’s M4A1 and waited for my go ahead.
“Now,” I said, and we both opened fire toward where the men had taken cover.
As we fired, I saw Rolly make his way back to the .50 cal, but he struggled to get the thing loaded, and Anna and I would need new magazines soon.