by Eric Vall
“Tell us what you know about the EMP,” I said to the man.
“You all have no idea,” he said between ragged breaths, he laughed again, and a string of blood and saliva hung from his mouth.
“What do you know?” I asked again as I moved closer to the man.
“Whatever little haven you’ve made yourselves, it’s pointless,” he laughed. “You have no idea what’s coming.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Tara asked.
“You’re all already dead,” the man laughed again.
“What do you know?” I asked once more.
The man looked at me for a long second. Then he laughed again as he coughed up blood.
“I don’t think he wants to talk,” Paige said.
“What do we do now?” Anna asked.
“If he doesn’t want to talk, he’s no use to us,” I said. “Tyrants don’t belong in America, especially if they used to serve under its flag.”
I stood up and raised my pistol at the man’s head.
“What’re you waitin--” his words were cut off as I put three rounds in his head. Normally I wouldn’t waste bullets like that, but this guy had royally pissed me off, and it felt good to add a little insult to his death.
The Colonel’s dead eyes stared straight up at me. It was a gory sight, but it was made all the more disturbing when I recalled his crazy ass laugh.
“What a waste of a human being,” Tara sneered as she looked at the dead man.
“It’s even worse that he was supposed to be a soldier,” Paige added.
“Not all soldiers can be as good as Tav,” Anna said, and she gave me a big smile.
My girls were covered in dirt, and blood, but they all still looked sexy as hell standing over these dead fucks.
“Paige, can you patch up Anna?” I asked as I moved around the room and found a couple of lamps to light.
“Of course,” Paige said, and she set her pack down to retrieve her first aid kit.
“It’s really not that bad,” Anna protested.
“We can’t afford any risk of infection,” Paige told her. “Now sit down and let me play doctor.”
“Ooh, I’m down to play doctor,” Tara said, and she licked her lips as she looked at me.
“Hey,” Paige laughed. “I’m the doctor here. Find your own role play scenario.”
“But who’s going to check me for injuries?” Tara pouted.
“Um, me?” Paige said as she opened the first aid kit.
“So you’re saying we can play doctor together?” Tara lifted an eyebrow at her bookish friend.
“Now that I would love to see,” I grinned at the girls.
“I’m sure you would,” Anna laughed, and then she winced as Paige applied peroxide to the wound.
“I’m sure Tav could make room for another patient,” Tara offered with a wink.
“The doctor is always in,” I chuckled.
“I think I’ve seen you naked enough times,” Anna said to Tara with a smile.
“Suit yourself,” Tara said with a shrug. “It’s a pretty spectacular sight.”
Tara always knew how to get my engine going, even the way she talked turned me on. It had been a long night, and I would need some stress relief once it was over.
“Does she need stitches?” I asked Paige to take my mind off the thought of a naked Tara.
“No,” Paige shook her head. “I don’t think so. It’s just a graze.”
“I told you it wasn’t bad,” Anna said. “We should finish this up.”
“Paige, are you almost done?” I asked.
“Yup,” the brunette said. “I’m just going to wrap it up for now. We’ll check it out again after all this is over.”
Paige worked quickly to wrap Anna’s arm, and when she was done, she gave her friend a squeeze on her knee.
“All set,” she told her with a smile.
“Thanks, Paige,” Anna returned the smile.
“Tara, Paige,” I said. “Scan the area and see if you can find anyone still alive who feels a bit more chatty than this asshole.” I gestured to the dead Colonel in the corner.
“On it, boss,” Tara said as she gave me a sloppy salute, but she paused and looked at me after she stepped over a still moaning soldier.
“Why don’t we interrogate these guys?” Paige asked as she looked down at the groaning man.
“Try,” I shrugged. None of these men were going to be up for talking, they were already in shock and they probably weren’t lucid enough to answer any questions.
“Why did you leave the National Guard camp?” Paige asked as she bent down to the soldier.
The soldier didn’t respond, he just moaned again and tried to turn his face away from her.
Anna and I laughed at Paige’s failed interrogation.
“You could’ve just told me they were too far gone to talk,” Paige smirked, and she sent eye daggers at me.
“Yeah, but this was more fun,” I grinned.
“Should we kill these guys then?” Tara asked with a raised eyebrow.
“They’ll be dead soon enough,” I responded.
“Besides,” Anna chimed in, “I don’t think they deserve the mercy of a quick death.”
“Should we tell Bailey and Rolly it’s safe?” Paige asked as she walked toward the door with Tara.
“Tell them we think we got everyone,” I said. “But have Bailey stay in the tower and keep an eye out anyway.”
“On it,” Paige called over her shoulder as she walked out into the hallway.
Anna sunk deeper into her chair as I made my way to a large table at the opposite end of the room. Between us lay ten dead or dying men, and the copper smell of blood hung in the air.
“Well, that was one hell of a night,” Anna said as she closed her eyes.
“You did good,” I told her. “I was proud of how you took charge.”
“Thanks,” she said, and she looked down to the floor. “There were a few times I wasn’t sure we were going to make it out alive.”
“But we did,” I grinned. “You all worked together as a team, and we’re all in one piece.”
“Well, mostly anyway,” Anna grinned and looked down at the blood on her arm.
I searched through the papers on the desk, but they were all in a mess from the explosion.
“What are you looking for?” Anna asked.
“I’m not sure yet,” I said. “Anything that can help us figure out where that EMP came from.”
“Do you think he would still have military info around here?” Anna asked. “I mean these guys did go rogue right?”
“They’re deserters,” I told her. “They left their post with the intention to not come back.”
“That gets to you, doesn’t it?” she asked in a soft voice.
“I can understand leaving your post if the people in charge were corrupt,” I said. “But I don’t understand leaving it to follow someone corrupt.”
“Not everyone is as good of a person as you are, Tav,” Anna said, and she gave me a small smile.
“I’m not that unique,” I said with a smile of my own.
“Oh please,” she scoffed. “You saved us the very first day you met us, and you helped us learn how to survive. We never even offered you anything for your help.”
“I think I’ve got plenty of thanks,” I laughed.
“You know what I mean,” Anna laughed back.
We both went quiet for a moment as we took in the room around us, and Anna’s eyes landed on The Colonel in the corner.
“I don’t like how that Colonel dick was talking,” she said.
“Neither do I,” I agreed.
“Do you think he’s right?” she asked.
“I think he thinks he was right,” I said. “But he doesn’t know what we’re capable of either.”
“Yeah,” Anna grinned. “We did kick some serious ass today.”
“We did pretty good,” I smiled at her.
“Pretty good?” she sco
ffed.
“Well yeah,” I said with a grin. “Great would mean none of us got a gunshot wound.”
“True,” she laughed. “These assholes just had to ruin our streak right at the end.”
The girls really had done a great job, and Rolly too. It was hard to believe that none of the ladies had even really shot a gun before I ran into them, and now they were a force to be reckoned with.
I watched Anna as she sat with her arms stretched out on both sides of the chair and had her head tilted back. Her long red braid hung over the back of the chair, almost hitting the floor, her eyes were closed, and her chest rose and fell softly with each breath. I knew she was tired, but she was a trooper. She had a gunshot wound in her arm, and she hadn’t complained once. She was shaping up to make a great second in command.
I let Anna rest her eyes for a moment more while I continued scanning the papers. There was nothing of use, it was all just bullshit notes about things they needed at the outpost and who was going with whom to get what. The only information this gave me was a count of the soldiers and their supplies.
I wondered how they knew about the farms or if they just happened across them while they were out scavenging. There had to be some real paperwork around here somewhere, but I hoped the girls managed to find a few injured soldiers I could interrogate just in case there wasn’t.
I stepped over the dying men and gently nudged Anna.
“Wha--” she said as her eyes snapped open.
“Wake up, sleepy head,” I joked.
“I wasn’t sleeping,” she grumbled.
“Let’s go see if Paige and Tara rustled us up some assholes to question,” I said.
“Do I get to be good cop or bad cop?” Anna laughed, then she stood up, and we headed out the door.
Chapter 14
The moon was high above the trees as we walked into the yard. The fires in the yard were still blazing, but I was thankful someone had moved the man who had fallen in earlier. I could no longer smell his flesh burning, and his charred body laid off to the side and smoke still rose from it.
“Looks like they found a few,” Anna said, and she pointed across the courtyard to Paige and Tara.
Bailey was still posted in the guard tower, but she waved to us when she saw us. Rolly must have been in the gym with the civilians. Tara and Paige had five soldiers tied up on their knees in front of the woodpile and they stood and talked in front of them, pistols in hand.
“Hey!” Tara called out when she saw us.
Anna and I made our way to the girls and took in the sight of the men.
“We found five,” Paige said. “They’re wounded, but we still tied them up.”
“Fuck you bitch,” one of the soldiers spat.
“Call my friend a bitch again, and I will shoot you so fast,” Tara seethed as she aimed her pistol at the man’s head. “We only need one of you.”
“Looks like Tara already called bad cop,” Anna whispered to me.
I wanted to laugh, but I had been in this situation before, and I didn’t want to give these guys any reason to think I was soft.
“She’s right,” I told the man grimly. “We only need one of you.”
The men looked at me with wide eyes. They wore camo pants and white T-shirts that were soaked with sweat and covered in dirt and blood. One guy had a serious head gash, and his whole face was covered in dried blood and another looked like he had taken a bullet to the shoulder.
“So, who’s going to talk?” I asked as I crossed my arms over my chest.
The men looked to one another and dropped their heads.
I knew it would be more difficult to get them to talk in a group, but they were all marked to die anyway, so I pulled out my pistol and shot the man who had called Paige a bitch.
“What the fuck, man!” One guy protested.
“Oh my god,” A red-haired man said, he looked like he was going to cry, and I realized I had found my talker.
“Okay,” I said. “Who wants to get out of this alive?”
“Don’t fuckin say anything, man!” The man with the shoulder wound said. “They’re gonna kill us anyway.”
I whipped around and hit the guy in the face hard with my pistol.
Shoulder Wound spat blood on the ground and nearly toppled forward.
“I’m going to ask one more time men,” I told them as I paced in front of the remaining four. “Who wants to live?”
I looked at each of them as I walked. The red haired man was visibly shaking, and I could see tears streaming down his face, so I knelt down in front of him.
“How about you?” I asked the man as I lifted my pistol in front of his face. “Do you want to live, son?”
The man began to sob louder, and it was truly a pitiful sight. Snot dripped from his nose and hung in a long strand down to his chin.
“Don’t fuckin do it O’Donnell!” Shoulder Wound yelled to him.
O’Donnell cried harder, and I stood up and slowly walked toward Shoulder Wound.
“I thought I made it clear,” I said as I turned around and faced the girls, “that I didn’t want to hear from you.”
“Fuck you man!” he yelled. “Who the fuck--” I whipped around and hit him once more with my pistol but far harder than the first time.
Shoulder Wound lurched forward and gasped in a deep breath. Fresh blood dripped from his mouth onto the ground in front of him.
“Now,” I said as I knelt back down in front of O’Donnell, “why are you all out here?”
“Okay, okay,” he sniveled. “Just please don’t kill me.”
“I won’t have to if you tell me what you know,” I said.
“We were The Colonel’s personal squad,” he started. “We left Burlington and took some civilians with us.”
“Yeah, as slaves,” Paige sneered behind me.
“Why did you leave Burlington?” I asked.
“The Colonel didn’t get along with the commanding officer,” he said.
“When did you leave?” I pushed.
“After the bikers disappeared,” he said, and he looked down as Shoulder Wound glared at him.
“Why did you bring the civilians?” Paige asked. “Why not just leave on your own?”
“We needed them for labor to fortify the camp,” the soldier with blood down his face answered for O’Donnell with a quiet voice.
“What the fuck, Johnson!” Shoulder Wound yelled.
“The Colonel is dead, you dipshit,” Bloody Face Johnson responded. “If I can make it out of this alive, I will.”
“He’s going to kill you anyway!” Shoulder Wound screamed.
“I’m going to kill you if you don’t shut the fuck up,” I told Shoulder Wound.
“But why the women?” Bailey asked from her post in the guard tower.
“Because they’re fucking rapists,” Anna said through clenched teeth.
“Whose idea was it to bring the women?” I asked Bloody Face Johnson.
“The Colonel,” he said. “He told us it was our treat for coming with him.”
“They weren’t all unwilling either,” Shoulder Wound sneered. “Some of them liked it.”
This guy was a real piece of shit. I looked over my shoulder to check on the girls, their faces were lit up with the fire light and all their eyes were cold as they stared at the asshole.
Rolly and the civilians had made their way out of the gym, and they were headed toward where we stood with the men.
“Paige?” I asked. “Can you get me a latex glove please?”
“Uh, sure,” she said, and I heard her unzip her bag.
I smiled at Shoulder Wound as I crouched in front of him and held my hand up over my shoulder.
“Here you go,” Paige said as she handed me the glove.
“Thank you, Paige,” I said and then I put the glove on.
“What the fuck are you gonna do with that?” Shoulder Wound asked. “You think a fucking glove makes you scary?”
“No,” I said, and
I stabbed my index finger deep into the bullet hole in his shoulder and twisted it. “I think this does though.”
Shoulder Wound screamed in pain and fell to the ground. He bit his lip as he tried not to scream again, but I forced my finger further into the hole and he let out another screech.
Once he was on the ground, and I was sure he wasn’t going to interrupt me again I removed the latex glove, turned it inside out, and put it in my pocket, then I turned to Bloody Face again, and his face was pulled in a grimace as he watched Shoulder Wound on the ground.
“What do you know about the EMP?” I asked him.
“I-I don’t know,” he said.
I stared at him.
“I really don’t,” he repeated hastily. “I swear. Only The Colonel knows.”
“How do you know he knew?” I asked.
“He got orders a few days before we deserted,” another soldier with grown out shaggy blonde hair said, he had a pool of blood under his legs, and I figured he must have taken a shot in the shin.
“What did the orders say?” Anna asked from behind me.
“He didn’t tell us,” Bloody Face Johnson said. “The Colonel had been fighting with the commanding officer for a while.”
“Yeah,” the shaggy blonde one added. “They were arguing over the land around the camp.”
“Where are the orders about the EMP?” I asked.
“They’re probably in The Colonel’s room,” O’Donnell said.
“Traitors,” Shoulder Wound breathed from his place on the ground.
I stood up and put my boot on his face as Rolly and the civilians made their way to us.
“Thanks for the information, fellas,” I told them.
“Are you going to let us go now?” Bloody Face Johnson asked.
“Oh, no,” I told him.
“But you said you wouldn’t kill us,” O ‘Donnell cried.
“I did,” I nodded. “But I didn’t say they wouldn’t.” I gestured over to the civilians walking up.
“Pretty sure they deserve to kill their rapists,” Anna said.
“Yeah, poetic justice and all that,” Paige added.
I walked over to Rolly and clapped him on the shoulder.
“Good to see you, old timer,” I grinned at him.
“You too. Listen, uh,” the old man rubbed his neck as he talked, “these people have a lot of questions, and I don’t have all the answers.”