by Eric Vall
“Doesn’t everyone?” Tara asked.
“No,” I said. “Most kids don’t get to drink until they sneak alcohol from their parents’ liquor cabinet when they’re in high school.”
“Oh,” Tara said. “You guys missed out.”
“Obviously,” Paige laughed.
We all traded drunken stories from our childhood while we watched Tara work on dinner, and once it was in the fire, we sipped our wine in silence until Betty and Rolly came out from the dorm rooms.
“Hey,” I said as the two took a seat.
“What’re you guys doing out here?” Rolly asked.
“We went up to the roof first,” Betty said. “But Anna said you decided to cook on the fire.”
“Yeah,” Tara said. “We were just trading drunken stories while dinner cooked.”
“Oh,” Betty chuckled. “I’d love to hear some of those.”
“Tav tell them,” Paige laughed. “You gotta tell them the one you told us.”
“I don’t know,” I said. “It’s pretty embarrassing.”
“Well, now we have to know,” Rolly said.
“Alright,” I sighed. “But don’t let it ruin your perception of me.”
“Never,” Betty said, and she raised her hand. “Scouts honor.”
“Yeah,” Rolly said, and he mimicked Betty’s hand gesture. “Scouts honor.”
“Well,” I started. “The first time I got drunk was at a friend’s house my freshman year of high school.”
“How’d you get the booze?” Rolly asked.
“My friend took it from his mom’s liquor cabinet of course,” I chuckled. “And his parents were gone for the weekend, so there were four or five of us there with a cheap bottle of vodka, we didn’t know that at the time, but luckily we took the cheap stuff.”
“I know I’d be far more pissed if my kid took the good stuff,” Betty laughed.
“Right,” I chuckled. “We got in enough trouble as it was. But anyways, we took shots of it and chased it with milk because there wasn’t any soda in the house.”
“Oh good Lord,” Betty said, and her eyes grew wide.
“Oh my God,” Tara laughed, and she elbowed Betty. “It only gets better.”
“So we chased it with milk,” I repeated. “And after a while we’re all totally trashed, and we decide to make pizza.”
“You used the oven!” Betty exclaimed, then she calmed herself. “Sorry, continue.”
“Yeah,” I laughed. “We used the oven. But we knew by then that we were feeling it, and we didn’t want to burn the house down, so we ended up only putting the pizza in for five minutes.”
“Oh no.” Rolly put his hand up to his face in despair.
“So obviously it’s still frozen,” I said. “And after we ate it we tried to play some video games, but I guess the movement on the screen was a bit much.”
“Let me guess,” Betty said with a raised eyebrow. “You threw up.”
“I did,” I laughed. “Directly onto my friend.”
“Oh no,” Rolly belly laughed and doubled over.
“Yeah,” I said dryly. “And I spent the rest of the night with the spins hugging the toilet.”
“You probably had food poisoning,” Betty laughed, and I looked at her with surprise. “I’m sorry, it’s just, that’s too terrible.”
“It was bad,” I chuckled. “Anyway, that’s my drunken story.”
“I told you it got better,” Tara laughed.
“I can’t say too much,” Betty sighed. “One year I tried to serve a raw turkey for Thanksgiving.”
“What?” I asked with shock.
“Oh yeah,” Betty chuckled. “It was my first time hosting, and I was trying to live up to my mom’s Thanksgiving dinners, and the pressure got the best of me so I started drinking early and well… I’m sure you can figure out the rest.”
“That’s bad,” I laughed.
“Oh, it was,” Betty said with a nod. “But we had a good laugh about it and ate sandwiches instead.”
I smiled at the group and sipped my wine. I would miss Thanksgiving this year. It was one of my favorite holidays, mostly because it was all about eating and spending time with family. My mom always made a good spread, even though it was often only the two of us, and I always looked forward to that day when I played outside with the neighbor boys and got called in early to eat dinner at two o’clock. I think she tried so hard because it was around Thanksgiving that we got the news of my father's passing.
I breathed in and smelled Tara’s turkey pot pie and smiled at the girls, a good pot pie and time with all of them was Thanksgiving enough this year.
“Hey!” Anna called as we were finishing up eating dinner.
“What’s wrong?” I yelled, and I shot to my feet.
“There’s people on the road,” the redhead said.
Chapter 14
“Where at?” I hollered up to the redhead.
“Right by the bridge,” she called down. “Looks like guard guys.”
“Anna, get down here,” I ordered. “Rolly, Betty, I need you on guard.”
“On it,” Rolly said, and he and Betty were already on their feet.
“Everyone else get your weapons,” I said.
We all rushed inside and grabbed the weapons that sat right by the door from our fight with the hillbillies. I picked up my rifle, Paige grabbed her shotgun, and Bailey grabbed her rifle as well. Tara already had her Ruger on her, but she grabbed a spare magazine and her vest.
“Ready?” Anna asked as she came down the stairs and scooped up her vest as well.
“Ready,” I said. “Let’s go check this out. Everybody remember the way through the woods?”
“Yeah.” The girls all nodded.
“Alright, then,” I said, and I turned to Anna. “Lead the way.”
“Right,” the redhead said, and she took off down toward the bridge, and we all followed.
We navigated the path easily, even though it was dark as hell outside and we were packed down with weapons. Once we got close Anna stopped us in the woods, and I saw the light of a lantern that one of the men held.
Bailey lined up her shot, but I put my hand on her shoulder to steady her. I wanted to hear what these assholes were talking about.
“Nobody shoot until I do,” I whispered. “Find your positions.”
“But they’re guard guys,” Tara protested. “Let’s just take them out.”
“I want to see if we can get any information first,” I said. “Now get to your position.”
“Alright,” Tara snapped, and I knew she wasn’t happy with my decision, but she obliged nonetheless.
Once everyone was posted near me and had their sights on the Guard guys, I waited to see what we could hear.
“Right!” one guy exclaimed as they walked, and he turned to the other. “It was so fucked.” He had brown hair in a military cut and he was in full uniform with a side arm, and his M16 was slung on his back over his backpack.
“And that captain who took the others,” the other guy said, and he had the same haircut but with blonde hair, and the same uniform and military grade weapons. “I can’t even imagine what happened to those civilians.”
Their conversation was making me curious, perhaps I had misjudged them, but they had weapons on them so I needed to be careful. I decided to wait a bit longer and see what else they had to say.
“It was like the world went to shit and everybody forgot their duties,” the first soldier said.
“I know,” the other one said, and he shook his head. “I feel bad that we couldn’t take them with us.”
“Especially the women,” the first responded, and my eyes narrowed on him.
“I feel so bad about what happened to them,” the other said in a low voice.
“I don’t know what more we could have done,” the first responded. “I pried a few guys off of them, but who knows what the fuck happened when I wasn’t around.”
“I’m so pissed at the
other officers,” the second spat. “I was in basic with some of those guys and I never figured them for rapists.”
“It’s amazing what a bit of power does to some people,” the first said.
I had heard enough, so I looked at my girls and called them back to me.
“What’s up?” Anna asked as we all huddled together.
“I’m going to talk to them,” I said.
“What?” Tara asked. “They’re guard guys.”
“Didn’t you hear their conversation?” Bailey said. “I don’t think they’re bad.”
“There are two kinds of evil,” the platinum blonde retorted. “And they’re that one kind that sat by and let evil shit happen.”
“I’m going to speak with them,” I repeated. “Don’t shoot unless I say to. I want you to have guns on them at all times.”
“Got it,” Bailey said with a nod.
“Everyone back to your positions,” I said.
“But--” Tara protested.
“Back to your positions,” I commanded.
The girls retreated, but Tara did so in a huff. I knew I would have to speak with her about it later, but for the moment I needed to address these soldiers that had wandered into my territory.
“Halt!” I yelled out, and the two men each drew their side arm.
“Who’s there?” the blonde one called.
“Put your weapons down,” I commanded.
“Not until you tell us who the fuck you are,” the other spat.
“Connor Tavish,” I said. “I served with the 3rd Battalion, 75th Rangers out of Fort Benning, Georgia. I served three tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, killed many men, and saved even more. This is my territory, and I’m ordering you to put your weapons down!”
My words grew louder and more commanding as I spoke, and the two men traded a look then set their sidearms and rifles on the ground in front of them.
“Okay then,” I said, and I stepped out of the woods and walked toward the men.
“We’re sorry,” the blonde one said. “We didn’t know anybody lived here.”
“I’ll warn you both,” I said. “I have a sniper on you right now, but I don’t want to have to use her, so it’s best for you to cooperate.”
Both of their eyes widened at the words sniper and her, and they traded another look before the brown haired one spoke.
“Again,” he said and he put his hands up. “We didn’t know we were in your territory.”
“You didn’t see the warning signs?” I asked in reference to the bodies I had strung up near the bridge.
“We thought that… was just kinda how the world was everywhere,” the brunette replied.
“What are you doing here?” I asked seriously.
“We’re just passing through,” the blonde said. “Honestly, we don’t want any trouble.”
“Where are you coming from?” I asked.
“There’s a guard camp in Burlington,” the brunette said.
“I know of it,” I said with a nod. “But if you’re stationed there, then why are you here?”
“We went AWOL,” the blonde said.
“You don’t seem too shy about saying that to another military man,” I said with a raised brow.
“I’m not,” the blonde retorted, and he set his jaw. “That place was FUBAR.”
“That’s something we can agree on,” I said. “So where are you heading?”
“We’re going south,” the brunette said. “Not sure where yet, we just didn’t want to be at that camp anymore.”
“Why didn’t you do something to fix it?” I asked.
“There was no way,” the blonde said with a shake of his head. “We tried a few times, but our CO was a major prick, and he would just punish the civilians more whenever we got out of line.”
“Last time I was there it looked like the guard was about to push out any day now,” I said. “Why didn’t you stick around and leave with them?”
“We couldn’t stay any longer,” the blonde said. “What they’re doing isn’t right.”
“What were your orders?” I asked.
“We were supposed to go to Washington D.C.,” the brunette said. “But I don’t think there’s a D.C. left. I didn’t want to risk it.”
“I understand,” I said.
“We are really sorry for intruding,” the blond said sincerely.
“Yeah,” the dark-haired man agreed. “We don’t want to cause you any trouble.”
“It’s alright,” I told them. “Just don’t come through here again.”
“We won’t,” the blonde said seriously.
“You boys better hurry up and get south,” I said, and I looked around. “It’s getting colder by the day.”
“We will, sir,” the brunette said.
“On your way, then,” I said.
“Thank you, sir,” the blond said, and they both reached for their weapons.
The men walked on quickly, and I waited until they were out of sight before I called my girls out of the woods.
“I’m sorry,” Tara said immediately.
“It’s okay,” I told her, but I kept my voice hard. “But I need you to trust me that I won’t put you in danger.”
“I know that,” the platinum blonde said, and I could tell she was flustered. “Guard guys just make me so mad.”
“I understand,” I said. “But we can’t always assume the worst, especially when we have the upperhand.”
“I’m glad they were nice,” Bailey said genuinely.
“Yeah,” Anna said, but her lips were pursed. “But did you hear what they said about D.C.?”
“Right,” Paige said, and she looked in the direction the men had gone. “That was unsettling.”
“Let’s get back to campus,” I said. “We’ll tell Rolly and Betty what they said too.”
“Alright.” Anna nodded, and she started back toward our home, and then we all followed.
It didn’t take long to get back to campus, and we made our way up to the roof where Rolly, Betty, and Winchester waited for us.
“We saw that you let them pass,” Betty said as we came out onto the roof. “What happened?”
“They went AWOL from the guard camp,” I explained.
“They were really nice,” Bailey said happily. “They said they left because they didn’t support what the other officers were doing.”
“Well, that’s good news I suppose,” Betty said, but she still frowned. “Are you sure it was wise to let them pass?”
“Yes,” I said. “They’re headed south, and they freely gave information.”
“What kind of information?” Rolly asked.
“They said the orders at the camp were to head to D.C.,” Anna said.
“Yeah,” Paige agreed. “But they said they didn’t know if there was a D.C. left, so they didn’t want to risk it.”
“Oh, my,” Betty breathed. “What do you think could have happened?”
“I can’t be sure,” I said with a shake of my head.
“It couldn’t be Canadians,” Bailey mused.
“No,” I agreed. “I don’t think Canadians, but maybe--”
“North Korea,” Paige cut me off with a shocked look on her face.
“Yes.” I nodded. “That’s my best guess.”
“Didn’t the correspondence at the outpost say that they attacked on the west coast?” Rolly asked with wide eyes.
“It did,” I confirmed.
“That would mean they made it all the way east,” Betty said, and she looked at me.
“Yes,” I said. “Or their missiles and planes did, at least.”
“Well, fuck,” Tara said. “What do we do?”
“If the Canadians get down there to them once the guard leaves maybe they’ll take each other out?” Paige said.
“That’s possible,” I said. “But unlikely.”
“What do you mean?” the brunette asked.
“According to the correspondence the Koreans had some sort of super we
apon,” I said. “They would probably be able to take out the Canadians no problem.”
“Jesus,” Bailey breathed. “But if they can take out that many people, then what about us?”
“There is the possibility that the letter exaggerated,” I said. “The weapons may not be as powerful as it claimed.”
“Right,” Anna agreed. “But what should we do about it?”
“We need more information before we devise a plan,” I said. “But we also need to remember that anybody out here in winter won’t have heat.”
“That’s true,” Rolly said. “It’s possible that the Korean army would suffer from the winter as well.”
“Yes,” I agreed. “And it’s possible that they’ve already been taken care of.”
“Yeah,” Tara said. “And if they’re gone, then people might be trying to rebuild.”
“They could be,” I agreed.
“Maybe they haven’t got this far yet,” Paige suggested.
“It’s possible,” I said. “But like I said before, we don’t have enough information to devise a plan. We need to stick to the plan we have now and survive the winter. We’ll be okay on our own.”
“We will,” Betty agreed. “Though this whole thing is troubling.”
“It is,” I agreed. “I need everyone to be extra vigilant on guard duty while Paige, Bailey, and I are gone for the next couple of days.”
“Wait,” Tara said, then she leaned over to whisper to Paige who smiled and nodded. Paige then whispered to Anna, and Anna to Bailey.
“What is going on here?” I asked with a raised brow.
“We can’t leave tomorrow,” Bailey said.
“Why not?” I asked.
“We can’t tell you,” Paige said.
“Alright,” I chuckled.
Tara leaned over and whispered something to Betty, and she laughed and agreed.
“I’m feeling very left out over here,” I said.
“You and me both,” Rolly laughed.
“I think we’re the victims of a conspiracy,” I said and gently elbowed the old timer in the ribs.
“It’s a surprise,” Tara said with a grin. “Just nobody can leave tomorrow, okay?”
“Alright,” I agreed. “But we still have to be extra careful.”
“We will,” Anna said with her Major voice. “I’ll make sure of it.”
