by Eric Vall
“Mary,” she told me. “But that’s not important.”
“It’s important to me,” I said. “I want you all to know that you can stay with us on campus for as long as you want.”
“It’s not safe up north,” Mary said, and the two women behind her nodded.
“Our home is safe, I assure you,” I told her. “We even know a group of women who live on their own, we’d be happy to introduce you to them.”
“We appreciate you helping us,” the woman said, and she looked sincere. “But we don’t want to be here anymore. Not in this town or this state, or within a thousand miles of this place.”
“It’s not safe out there on your own,” Paige said softly.
“We know that already,” Mary said. “Like I said, we appreciate you saving us, but we want to leave.”
“If that’s what you want, then we won’t stop you,” I told her. “But please, know that you are always welcome at our home.”
“Thank you,” she said.
“We’ll get you some supplies,” I said. “Can any of you use a firearm?”
“I can,” one of the women behind Mary said.
“Okay,” I agreed. “Why don’t you go tell the others what’s going on so they can get ready? Let them know that they all have the choice to come to our home as well. We’ll gather you some weapons, food, and vehicles.”
“Thank you,” Mary said, and there were tears in her eyes before she walked away.
“I wasn’t sure what to do,” Paige said, and her voice was shaky.
“It’s okay,” I told her, and I put my hand on her shoulder. “You did the right thing, we can’t force them to stay here.”
“I’m so worried to send them out on their own,” she said. “They’ve already been through so much. I’d feel better if they just let Marla look at them first at least and get a hot shower and some food before they made a decision.”
“I know,” I said. “I’d feel better, too, but we can’t force anything on them. They’ve been out of control of their lives for too long, we have to let them make their own decisions, even if we think we know better.”
“I know you’re right,” she sighed. “This whole situation is just fucked.”
“We did what we could,” I told her, and I pulled her into my chest.
“What’s going on?” Anna asked as she came over with Bailey and Tara.
“The women want to leave,” I explained.
“What?” Tara asked with wide eyes.
“Are they sure?” Bailey asked.
“They seem sure,” I said with a nod. “We can’t force them to stay or to come home with us.”
“Okay,” Anna said. “We’re going to give them some supplies, though, right?”
“Of course,” I said.
I wanted to do more, I wanted to have those women come home with us and have Marla look them over. I wanted them to stay in our warm, comfortable dorm building and take nice, hot showers, and I wanted them to have full bellies, but there was nothing else I could do. If they wanted to leave and go south I couldn’t blame them, they needed to be in charge of their own lives. Besides, they’d been through enough that I doubted they’d let anyone get close enough to fuck them over ever again, especially if we gave them some guns.
They had to be in shock, but if this was their way of dealing with it then I had to let them. It wasn’t my place to try and control them, that was exactly what they were running from.
“Alright,” I said to call everyone’s attention to me. “The women who have been held here want to leave. They want to head south and get away from this place.”
“It makes sense,” Bailey said. “They’ve been through a lot.”
“Right,” I agreed. “We’re going to gather them up some supplies.”
“You’re just going to let them leave?” Brody asked.
“I am,” I told him sternly.
“You said we had to rescue them,” he said. “You said nothing about letting them leave. What’s to stop them from finding us?”
“Why would they do that?” Anna asked.
“You don’t understand the brainwashing they went through here,” Brody said.
“No,” Paige said, and I saw that her hands were shaking as she stepped closer to the large man, “you don’t understand the torture that they went through here. They don’t want to harm us, they just want to get the fuck away from a place where they were raped and abused.”
“Whoa,” Brody said, and he held his hands up. “I didn’t mean to offend.”
“We’re going to give them some supplies,” I said.
“We are?” Brody asked.
“Yes,” I said. “We’ll split what’s left afterwards, but it’s the least we can do.”
“Uh-huh,” he said with a nod. He obviously didn’t like it, but he didn’t push the issue.
“We’re going to give them two jeeps,” I said, and I saw Brody’s jaw tense. “Plus enough guns for all of them and ammunition to go with. We’ll also give them some food and water from the mess hall.”
“You found the mess hall?” Brody asked.
“Yup,” I said, “it was on our side of the street.”
“So, we’re just going to give them all of our supplies?” he asked.
“Yes.” I stared him right in the eye. “We are.”
“Alright, brother,” he said with a shake of his head. “Whatever you think is best.”
I split us into groups, but I split Brody’s group with my own so that there was an even mix, then we started to load up supplies. We pulled two jeeps out into the yard and filled them with boxes of food, water, M16s, ammunition, and we threw in two drums of fuel. It wasn’t much, but it was all that would fit between the two jeeps. Brody didn’t say a word while we worked, though he didn’t have to, his attitude said it all. Still, I didn’t care. He could be opposed to it all that he wanted, but it didn’t change anything.
These women deserved to be able to get off to a good start, especially after the hell they’d gone through. Whatever we could do to help them was what we would do.
It was bittersweet to be able to help them this way, but not in the way that I wanted to. I just hoped that they’d be safe out on the road. We just took out the Lebanon post, so unless they ran into some patrols that were still out, they should be alright, besides the patrols would be back soon and we’d take care of them as well.
They would have vehicles, food, water, and fuel. That was more than most people who were traveling, of that I was sure. If they were smart about it, then they could get pretty far with the fuel we put in the jeeps.
After everything was loaded up the women piled into the jeeps. I noticed that they were all clothed then, though they were still filthy. They were probably the clothes they had come in, but there were plenty of stores where they could stop, and most would still be fully stocked with clothing. That was one of the perks of having a vehicle. Most people would only take what they could carry, so not a lot of clothes were typically missing off the racks.
“Be careful,” I told Mary as I walked up to the driver’s side window of the jeep she was in.
“We will,” she said with a hard nod.
“The name of our home is Piper College,” Paige whispered. “Remember that name.”
“Yes,” I agreed. “You’re welcome there any time. You’ll be able to find it on a map.”
“Thank you,” Mary said, and she grabbed Paige’s hands and then looked up at me. “Thank you for everything.”
“Just be safe,” I told her.
I walked to the back of the jeep and patted it twice, and a second later both vehicles took off out of Lebanon.
“I hope they’ll be okay out there,” Bailey said after they had left.
“I’m sure they’ll be alright,” I told her. “They just need to heal on their own.”
“We still have a while before the patrols are scheduled to return,” Anna said. “Is there anything we need to do until then?”
/> “Now that this outpost is pretty much taken care of, let’s figure out the plan for Burlington,” I said.
“When are we going to head up there?” Paige asked.
“We don’t want to give them too much time between attacks,” I said. “They probably won’t hear about it, but there’s a chance they could, so we’ll head up there the day after tomorrow.”
“Works for me,” Brody said.
“We’ll do reconnaissance the first day, right?” Bailey asked.
“You said something about doing reconnaissance up there the other day, too,” Brody said. “But your home is right near their base of operations, I don’t think it should be necessary. Haven’t you been keeping an eye on everything already?”
“We have a map of the place down,” Paige said as she pulled out the map we used the first time we attacked the National Guard in Burlington. “But we still want to make sure that we know everybody’s schedules.”
“Hm,” Brody said, and he looked at the map. He obviously didn’t believe that we lived in Burlington anymore, but it was hard to argue about it with a map in front of him that laid out the enemy’s territory.
“We can go in through the sewer, here,” Paige said and she pointed at the map she had laid out on the ground.
“Where does that come out inside the perimeter?” Brody asked.
“Right here,” Tara said with another point at the map.
“That’s not exactly hidden,” he said.
“We’ve managed before,” Anna replied.
“What about the drug lab?” Bailey asked. “Brody said that the Burlington outpost was where they were making the drugs at.”
“It’s in the science building,” Brody said. “I saw guys coming out with gloves and masks on.”
“Where do they keep the civilians?” I asked.
“I’m not sure,” he said with a shrug. “I didn’t see a lot of them.”
“Did you see any?” Anna asked.
“Probably the same as you,” Brody replied with a sly smile. “A few here and there.”
“We’ll figure out where they keep the civilians when we do reconnaissance,” I said. “For now let’s focus on the general plan. We’ll make any adjustments we need to later.”
“We could just blow up the science building,” Tara said.
“What is with you and wanting to blow up everything?” Paige chuckled.
“There could be civilians nearby,” I said. “We don’t know for sure yet.”
“Yeah,” Tara said, “but we don’t have to blow up the whole building or anything, just the lab. I’m sure it’s only one or two rooms, not the whole place.”
“That’s probably true,” Paige agreed.
“Hm,” I said, and I thought for a moment. “I don’t think it’s a bad idea.”
“Really?” Bailey asked.
“Now we’re gettin’ to the fun stuff,” Brody laughed and clapped his hands.
I wanted to tell him that taking out drug dealers in order to preserve our way of life and save innocent women from being raped didn’t exactly fit into my idea of ‘fun stuff,’ but I just let it go. He had already proven himself to be a bastard, of course he’d get joy from blowing some shit up. I tended to look at situations with a more serious eye than him, so I wasn’t surprised to hear him get excited about the prospect of a fire starting.
“If we do it right then we can make it look like a lab explosion,” I said.
“Oh, that’s good,” Paige said.
“An explosion could incite a panic,” I said.
“If they start to panic then they’d lose their organization,” Anna added.
“Right,” I agreed. “That would give us an opportunity to start picking people off.”
“So we’ll go in through the sewer, start the fire, then pick people off once they start to panic,” Tara said with a nod.
“That’s the idea for now,” I said. “We’ll make other adjustments after we see exactly what we’re dealing with as far as the patrols.”
I saw Brody roll his eyes, but I said nothing. He had made it abundantly clear that he knew we had lied about living in Burlington, but I didn’t really care at this point. We had no reason to trust him, and I didn’t care what he thought about us lying about where we lived. He’d been an acquaintance at the start of this, and now he was an enemy. There was never a reason for me to be truthful with him. We’d done the mission he pulled us into, but our time in the Rangers together didn’t mean that I automatically trusted him, and I was glad that I had gone with my gut feeling that first day and lied to him about where our home was. I never wanted that asshole to set foot on my campus.
“What about the rest of the supplies that are here?” Brody asked. “I think it’s only fair that we get some since you gave so much of it away to those women.”
“We’ll split the rest of the supplies evenly,” I stated. “We’ll go through everything after we take out the last of the patrols.”
“Then Burlington,” Brody said, “day after next.”
“That’s right,” I told him. “We’ll do reconnaissance the first day, then camp out and attack the next, so bring camping gear.”
“Roger that,” he said.
“It will give Roman some time for his arm to start to heal, too,” Paige added.
“As I said before,” Brody said, “he’s a big boy, he’ll be fine.”
“It was a pretty serious cut,” Paige told him. “He needs to keep it clean or it could become infected.”
“He’ll be fine,” Brody repeated.
I was glad then that Roman was up in the tower. He didn’t need to hear Brody talk about him like that. He had probably heard worse already, but still, it pissed me off to hear Brody have so little concern for one of his men. Especially one so young who had put his life on the line for all of us. Brody was a cold sonofabitch, and I felt bad for both the men and women under his care. It seemed nobody was spared from his douchiness.
“We got company,” Roman called down.
“Everyone get into position,” I said.
Since the patrols all came back in jeeps, half of us got up into the guard towers, and the other half took cover inside the fence, ready to get anybody who was left on the ground.
I quickly made my way to one of the watchtowers and climbed up with my rifle on my back.
Bailey, Anna, Brody, and Nick all headed to the towers as well.
Once I was up there I scanned the area and saw two jeeps headed down the main drag right toward the outpost. From where they were at they would have no reason to suspect that anything was out of the ordinary, and we were counting on that element of surprise to take them out as quickly as possible.
We just needed to wait until they were close enough, then we’d take out the drivers first. Most of the patrols didn’t come back at the exact same time each day, so we would easily be able to pick them off one by one as they returned. Even if a few showed up at once, there were enough of us that we’d make it work.
I readied my rifle and stared through the scope as the jeeps continued on down the road. Once they were right in our sights, I took aim at the driver of the first one and pulled the trigger.
The jeep immediately began to swerve as the male’s head fell back against the seat, then forward onto the wheel. The passenger attempted to take control of the vehicle, but even when he got hold of the steering wheel, his dead buddie’s foot was still heavy on the gas, and the jeep sped down the road.
Bailey’s rifle cracked, and the driver of the second jeep went down, too, but they were more prepared, and their vehicle came to a dead halt after one of them hit the emergency break, something the first group hadn’t been smart enough to do.
The men in the back of the first jeep pulled their M16s and started to fire out of the windows, but I heard two shots go off and both were taken down in a matter of seconds.
I took aim at the passenger of the second jeep, but before I was able to let a round off he got hit with
a shot to the temple. I knew from the angle and the sound of the weapon that it was Brody. He had done that earlier in the day as well.
He wanted me to know that he was quicker than I was, that he wasn’t to be messed with. It was a typical alpha male response at a time like this, but it made me laugh more than anything. He was working so hard to try to prove himself, and I was only applying my usual amount of effort. He was definitely an opponent to be watched, but if I wanted to I knew I could crush him in a battle of any kind, especially one that encompassed shooting techniques.
I knew the ex-Ranger didn’t practice nearly as much as I did, in fact it seemed only recently that he had left the fort at all. My girls had more practice than he had in the last year or so, and while he was still a good shot, he was no match for me, and definitely no match for Bailey. Even with my own skills, I knew that girl could out shoot me.
And that was one of the key differences between us. For me this wasn’t just a fight between the two of us, he had my whole team to worry about. He had fucked over enough women that my girls deserved to take some vengeance for them, and I wouldn’t deny them that. Besides, we operated as a team, and that meant that Brody would have to handle us as a team.
The poor bastard had no idea what he was in for.
There was only one guy left, then, but instead of taking aim I watched Brody and Bailey.
The guy was in the back seat of the second jeep, and after a moment he popped up with his M16, even though I was sure he knew he was about to die. I guess he figured it better to die fighting than cowering.
Once he popped up Bailey’s new sniper rifle went off with a bang and the guy fell down in the back of the jeep out of sight. I watched Brody’s face as he pulled his weapon back and set his jaw. He was pissed that Bailey had bested him, but the blonde hippie didn’t even notice. She turned to me and gave me a smile and a thumbs up, so I gave her one back. She had no idea that Brody had wanted that shot. As our resident sniper she was used to taking any open opportunity, and to her that’s all it was. She was just doing her job.
I snickered to myself as I watched Brody’s body language grow increasingly irritated, he drummed his fingers on the edge of the watchtower, then pushed his hair back and pulled a cigarette out of his pocket. As much as he didn’t care about women, it must have been hard to get beaten by a hundred pound blonde girl. And to add insult to injury, it was his own gun that Bailey was using.
