by Eric Vall
“Let’s clear the place,” I said and I reached for my pistol, but just then the door opened and Brody stepped out into the emerging daylight.
“Tav and company,” he said with a wide smile. “Thanks for joining us.”
“How long have you been here?” I asked as I holstered my pistol.
“We stayed the night,” he said. “Honestly, I figured you all would be here sooner. What with you being right down the road and all.”
“All the more reason for us to take our time,” I said with a cold smile.
“Right.” He smirked and stepped inside the club. “Come on in.”
“We’ll just set our stuff down,” I said. “Then we should all get to work.”
“Of course,” he agreed. “All business as usual.”
“That’s right,” I said, and I pushed past him and found an empty room for the girls and I to store our packs. We wouldn’t need them to do reconnaissance. Our weapons, binoculars, and water would be all that we would need for the time being. We’d keep watch through the morning, break for lunch, then pick up again for the evening before we stopped and made any necessary adjustments to our plan.
Once everything was stored, I found Brody and his men in the common room area, so I had Paige pull out her map of the area, and I went over everyone’s positions for the day.
I paired Brody’s men with the girls, and myself with Brody. I thought it best that we keep a buddy system, and I wanted to know where Brody and his guys were at all times since Brody had a habit of disappearing. I wouldn’t expect his men to try anything on their own, but if Brody told them to do something then I figured they’d be too scared not to, another reason why I made sure to put our packs in a separate room.
“Watch for Brody and I once afternoon hits,” I told everyone. “We’ll make our way back over here for lunch.”
“Got it,” Anna said. “Let’s do this.”
“Make sure to keep an eye out for the arsenal,” I said, “as well as where any civilians are kept, and the length and number of patrols. Everyone should have something to report once we meet back up.”
Everyone nodded, though Brody’s men looked slightly intimidated, then we headed to our positions among the trees. We used the same spots that we had when we did reconnaissance there before. The trees and shrubs had grown out, too, which gave us even more coverage than we had the time before.
Brody said nothing as we made our way to our spot and laid down in the grass. It was wet with morning dew, and the sun was finally all the way up on the horizon. Patrols were out from the night before, but it didn’t look like the outpost was up and going quite yet.
I watched the men on patrol, though, and I was surprised to see them smoking on the job. The Lebanon outpost had been well organized, but some of the men on patrol here were posted in strange spots, or they stood together to smoke, and everyone looked a little bit jumpy. Their movements were quick and almost panicked looking, and I wondered if they were on more drugs than the men at Lebanon were. It would make sense since the lab was here, so they had easier access to the stuff. It would also make them less organized, so that was a plus for us.
I scanned the area for the manhole to make sure that we’d still be able to get through there.
“Shit,” I breathed when I saw that it had been covered with a large stack of rocks.
“Oh, the manhole?” Brody asked, and I looked at him with narrowed eyes. He had known about it.
“You knew it was covered, didn’t you?” I asked.
“Of course,” he said. “I actually did reconnaissance on this place.”
“Why didn’t you say something about it if you knew the plan wouldn’t work?” I asked, genuinely pissed that he would be such an asshole when this mission affected him just as much if not more than me.
“It was on a need to know basis,” he said with a smirk that made me want to slap the shit out of him.
“Need to know basis,” I repeated through clenched teeth. “What the fuck, Brody?”
“Well, I couldn’t be sure you were trustworthy,” he said. “After all, you weren’t very truthful yourself about where you live, now were you?”
I said nothing, just looked back to the yard in front of me to see what else Brody had held back from us. I contemplated pulling my pistol right then and shooting him in the face, but that would give away our position, and he’d see a knife attack coming.
“I get it, brother,” Brody said after a moment. “You were just protecting yourself and your possessions. Same as I do. You didn’t know if you could trust me, and I get that. I respect you for it.”
“Right,” I agreed, but I was no less irritated than I had been a moment before. It would be a long couple of days having to work with this asshole, but after it was over we’d be rid of him for good, and I looked forward to that day.
The campus had been well maintained. All the bodies that had been there were gone now, though the slight smell of decay still lingered in the air. The fence was still intact, and the buildings didn’t look much worse than they had before. These guys must have been here throughout the winter. Either that, or the Canadians had been so set on getting down south that they hadn’t bothered much with the school. The town of Burlington was probably a lot worse than it had been last time we were there, but we had gone the back way, so there hadn’t been many buildings to check out.
About an hour after we arrived, people started to get up and go. Patrols switched and some men who were relieved went into the barracks, so we knew where those were, but I still had yet to see the arsenal. I watched and waited for them to have breakfast, then get ready for patrols, but most of the men who had gotten up just sat around and smoked for a while, and they already had M16s on them, so it didn’t look like they’d have to stop at the arsenal before they went out on patrol.
These guys were a lot less organized than they had been in Lebanon, and while that could be used to our advantage, it also meant that they were less predictable.
It was mid morning by the time the men all left for patrols, and then the yard was fairly empty except for those who were left on patrol, and there were far fewer than what should have been necessary to cover such a large area.
All of the men were paranoid, and from the way they eyed one another it was clear they didn’t trust each other. That was probably the reason they kept their weapons on them instead of keeping them in the arsenal like they had in Lebanon.
That would be good for us, though. That meant that if we played things right we could cause a disturbance and get them to turn against one another. That would make them that much easier to pick off.
I still needed to find out where the arsenal and civilians were, and we’d have to figure out a different way to start the fire in the lab, but with the way these guys were acting I didn’t think it’d be too difficult to convince them that someone inside fucked up. In fact, it seemed to me that would be the first conclusion they’d jump to. They were too paranoid to not think that everyone was out to get them.
By mid morning I hadn’t seen much else to give me any new information, so I got Brody and caught Anna’s attention as we made our way back to the country club.
“Well, fuck fuck fuck,” Tara said as she rounded the corner with one of Brody’s men.
“Right,” Paige agreed.
“We need to find another way in,” Anna said.
“Maybe not,” Bailey said.
“What do you mean?” Paige asked.
“If we can start the fire from a distance then we could probably take out a lot of them without even going inside,” Bailey said. “And we could wait for the patrols to leave and come back just like we did in Lebanon.”
“That’s not a bad idea,” I said.
“Molotov cocktail?” Tara asked.
“I don’t think so,” I chuckled. “We’d have to throw that from too far of a distance.”
“You think the fire idea will still work?” Anna asked.
“I do,” I said. “These guys a
re hopped up more than the ones at Lebanon were.”
“Makes sense with the lab being right here,” Paige said.
“Exactly,” I agreed. “They’re ready to blame each other, all we have to do is give them a reason.”
“Doesn’t Brody have a grenade launcher?” Tara asked.
“I do,” Brody said proudly.
“That’s an option,” I said. “We still need to figure out where the arsenal is and where they’re keeping the civilians. I don’t want either of those areas caught in the crossfire.”
“The arsenal is in the gym,” Brody said. “And the civilians are in the English building.”
“Why didn’t you tell us that before?” Paige asked.
“I figured you’d know,” he said with a stupid grin that did nothing except piss me off.
I ignored his comment and shook my head slightly at Paige when she moved to speak again instead, and the brunette eyed Brody but said nothing.
“If we use the grenade launcher won’t we need to cover up the sound somehow?” Anna asked.
“It’s loud,” I said, “but the sound should only carry a hundred feet or so, as long as we’re out of that range when we fire it shouldn’t be an issue.”
“Alright,” Tara agreed. “So Bailey’s going to fire the grenade, then we wait for them to panic and start to pick them off.”
“Exactly,” I said.
“No,” Brody said with a shake of his head. “I’ll be the one to fire the grenade.”
Aside from the fact that I didn’t trust Brody not to fire at the English building where the civilians were, he wasn’t as good of a shot as Bailey. Even though she hadn’t used one before, I trusted her more than anyone to get an accurate shot off.
“Bailey’s a better shot,” Tara said matter-of-factly.
“Bailey’s a deadeye,” Brody protested, and the vein on his temple popped out a bit. I got the feeling that he didn’t like being told he came in second best. “It’s not the same.”
“Maybe not,” Anna said, “but I trust Bailey to fire it more accurately than anyone else.”
Bailey lifted her finger and opened her mouth like she was about to say something, but I shook my head to stop her. I knew my hippie girl, she would say that it was okay, Brody could fire it if he wanted to, but I wasn’t about to let that happen. He wasn’t going to get permission from her or from anyone. Bailey was firing that grenade, and that was the end of it.
“I’ve shot grenade launchers dozens of times,” Brody scoffed. “You trust this little girl to shoot it more than someone with actual experience?”
“I’m not a little girl,” Bailey said, and she glared at Brody. Her tone made all of us stop in our tracks. I didn’t think I’d ever heard Bailey that angry before.
“She has plenty of experience,” I said.
“I’ll shoot the grenade,” Bailey said, her eyes still set on Brody. “That’s the end of it.”
With that, Bailey stormed around to the back of the building, and I raised an eyebrow at Brody.
“You heard her,” I said with a shrug.
“Fine,” he spat, “but don’t fuckin’ blame me when the whole operation goes to shit.”
Tara rolled her eyes and went after Bailey.
“Everyone grab some water and something to eat,” I told Brody’s men, then Paige, Anna, and I went after Bailey as well.
“Asshole,” the blonde muttered as we came around the corner, then she stopped and looked at all of us. “Sorry about that.”
“Don’t be,” Tara told her. “Fuck him.”
“I agree,” I said with a wide grin. “Fuck him.”
“He had no reason to question your skills,” Paige said. “He’s seen what you’re capable of.”
“He’s probably just jealous,” Anna said.
“He definitely is,” I chuckled. “When we were in Lebanon he was ready to take out the last guy from one of the patrols, but Bailey got to him first. The guy jumped up, and it was a split second shot, but Brody was too late. He knew he was beat, and he was pissed.”
“You never said that happened,” Bailey said.
“You didn’t even notice,” I told her with a proud smile. “You were just doing your job. You turned to me right after and gave me a thumbs up, but Brody lit a cigarette and pouted until the next patrol showed up.”
“What a little bitch,” Anna laughed.
“I really didn’t even notice,” Bailey said. “But you know what? I’m glad I beat him. That was a real dick thing to say.”
“I’m proud of you,” I told her. “You stood up for yourself.”
“Thanks,” she said, and she blushed underneath her dark green beanie.
“Also, I can’t believe Brody didn’t tell us what he knew about the buildings,” Paige said.
“He made a comment to me earlier when we were doing recon,” I said, “about how I wasn’t trustworthy since I wasn’t honest about where we lived.”
“So he withheld information just to catch us in a lie?” Anna asked.
“Seems so,” I said.
“Petty AF,” Tara said.
“What’s AF?” I asked.
“As fuck,” Anna laughed.
“Oh,” I chuckled. “Yeah, I’d say that's accurate. But it’s okay, we have the information that we need. We’ll finish doing recon today, then we’ll attack in the morning. Even with Brody being an asshole it should all go smoothly.”
We got something to eat, then finished reconnaissance for the day. After all the patrols left for the day we went over the plan with Brody and his men. We’d wait until the patrols left the next morning, then we’d all take our positions around the perimeter. Bailey would fire the grenade, then once everyone was in a panic we’d start picking them off. Since we’d be all around the perimeter it’d be hard for them to pinpoint a single one of us, and after the patrols left there were only about fifty men left inside, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to take them out. Once that was done we’d need to get the civilians out and raid the arsenal quickly in case the fire got out of hand. We’d found a couple fire extinguishers in the country club, but I wasn’t sure they’d do much good. As long as it didn’t spread, and we kept an eye on it I thought it’d be alright. Once everything was cleared out we’d wait for the patrols to come back and take them out one by one just like we had in Lebanon.
After we finished discussing the plan we decided to head back to the jeep for the night. The girls didn’t want to camp out with Brody, and I personally didn’t either, so we started on the trek back across the country club as the day grew darker with the sunset.
“So, I’ve been thinking,” Paige said as we walked.
“Yeah?” I asked.
“The whole thing about Brody being in charge of the New York side,” she said, “it still doesn’t make sense. I think we should try and take one of the guards alive and question him.”
“That’s a great idea,” I told her. “I was thinking about that as well. If we can figure out what’s going on in New York, then it will give us some insight into what this whole thing has actually been about.”
“Isn’t it about the refinery?” Bailey asked. “I mean, I know that we think he was asked to be the new refinery guy, but don’t you think Brody maybe just wanted it all for himself?”
“I don’t think that’s the whole story,” I said. “I think there’s something else to it. He’d have no reason not to work with them, with the amount of crude oil at the refinery, they can make enough fuel to supply a small army indefinitely, so there’s no point in keeping it all for yourself.”
“Maybe he just wanted more than they were willing to offer him?” Anna suggested.
“I still think this is about something else,” I said. “Brody didn’t even bother to come with us when we took out the refinery, but for some reason he’s insisted on being there for Lebanon and Burlington. It just doesn’t add up.”
“I guess that’s true,” Bailey agreed.
“We need to
get some information,” I said. “Paige is right, we’ll try and take someone prisoner.”
“If you want, I can wound someone real quick,” Bailey said. “Then someone can snatch them up.”
“Do it near me,” Anna said. “I’m across from Brody on the perimeter, so I don’t think he’ll see me.”
“You got it,” Bailey said.
I had a feeling that New York would become relevant sooner rather than later, so whatever information we could get would be useful. Brody had made that deal for a reason, and I needed to know what the hell was going on before we set foot across that state line.
Chapter 12
The next morning I woke the girls up before dawn, and we cleaned up the camp site and started the walk back to the country club. Nobody was in the mood to talk, we were all ready to get this shit over with and figure out what the hell Brody had planned next.
Bailey made some coffee before we left camp and we drank from our travel cups as we walked and ate power bars for breakfast. Normally I liked to give the girls a hot meal before a mission, but with everything going on I wanted to get over to Brody’s group as soon as possible.
I didn’t need for him to try anything on his own before we got there. He didn’t seem to care about his team’s lives, and I was sure he didn’t care about my team’s lives either, the only person Brody cared about was Brody. That was made clear to me as soon as I saw the way he treated the civilians he was supposed to look after.
“I’m so ready for this shit to be done,” Tara said as we walked.
“Yeah,” Anna agreed. “I’m dreading having to see Brody’s face right now.”
“He smiles in the most dickish way, and I just want to punch him,” Bailey said, and we all looked at her with surprise. “What?”
“Nothing,” Tara chuckled. “That little girl comment just got you really heated, didn’t it?”
“I may be little, but he does not want to mess with me,” Bailey said.
“Down, girl,” Tara said. “We’ll get our chance. Just as soon as all of this is over we can take care of Brody.”
“That moment can’t come soon enough,” I growled.
I had been ready to kill him when he took out the women in the caravan with a grenade, but we had taken pity on him since we thought he was fucked up in the head. Since then, though, the list of wrongs stacked against him had only grown, and after raping and forcing a nineteen year old girl to have an abortion, I knew that no matter what mental illness he might have, he had to go. This was a new era, and we made our own justice.
