by Eric Vall
Brody pushed forward, and we moved closer to the house until I could see the back door. I crouched down by a tree and checked for guards.
A cold burst of wind came through, and my arms prickled with goosebumps. A second later it started to rain, and I was suddenly glad I had my army helmet on.
Nobody stood outside the house, and I wondered if the men that were posted there had run to check on the others when the shots were fired. Or were there men posted there at all?
Brody seemed confident about the whole situation, and he moved to head toward the house, but I put a hand on his shoulder to stop him.
“We should wait a minute and check out the place,” I said.
“Check out whatever you want,” he sneered. “I’m goin’ in.”
“You know this place,” I whispered. “That’s clear. Just tell me what the hell to look out for so I’m not flying blind.”
“This is my side of the state line, remember?” he asked with narrowed eyes. “Keep your word or run like a coward. I’ve done all the reconn, so there is nothing to worry about.”
I stared at Brody, the wind blew again, and rain sprinkled hard across my skin while the plants around us swayed wildly.
“Fuck,” I growled and pushed the plants away from my face. “Let’s go.”
I wasn’t about to argue with this asshole, there was no point. He was dead set on going into this place with guns hot, and I could either go in with him or I could stay out here, but standing out in the rain didn’t get me any information.
Brody hurried toward the front door, and I followed behind as I worried about the girls. It was raining hard, then, and the wind from the lake was harsh as hell. It was hard to keep my eyes fully open as I ran up to the house, and I wondered how the girls were faring. Brody didn’t seem to care about the rain one bit, he charged toward the house like a bat out of hell with his pistol up and ready.
I scanned the area as we ran but again saw nobody. Where the hell were all the guards? I hadn’t seen a single one. I heard shots from both the right and left, so the girls had to have taken a couple of them down. I didn’t want to consider any other possibilities as to why we heard gunshots.
Before I could even stop at the small steps that led up to the house, Brody kicked in the door and fired off two shots, one to the left, one to the right.
I quickly raised my pistol even higher, but the two men were already dead and on the ground, and Brody was halfway down the hallway. He obviously knew where he was going, and where the guards were positioned, so I walked slowly and scanned each room that I passed. There was one room on either side of the hallway, and I opened the doors quietly and scanned each one. It was then that I noticed the house had electricity. At the end of the hallway was a light that was obviously artificial in nature, and it was warm inside. My cold hands stung from the heat, but I kept my pistol raised and cleared the rooms.
The room on my left was an office, with a wall that was lined with bookshelves filled with texts you would find in a library or the office of a professor. I didn’t stop to examine them more closely, but at first glance, it looked like the office belonged to someone well educated.
The room on the right was a bedroom. It had very few pieces of furniture, but the pieces were clearly antiques. This house belonged to someone older, it was a testament to a time before I was even born. In fact, it reminded me of my grandmother’s home. The air had a musky scent that revealed just how old the house was, and I wondered if the boss who lived here now had lived here even before the EMP.
He had been there a while, I could tell that from the upkeep of the plants outside and the fence that was meant to deter anybody from entering the house. Had this been his base of operations even before shit hit the fan? Is that how Brody knew the place so well, had he been here before the EMP?
Brody was down the hallway then, so I quickly went after him and found myself with my pistol pointed at his back as he stood in the middle of a small, but nicely decorated living room. There was a large painting of Lake Champlain on one wall above a beautiful stone fireplace, a Victorian style sofa to the left of the fire, and a single dark blue wingback chair across from it.
In the chair was a small old man that had to be well into his seventies. He wore a black turtleneck shirt and gray slacks, but his hands, neck, and face revealed plenty of liver spots that spoke to his age. He was plump and balding on top, with only a few thin strands of white hair on the top of his head, but a nice full beard below.
He sat with a book on the arm of the chair and read the page before he carefully and slowly placed a bookmark into it, closed the book, and looked up at Brody.
The man smiled softly, and stared at Brody with a perfectly placid appearance as if he was waiting for him to say something.
I didn’t know who in the hell this guy was, but his nonchalant demeanor at a time like this gave me pause. He looked at Brody with a sort of caring behind his eyes. He wasn’t scared of him in the slightest, and the fact that he remained calm with Brody’s pistol pointed at his face told me that he had expected this reaction from him.
Who was this guy, and how did he know Brody so well?
This wasn’t a casual work relationship, there was something a lot deeper here, and I wanted to know what it was.
Still, I trusted this man more than I trusted Brody for some reason, so I kept my pistol aimed at Brody’s back instead of turning it toward the calm old man. He wasn’t even armed for God’s sake.
I could hear Brody’s breath, and it was ragged and strained. He was obviously agitated, and it seemed like forever had passed in that small living room, but really it had been no time at all.
“Hello, Brody,” the man finally said, and his voice was deep and sweet. He sounded almost happy to see him. “It’s been too long.”
“It hasn’t been long enough!” Brody screamed, and his pistol went off with a loud bang that filled the small house.
The man in the chair slumped over, a bullet wound in the middle of his forehead that dripped blood down his nose.
After the gun went off the only sound I heard was Brody’s breathing as he inhaled deeply. This had been personal for him.
“What in the hell was that?” I asked, my gun still on Brody’s back.
“I don’t have to tell you a damn thing,” he snapped, but he still stared at the dead man in the chair.
“I think you owe me a fuckin’ explanation,” I sneered. “What the hell was that about?”
“I don’t owe you shit,” Brody said, and he spun around and aimed the pistol at me.
“This was personal,” I said as I stared into his green eyes.
“And what if it was?” Brody asked as he took a step to the side.
“You used me,” I said as I matched his steps. “You used me and my team to settle a personal vendetta for you.”
“Oh, fuck you and your team,” he scoffed. “This asshole was just as much of a threat to you as he was to me. You needed me to take care of this shit.”
“I don’t need you for anything,” I said calmly. “A few days ago you were a woman killer, and now you just killed an unarmed old man. What the hell am I supposed to think here?”
“He was the boss!” Brody shouted and gestured toward the dead man in the chair. “Jesus fuckin’ Christ Tav, he had to die.”
“Maybe,” I said, “but he wasn’t armed. We could have asked him some questions first.”
“I have all the answers I need,” Brody said coldly.
We still circled each other, our pistols raised at the other’s head. I would have shot him right there if I could have, but there was too much of a risk his gun would fire the second I pulled the trigger on mine.
“You used me to take over the refinery,” I said.
“You got your dues out of that,” Brody said.
“Yeah, and then you gave me a shitty deal to get more fuel,” I scoffed. “From the place that I fucking got you! You’re a real piece of work, you know that?”
“Oh, cut the self-righteous bullshit already,” he sneered, “you killed men, just the same as me.”
“I killed men when I had to,” I said. “I didn’t kill women because I thought they were a threat. And I definitely didn’t rape them and force them to have abortions.”
“Fuck you,” he spat, but I saw his eyes twitch at what I said. “I’ve never had to rape anybody. Ask that girl you took home. I know she’s not dead.”
“She’s nineteen!” I yelled.
“She wanted it!” he yelled back, and we both stared at each other for a long moment.
“You used me to do your dirty work,” I said in a low voice. “You’re a sorry motherfucker who can’t even take care of his own bullshit. You had to drag me into it because you couldn’t handle it on your own.”
“You know,” Brody said, and he started to circle me once more so I followed his lead, “I really wanted things to work out between us.”
“Bullshit,” I snapped.
“I knew it couldn’t, though,” he continued. “You’re too much of a coward. You’re too weak to do what needs to be done now the real war has started. I knew you wouldn’t be able to handle the way things have to be now.”
“Says the guy who needed me to take out three outposts for him,” I said with a hard laugh.
“And even then you couldn’t do what was necessary,” he said with a shake of his head. “You let those bitches leave. Gave them supplies. Weapons. You’re a fucking disgrace. You’re weak.”
I stared at this man in front of me. This wasn’t a delusion, this wasn’t PTSD, this was downright narcissism. He was a piece of shit, and the world needed to be rid of him. If sparing innocent women made me weak, then I didn’t want to see what strong looked like.
“We’re done,” I said.
“You got that right,” he said, and he started to back away. “You know as well as I do that either both of us leave here right now or neither of us does.”
Fuck, he was right. I couldn’t shoot him without the risk of him pulling the trigger on me, too, and we were at such close range there was no way I’d be able to avoid a bullet and I didn’t want to gamble that he’d hit me in the vest.
“You’re just going to leave your men?” I scoffed.
“I’ll let you live,” he said, “as long as I never see you on my side of the lake again.”
“Fuck you,” I said through gritted teeth. I didn’t believe a damn word he said. This was war.
“Goodbye, Tav,” he said, and he slowly backed up until he was out the front door.
“Fuck,” I breathed and looked up to the ceiling.
After a minute I ran outside, but Brody was nowhere to be seen.
“Tav!” Anna called, and I turned to see her and Bailey running toward the house.
“Where’s Brody?” I asked, then I noticed the men weren’t with them. “Where are the guys?”
“We took out the guards,” Bailey said. “And a few minutes ago they said they had to go to the bathroom, but they never came back.”
“What’s going on?” Paige called as she and Tara came up from the other side.
“They pull the bathroom trick on you?” Anna asked.
“Fuck,” Tara breathed. “I knew we shouldn’t have let them out of our sight.”
“Where are they?” Bailey asked.
Just then I heard the sound of a speedboat come from the lake.
“I’ll give you one guess,” I said, and I started to run toward the shore.
The girls were right behind me as I ran through the small neighborhood and made it to a wooden dock.
Brody and two of his men had a speedboat, and the bastard stood at the back and saluted me. There were no others around so I figured that was the one that his men used to go to and from Burlington. No doubt Brody’s other guys had gone to their jeep and driven it back to the fort.
I pulled my rifle, but he was too far away at that point, and I couldn’t get a shot.
“He’s too far,” Bailey told me, and I turned to see that she had her rifle aimed as well, and she stared at me with sad eyes. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault,” I told her.
As pissed as I was about everything Brody had just put us through, I was incredibly happy to see the girls. I had been worried about them, but Brody had been smart enough to leave them out of it for the most part. He instructed his men to leave and get the speedboats ready, I’m sure, probably in part because he knew his men didn’t stand a chance against my girls if they tried to fight.
“Did you find out anything?” Anna asked.
“Not really,” I sighed as I watched Brody get away. “Only that this definitely was personal for him.”
“What do you mean?” Tara asked.
“The boss knew Brody,” I said. “He called him by name.”
“What the hell?” Paige asked. “You heard him?”
“Yeah,” I said. “They definitely knew each other. This was about more than work, it seemed like they knew each other for a long time.”
“Let’s check out the house,” Paige said. “Maybe we’ll find something else there.”
“Alright,” I agreed, and we headed back toward the big, blue house.
The rain still beat down on us, though not quite as hard as before, but it was still freezing cold. Once we got to the house the warmth of inside was a welcome relief from the storm outside.
I started in the office that I had seen earlier. There was a large mahogany desk, and a Victorian style green chair sat behind it. I scanned through the books but didn’t see anything that stuck out. It’s not like The Anarchist’s Cookbook was sitting right on the shelf.
The drawers didn’t give much away, either, they were just filled with old notebooks and strawberry hard candy wrappers. I stuffed the notebooks into my backpack but left the rest.
There were several paintings around the office. One was of a large fishing boat in rough waters with the men holding steady as the storm overcame them. There was another of an old man and a young kid fishing off a dock. This guy must have lived by the lake for a long time, but I found it strange that there wasn’t a single photo of the man or his family. If he lived here since before the EMP hit, then I would assume that he would keep pictures of his family up. Unless he took them down for their protection. Were they still alive somewhere? Was Brody one of them?
“Uh, Tav,” Tara said from across the hallway. “You might want to come in here.”
“What did you find?” I asked, and I made my way into the room to see the girls all gathered on the bed with a photo album spread out in front of them.
“Look,” Paige said, and she pointed to the large book.
I stepped closer to the bed and peered at the album laid out in front of me. There, on the right hand page was Brody’s portrait.
He looked different than he did now, but more like the Brody that I had known when we were young. There was no smile, but his green eyes were lit up with excitement, and his hair was in the short buzz cut that I always remembered him with.
“What the fuck,” I whispered.
“Tav,” Bailey said as she turned back several pages and landed on one that had several photos depicting a hunting trip between a father and son.
The father was the man in the chair, but much younger, and he was with a small, brown haired boy who wore only jean shorts on a hot summer day and happily held up his catch for the camera.
“That was his dad,” Anna whispered.
“He killed his own father,” Bailey added.
I stared at the photo for a moment longer, then I stood up and walked outside into the rain. Thunder sounded from above, and lightning flashed over the lake a second later.
I had thought Brody was a cold sonofabitch before, but this took the cake.
We were now at war with a man who had just committed patricide.
Somehow, this wasn’t where I saw my year going.
“What are we going to do?” I heard Paige ask
behind me, and I turned around to see my four lovers huddled in the doorway watching me.
“We can’t attack the fort,” Anna said. “It’s too strong of a defensive position to assault with small arms.”
“Unless we go in all fucking ninja-like,” Tara said.
“Even then, it’s a huge risk to think we could sneak in and take out all the bad guys without taking losses ourselves,” Bailey sighed.
“We are going to cut down their numbers,” I said.
“How?” Anna asked as she raised her eyebrows.
“Brody isn’t going to wait for us to attack him,” I began. “He’s going to try to take us out. And that’s exactly what we want. We’ll be ready when they come to the school, and we’ll kill all of them. Then we will counter attack and take the fort.”
“Brody doesn’t know where we live, though,” Anna replied.
“He might seem like an idiot, but don’t underestimate his training,” I answered the redhead. “As a Ranger, he is one of the world’s best scouts. Given enough time, he’ll find us.”
“Then we’ll have to get our trap ready soon,” Paige said with a sly grin.
Chapter 16
It was a chilly morning, and the light was barely there as I led the cows and horses to the field behind the college to graze. I had on a sweater to battle the cold, but I could still see the faintest hint of my breath when I exhaled. The grass was wet with the morning dew, and it smelled of rain and earth as we walked across the courtyard and into the field.
It had been difficult to sleep lately, not just for me but for all my girls.
Anna, my beautiful redheaded second in command walked beside me as we herded the animals.
To my right was Paige, the mousy brunette who served as our team navigator and expert in strange but useful knowledge.
Tara, the sassy platinum blonde and resident ninja was over by the dorm building cooking breakfast for the whole group while Bailey, our other blonde and professional sniper, kept watch from the roof.
