by Eric Vall
I saw only two men on guard duty, one walked on the far side from where I was, and the other walked nearer to me, but as I watched I realized they were just walking the perimeter in a circle. I wasn’t totally surprised, most of these people weren’t used to having to be on guard duty since Brody didn’t really trust anyone at the fort to do it, but I’d have to make a note to inform them of proper protocol.
I recognized the smaller of the two men as Conner, the guy we had met when we were there before. The girls had gotten a kick out of the fact that we had the same name since he was a meek and small fellow compared to me.
After scanning the area once more I determined that he was the best person to grab since he was the smallest and he happened to be on guard duty at the moment. I headed back through the trees and after a minute the girls all joined me.
“What did you find?” I asked with a small smile, wanting to see if they’d come to the same realization that I had.
“Six civilians are gathered around the fire,” Bailey said.
“Good,” I told her.
“Two are on guard duty,” Paige added.
“Shitty guard duty,” Tara muttered, and she looked down like she was embarrassed for them.
“Brody didn’t exactly train them, remember?” Anna asked.
“She’s right,” I told Tara. “We’ll help them get a better system set up before we leave. In the meantime, though, who’s our target?”
“Kimmy?” Anna asked. “Do you want to try?”
“Oh,” Kimmy said, her face one of surprise at being asked to participate. “Sure, yeah. Hm… I think the best target is the scrawny guy on guard duty.”
“Is she right?” I asked the girls, and they nodded. “Good job. Now, how do we grab him?”
“We could wait at the side of the building that was in front of us,” Kimmy said, but her voice was unsure, “then we can reach out and snag him when he walks by.”
“Great,” I told her with a smile. “Let’s get into position.”
“Wait, that’s the plan?” she asked and then looked around at each of us.
“Yeah,” Anna said with a shrug. “You’re pretty good at this.”
“It seems like basic common sense,” she said. “How else would you do it?”
“It doesn’t come naturally for everyone,” I told her.
“You’re used to mechanical stuff,” Paige said. “You put things together, it’s how your brain works. It will come in handy in a lot of situations, but there will be times where your plan isn’t the best.”
“Trust Paige, she knows,” Tara snickered.
“Alright, let’s move out,” I said, bringing the conversation back to the task at hand.
We were incredibly close to initiating the first part of our plan right then, and I didn’t want to wait any longer. Every second that those children were with Brody was a second that they couldn’t get back, and a second that I absolutely despised. The assholes we had to deal with earlier had already taken up enough of our time and it would be dark soon, the sun had already begun to set. We didn’t have any time to waste.
Chapter 21
We carefully gathered at the back of the barracks building and peeked into the windows to make sure nobody was inside who might be able to hear us when we abducted the guard. Luckily, there wasn’t anybody there, so I left the girls at the back of the building and made my way to the side to wait for the other Conner.
The guy was small in frame, with little muscle to him, and he had shaggy blonde hair that had grown out since the last time I had seen him. He wore a pair of cargo shorts and a T-shirt as well as some old sneakers, and the only weapon he had on him was a pistol that sat in a holster on his hip.
I watched him make his rounds, and it only took a couple of minutes for him to make his way to me. His patrol led him right to the edge of the building, so as soon as he was in my line of sight I reached out and grabbed him. I put one arm around his neck and the other hand over his mouth as I dragged him around to the back of the building. He struggled against me, and I could feel him try to lick my hand as if that would make me let go.
Once I had him at the back of the building I slammed him against the wall and pulled my pistol out with one hand while I continued to cover his mouth with the other. I couldn’t be sure if these people were on our side still or not, so I didn’t want to hurt the poor guy, but just in case they weren’t on our side, I needed to scare him a little bit.
The poor guy looked around wildly with large blue eyes, but after a few seconds they settled on my face and his eyebrows pulled together like he was confused.
“Don’t scream,” I said, and I raised my pistol up so he could see it.
His eyes widened with fear for a second, then he nodded his head fervently.
“We don’t want to hurt you,” Bailey said. “But you have to be quiet.”
The other Conner nodded again, so I slowly uncovered his mouth, but I put my hand firmly on his shoulder to keep him in place.
“Tav?” he asked, and he looked around to me and the girls. “What are you doing?”
“We’re here on business,” I said. “But we have some questions first.”
“Alright,” the small man said, but his face grew more irritated then. “You’re being weird, though, why didn’t you just pull into the driveway? And what’s with the gun?”
“Has Brody told you anything about us?” I asked without answering his questions.
“Brody, what, no,” he said with a shake of his head.
“Has he sent anybody here?” Anna asked.
“No, we go there to bring him fuel,” Conner said, and he continued to look around at the group with confusion and irritation. “What the hell is going on here? Can you get your gun out of my face, please? I thought we were cool.”
“Thought?” Paige asked. “Is there a reason we’re not cool now?”
“Well, putting your gun in my face is pretty uncool,” he whined.
The guy had no idea what we were talking about, which meant that Brody either hadn’t thought we’d go to the refinery, or he hadn’t cared enough about it to tell the people here to attack us. My money was on the former, but with Brody there was no telling. His mind was more fucked up than I could even comprehend.
“Sorry,” I said as I holstered my pistol. “Nobody’s come by with any information, though? No new members to the group?”
“No, not for a while,” Conner said, but now he seemed more intrigued than frustrated. “What’s going on? Is something wrong?”
“Who’s in charge?” I asked. “Is it still Renee?”
“Uh, yeah,” Conner said. “She’s in her office now, but it’s almost time for dinner, so she should be out soon.”
“I’m afraid this can’t wait,” I said. “Can you take us to her?”
“Sure,” he agreed, but he looked down at our weapons like he was slightly skeptical.
“Again,” I started, “I’m sorry for putting my gun in your face. We had to be sure you all didn’t have orders against us.”
“Why would we have orders against you?” he asked.
“We had a bit of an… argument with Brody,” I said.
“Huh,” he said with a nod. “Yeah, that makes sense. I wouldn’t put it past that asshole to be petty enough to try to turn everyone against you. You were nice to us, though, so I don’t think anyone here has a problem with you.”
“Good to know,” I said. “But we really need to talk to Renee right now.”
“Follow me,” he said, and he headed around to the front of the building.
I trusted that Conner believed what he had told me about nobody having an issue with us, but I also trusted that he was a bit naive and I wasn’t about to take any chances. I kept my hand on my pistol as we walked, but I waved to the people around the fire pit when they smiled and waved first.
It was nearly dark outside, then, but there was just enough light to see by, though it would soon melt away into darkness. As we p
assed the fire pit on our way to the refinery I could smell whatever meat the civilians had cooking, and I felt my stomach rumble with hunger. Whatever it was, it smelled delicious, and I realized then just how hungry I was. I’d made sure we drank plenty of water throughout the day, but I should have made us eat lunch in the car. It was becoming something of a habit for us to skip lunch while we were out and about. It made sense, we were usually pretty busy, but the hunger I felt just then was quite distracting and the smells started to make my mouth water.
We reached the refinery soon enough and I kicked my desire for food to the back of my mind. I needed to focus and talk to Renee. If we had her vote, then I was confident we had the vote of everyone at the refinery.
Once I stepped into the building the noise overpowered my senses, but I followed the other Conner to a small blue door to the left of the entrance. Conner opened it and said something I couldn’t quite hear, then Renee came to the doorway and gave us a smile before she waved to the people working on the floor and the noise cut off.
“Hey,” Renee greeted us. She had a friendly smile on her face, and her blue eyes quickly scanned our group. “We didn’t expect to see you all this soon.”
“I’m afraid this isn’t exactly a friendly visit,” I informed her.
“I see,” she said, and she pursed her lips. “Come on in. Conner, can you tell everyone they can be done for the evening?”
“Sure,” the small man answered. “And I think dinner will be done soon just so you know.”
“Thanks,” Renee said, “we’ll be out shortly.”
Conner walked over to the people on the floor and everyone started to put away their materials and helmets as the girls and I crammed ourselves into the small office. It was maybe ten feet by ten feet and there were only two chairs inside. Renee took one and I took the other as the girls leaned against the door and wall behind me.
“So,” Renee sighed as she turned to look me in the eye. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s Brody,” I said.
“What about him?” she asked.
“You got an hour?” Tara grumbled.
“That bad, huh?” Renee asked with a nod.
“It’s not good,” I said. We told her about his abuse of Sophia, the girl at our house who he’d forced to have an abortion, and the women that he killed before that in Lebanon, then we told her about the two children he’d kidnapped and how we thought he might have tried to talk to her people and put out a hit on us.
“I see,” she said after the story was finished and she closed her eyes, lowered her head, and began to rub at her temples with her thumb and middle finger.
“You don’t seem surprised,” Paige said.
“I’m not,” Renee chuckled darkly. “I’ve known for a long time that Brody was a cruel bastard. He raped all the women at the fort, we only put up with it because it gave us a place to live and something to eat, and we didn’t feel like we could survive on our own. Besides, there were rumors that the people who had left had been tracked down and killed anyways.”
“We?” Paige asked.
“Yeah, ‘we,’” Renee closed her eyes and then let out a long breath.
“Why didn’t you tell us that when we were here before?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” she sighed. “I guess I didn’t think I had it that bad, so I didn’t want to complain too much. I knew he was a misogynist, but I never thought he’d resort to kidnapping children. That part does surprise me a bit.”
“He only took them to piss me off,” I explained. “But their grandfather took one hell of a beating in the process.”
“I can’t stand when people abuse the elderly,” Renee said with a shake of her long, brown locks.
“It’s the worst,” Bailey said softly.
“Yup,” Anna said. “Takes a special kind of monster to beat up a frail old man.”
I thought of Henry and the extent of his injuries. He had looked so terrible it was hard not to wince even when I thought about it.
“So what’s your plan?” Renee asked. “Whatever it is, I’ll help. I don’t want that bastard around, either. He’s done too much damage.”
“I appreciate that,” I told her. “We were hoping we could figure something out with you, but we wanted to make sure you knew why we were attacking him first.”
“If I had the skills I would have taken him out a long time ago,” the brown haired woman said coldly. “I’m sure this won’t be easy for you, though, the fort is pretty impregnatable.”
“It is,” I agreed, “and Brody knows it. “He won’t go with an offensive tactic. His attack on us at the college was his only hope of a blitz attack.”
“You don’t think he’ll try to attack you again?” Renee asked.
“I’m not saying that,” I told her. “But he personally probably won’t leave the fort. It’s the safest place for him to be, and because it’s so structurally sound all he has to do is hold it and outlast us.”
“Or so he thinks, at least,” Anna said.
“Right,” I agreed.
“How can you be so sure of exactly what he’s going to do?” Renee asked.
“I can’t be one hundred percent sure,” I said, “but we had the same military training, and if I was him I would take the defensive position. He’s set up for it. Besides, we can’t exactly attack the fort, not with the children inside.”
“If you can’t attack, then what are you going to do?” Renee asked.
“We’re going to sneak in,” I said. “This needs to be an inside job.”
“Okay,” Renee said with a nod. “What do you need me to do?”
“Can you get us into the fort?” Anna asked.
“Maybe,” Renee said, and she thought for a moment. “It wouldn’t be easy, though. We deliver fuel once a week, but the place really is a fortress, we’d have to figure out a way to hide you.”
“When’s your next fuel delivery?” I asked.
“Day after tomorrow,” she answered quickly.
“Shit,” I breathed.
“Is that too long?” she asked, and concern made her voice go up an octave.
“It’ll be alright,” I told her. “Sorry, I just hate that Brody has the children, and every second they’re with him…”
“I understand,” she said. “But we still need to figure out how to get you all in.”
“That extra day might help us here,” Anna agreed.
“You’re right,” I said. “It’s best to go in fully prepared here. Especially since this has to be an inside job.”
“Do me a favor,” Renee said softly. “Try not to hurt the people inside. Most of them hate Brody just as much as you do.”
“I know,” I assured her. “That’s another reason we don’t want to attack from the outside. There’s too much of a risk in it with the civilians and children around.”
“You said you took out a few of his men when they attacked you at your home?” Renee asked.
“That’s right,” I agreed.
“He doesn’t have many that are loyal to him,” Renee said. “There’s probably only four or five left at the fort who would stand by him.”
“That’s good to hear,” I said.
“Could you speak to the rest of the civilians?” Paige asked.
“I’m not sure if they could be of much help,” Renee said with a frown. “None of them are afforded weapons. We only have the two pistols for the guards out here.”
“They wouldn’t have to do anything,” Anna said, “but if you could talk to them when you make the delivery and tell them to stay out of the way then that would be helpful.”
“I’m sure I could do that,” Renee said.
“Do you think there’s a chance the people who are loyal to him would hear about it?” I asked seriously.
“No,” she said. “Nobody talks to them. There’s a clear hierarchy at that fort, the peasants don’t mix with the upper class.”
“How well do you know the fort?” Paige asked.
“Like the back of my hand,” Renee said. “I lived there for months, and I basically hooked up their electricity.”
“Could you draw me a map of the layout?” Paige pushed. “It would be really helpful with our plan.”
“Of course,” Renee agreed. “Whatever you guys need, I’m here to help. I knew it was just a matter of time before he pissed someone off enough that they wanted to kill him, I just hoped that whenever that happened, they would leave us alone here.”
“I had the same thought earlier,” I said. “When you’re that much of a bastard you definitely make some enemies. I’m sure we aren’t the only ones who’d like Brody dealt with.”
“I’m glad it’s you all who are going to take him out,” Renee said with a gesture at the team. “I just ask that when it’s all over you let anyone who wants to stay there stay.”
“Don’t worry about that,” I told her. “After Brody’s gone the fort will be yours to do with as you see fit.”
“Yeah,” Bailey added. “You all did all the work for that place, you deserve it.”
“Besides, we have our own home,” Anna said.
“We would like to set up a trade agreement with you, though,” Paige said.
“A fair trade,” I corrected, though I knew Renee was a fair woman. “Brody wanted one of our tractors in exchange for more fuel.”
“What?” Renee asked, her eyebrows pinched together in confusion. “That seems highly unreasonable. We have plenty of fuel.”
“I thought so, too,” I said. “We would have been back sooner to trade with you, but those were the stipulations Brody put forward.”
“We’ll come up with something that will help us all out,” Renee said.
“We still have work to do tomorrow,” I said, “and some things to figure out, but right now I have another request.”
“What is it?” she asked.
“My friend Kimmy here,” I said with a gesture behind me. “She’s managed to get a couple CB radios working, and I’m hoping we can set one up here for the time being so we can communicate with our home base in case Brody decides to attack again.”
