by Eric Vall
“I doubt it,” Renee said, “like I said, he doesn’t have many men who are loyal to him. But of course you’re welcome to set up the radio, the best spot will probably be here on top of my office if that’s okay with you.”
“Kimmy?” I asked, and I turned to look at the beautiful dark skinned woman who leaned against the wall. “Will that work?”
“That’d be great,” she answered with a soft smile at Renee.
“There is another thing that we need to handle tonight,” Renee said, and her voice had grown serious and concerned.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Brody doesn’t have many men,” she said, “but there are a couple of them here.”
“Do you think they know about our feud with him?” I asked.
“No,” she said with a shake of her head. “I’m the only one that does the deliveries, there’s no way for them to know, but we’ll need to explain to everyone what’s going on.”
“And when we do, they won’t be happy about it,” I sighed, and closed my eyes. The last thing we needed right then was to deal with some Brody supporters. He didn’t have very many to begin with, and I honestly didn’t expect there to be any at the refinery considering that Brody knew that he was short staffed. How could anybody still support this douchebag after everything he’d done? If they were part of the group at the fort then they had definitely seen the way he treated people, he’d probably treated them just as bad. Why be loyal to him at all?
“Is there a way we can convince them to join our side?” Bailey asked.
“Good question,” Anna said, “just how loyal to Brody are they?”
“I’d say they’re pretty loyal,” Renee said. “Brody’s allotted them special treatment every now and then, so they think they’re above everyone else. Even me. I’ve had to put them in their place a few times already.”
“How many are there?” I asked.
“Two here,” she said. “Toby and James. They’re both assholes, but they didn’t start getting bad until we came out here, then they tried to take over like they were in charge.”
“How’d you deal with that?” Kimmy asked, and I threw a glance in her direction. It had been a while since she had spoken.
“I didn’t do much,” Renee said with a shrug. “Nobody wanted them in charge, someone called a vote, and I won, though I never really asked to be in the running.”
“You all used to work together, didn’t you?” Tara asked.
“Yeah,” Renee agreed. “That’s how I know Toby and James are generally assholes, but they weren’t as bad before all of this happened.”
“Were you in charge of them then, too?” I asked.
“I was floor supervisor,” she informed me. “So I wasn’t the big boss, and I definitely didn’t have this office, then, but I was in charge of everything that happened out there on a day to day basis.”
“You really think these men could be a threat?” I asked.
“I’m not sure if they’re actually a threat to your well being or not,” Renee said, and she let out a frustrated sigh. “All I know is that they probably won’t be too happy about you all being here once we explain the situation. Like I said earlier, we only have the couple of pistols for people who are on patrol, but none of us around here are really fighters, so if they really wanted to get them, I’m sure they could.”
“You don’t underestimate people, do you,” I chuckled, impressed that she would think the threat through so thoroughly.
“I learned a long time ago that underestimating someone else just means that you underestimate yourself,” she said. “If I’m smart enough to figure something out, then I figure somebody else will be, too.”
“I’m not sure that’s the case all the time,” Paige said.
“But it’s a good mentality to have,” I added. “You’re the boss around here… let me ask you, what do you want to do about the situation?”
“I don’t know,” Renee sighed. “It’s a tough one.”
“How so?” Paige asked.
“They haven’t technically done anything wrong,” she said. “I mean, they’re dicks, don’t get me wrong, but they haven’t hurt anybody.”
“Is there a reason why Brody gives them special treatment?” I asked.
“I can’t say for sure,” Renee said, “but I’ve watched him for a while and I think he targets the insecure younger guys. He bribes them by letting them get time off or having them trade jobs with someone so they’re not doing such strenuous labor, among other... Things.”
“What other things?” Anna asked slowly.
“Some of the men get special… privileges with the ladies,” Renee said, and she looked down in disgust.
“That seems like they’ve done something wrong to me,” Tara sneered.
“Definitely,” Renee agreed. “But that’s more for the men at the refinery, and the ones who are further up on Brody’s list. Toby and James were never allowed at that level.”
“I can understand your dilemma,” I said with a nod. If these two men hadn’t actually committed any wrongful acts, then was it okay to treat them as if they had? Were they guilty by association? And if so, then did that mean that anyone who knew it was happening and didn’t stop it was guilty, too. This wasn’t quite as black and white of a situation as we were used to dealing with, but then again nothing having to do with Brody was like anything we were used to dealing with.
“I know what to do,” Tara said calmly.
“What?” I asked, and I turned to look at the platinum blonde. Her face was stone cold, which was in stark contrast to the way she casually leaned against the wall with one foot propped up under her hip.
“Kill them,” Tara said with a shrug.
Chapter 22
“You can’t keep saying that as a solution to everything,” Anna said with an eye roll.
“I’m serious,” Tara huffed.
Suddenly everyone became much quieter than they had been, and the air in the room shifted. Tension filled the place, and I knew we were in for a heated discussion.
“What?” Bailey asked, her face scrunched up with concern. “But they haven’t actually hurt anybody.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Tara said. “They would have if they had been given the opportunity.”
“You can’t know that for sure,” Anna said. “Just because someone is a dick doesn’t automatically make them a rapist.”
“No, but supporting a rapist makes them just as bad,” the platinum blonde said. “They support Brody, that’s all I need to know. We should kill them.”
“Like I said,” Renee cut in with her hands up. “They were never afforded such privileges.”
“Honestly, though,” Tara said, “does it matter?”
“I think it does,” Bailey countered. “We can’t just decide that someone has to die, we should give them the chance to choose their sides.”
“Maybe they would choose our side if he offered it to them,” Anna agreed. “Maybe they’re only on Brody’s side right now because it feels like it’s the safest place to be for them.”
“Yeah,” Bailey said. “They could just be trying to survive.”
“But if we gave them the opportunity to switch sides, then we’d never know who’s side they really supported,” Paige pointed out. “They’d probably just choose the side that would get them the best result for themselves.”
“Exactly,” Tara said.
“Is self-preservation a crime, though?” Anna asked with a shake of her head. “We’ve all done things we’re not proud of.”
“Uh, it’s a crime if you support people who are committing the crime,” Tara said. “That’s what, like, accessory or something?”
“There are two kinds of evil people,” Paige said, “those who do evil, and those who see evil being done and do nothing to stop it.”
“If that’s the case then isn’t everyone guilty?” Bailey asked. “Everyone at the fort saw what was happening, but they didn’t stop it. We can�
��t hold everyone accountable for one person’s fucked up actions.”
“I’m with Bailey,” Anna said.
My head was spinning from the girls’ conversation. I personally wasn’t sure what to do, especially not after listening to them. They all had good points, and it made me miss the days when everyone we targeted was some kind of rapist, druggie, kidnapper, or another form of asshole. We were responsible for making and enforcing our own rules now, and while I wanted to be fair, I also wanted to be just.
Did these men deserve to die?
It would be a lot easier for us if they did, but they hadn’t physically committed any violent acts themselves. Then again, we couldn’t wait to give them the opportunity to. If this were an actual court case then Toby and James would be guilty of no more than accepting bribes and not reporting a crime, they definitely wouldn’t be charged with rape or murder… but this was a new society, there were new rules. We just needed to figure out exactly what they were going to be.
Kimmy caught my eye, and she frowned slightly. I knew this must be confusing and strange to her to watch the girls battle it out over whether a couple of guys should die or not, but really we didn’t have a choice. We had to figure out what we were going to do about the situation, and we had to do it quickly. We didn’t have time to spare, but these were men's lives we were talking about, too, I think they deserved more than a two minute discussion about whether or not they got shot in the head.
I didn’t want the girls to be too torn against one another, though, so I needed to get it under control before they got seriously heated. I needed them to be a united front for the current mission, and that meant that we had to come up with some sort of solution that everyone could be alright with, maybe not agree with, but be alright with.
“Alright, ladies,” I said to quiet the girls down. “We need to come up with a standard here.”
“What do you mean, a standard?” Tara asked.
“We have to figure out where the line is drawn,” I said. “We make our own rules and enforce them now, so we have to decide where the line is drawn and stick with it.”
“Can’t the line move depending on the situation, though?” Bailey asked.
“Maybe,” I said, “but right now we need to figure out what we’re going to do about the situation at hand. We have two men who support Brody here, and they may not like us being here after they find out about our dispute with Brody. But, are they a threat to us?”
“Even if they’re not right now it doesn’t mean that they won’t be,” Tara said. “We know where their loyalties lie.”
“What if we offered for them to leave?” Bailey suggested.
“That’s not a terrible plan,” Anna said. “We could increase security around here in case they tried to come back.”
“But see, just the fact that you would think they might come back shows that they can’t be trusted,” Paige said.
“Not trusting them doesn’t mean that they have to die,” Bailey said.
“It means they can’t be trusted,” Tara scoffed. “And with the way things are now, I think that anybody who isn’t an ally is an enemy.”
“That’s a bit extreme,” Anna said. “You can have someone be somewhere in the middle.”
“Not now, you can’t,” Tara said.
“I’m inclined to agree,” Paige said, and she bit her lip. “Small injuries are able to be fixed most of the time still, but if someone were to get shot or stabbed anywhere near an artery or a vital organ, they're dead. It’s too risky.”
“But that’s anticipating what someone’s going to do,” Bailey said softly. “Can we really make judgments about people like that?”
“Look,” I said, “I know this is difficult, but let’s go through the reality of it all here. Tara and Paige are right, if there’s a threat in any capacity it should be eliminated, it’s too much of a risk. But Bailey and Anna are correct as well, we have to assess if someone is actually a threat or not before we decide to do anything.”
“So how do we do that?” Paige asked.
“Renee,” I said, and I looked at the brown haired woman. “You know these men better than any of us. I’m going to rely on your expertise here. Do you think that they’re a threat?”
Renee bit her lip and thought for a moment before she let out a long sigh.
“Yes,” she said. “I think they’re a threat. We can’t be looking over our shoulders forever because we made the wrong call. I’m sorry, ladies, you made an admirable argument, but in this case I think eliminating the threat is the best course of action.”
I nodded my appreciation to Renee. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to be the one to make the decision, but I knew that the girls would respect what Renee had to say. She was the leader here, so it was rightfully her decision to make in the first place. We had a say in that matter, sure, but the final say was hers and I had to make that clear to everyone.
“That’s that, then,” I said with a nod.
“I’ll do it,” Tara said, and she took a step forward. “Where are they?”
“Me, too,” Paige agreed.
“You all want to handle this?” I asked.
“Someone has to,” Tara said. “You do the dirty work for us all the time, we can handle this, right, Paige?”
“Right,” the brunette said with a nod.
“Well, alright, then,” I said. “As long as that’s okay with you, Renee?”
“Fine by me,” she said. “You all will get your chance to take out some followers, I’m sure.”
“How many are there at the fort?” Anna asked.
“Four or five,” she said. “I can’t be sure since I don’t know who all it was you took out when they attacked your place.”
“Can you make a list of them?” I asked. “Names won’t do much, but hair color, body type, or anything else you can think of to describe them would be a great help. We don’t want to take out any innocent bystanders in this process.”
“Sure,” Renee said, “I can work on that tonight, and I’ll work on the map, too.”
“Great,” Paige said. “I have a rough sketch going, you can take a look and maybe add to it. Or you can make your own, it’s up to you.”
“I’d love to take a look, thanks,” Renee said.
“It’s getting late,” I said as I looked out the small window in the office. It was almost totally dark out, then, and it would be fully dark in just a few minutes. “We still need to set up the radio.”
“There’s still the matter of Toby and James,” Tara pointed out.
“Right,” Renee said. “We need to address the group, too.”
“I can set up the radio in the morning,” Kimmy offered. “We’re up early enough that it should be alright.”
“Okay,” I agreed, though I didn’t like that we wouldn’t have communication for the evening. I knew Rolly would be able to handle whatever was thrown his way, though, so I wasn’t too worried about it. I doubted that Brody would attack again this soon anyways, but the radio would help Rolly feel better, and it would help us to get back home quickly if there was an emergency where we were needed.
I was slightly surprised that Tara and Paige had offered to take out the two guys, but the more I thought about it the more that it seemed to fit, especially with Tara.
The platinum blonde had become quite the badass over the last year or so, and I think one of the things she loved about feeling powerful was that she got to use that power to avenge her fellow women. There was so much rape and abuse in the world now that there was no law enforcement around to hold anyone accountable, and it was sickening. There had been plenty of rape and abuse before the EMP hit, but at least women had the option to call the police, then. Now, they were on their own, and if they wound up in a tough situation they often couldn’t get themselves out of it.
Tara liked being able to take out rapists and assholes. I think it helped her feel better about the friends that she felt she failed back home. I knew she didn’t fail them
, and I think she knew it, too, but she held their pain close to her heart.
Paige, though, I was more surprised that she had stepped up and offered to take part in the executions. She was never the best shot out of everyone, she preferred to use her brain over brawn, but it wasn’t because she wasn’t capable. The brunette definitely had a very stern moral compass, though, and if she felt something was right or wrong she wasn’t afraid to say it. She obviously felt very strongly about the situation. She possibly didn’t want Tara to have to do it alone, either. They had wound up arguing for the same side, which wasn’t very common for the two of them, so maybe Paige felt that since they started it together they had to end it together.
Paige never was one to shy away from a dirty job, though. She was the queen of gutting, skinning, and anything else that required getting a little blood or dirt on your hands. I always thought that was just because of her medical background, but maybe that was only part of it. Maybe she thought she could handle certain tasks better than the other girls, or maybe she wanted to spare them from having to do them. I know that was the case with Bailey for a long time. The other girls would take the task of handling the meat and things so that she didn’t have to worry about it. They didn’t want her to feel even more grossed out about eating meat than she already did.
I couldn’t be sure of her reasoning, but I was proud of Paige for stepping up, and Tara, too. Anna was my second in command, that wouldn’t change, but Tara and Paige had shown great initiative in offering to handle a job that really nobody wanted. Even I wasn’t completely looking forward to having to deal with it, mostly because I was over the bullshit. I wanted to get to Brody as soon as possible and anything in my way was a nuisance right then, but still.
“I’d prefer that they be dealt with before we talk to the group,” Renee said.
“We can do that,” Tara said. “Just point them out to us, and we’ll handle it from there.”
“I’ll call them to the back of the building,” Renee said. “That way nobody has to see it.”
