by Eric Vall
“Well, yeah,” Tara said, as if it was totally obvious. “He was a dick.”
“We led very different lives before this,” Anna laughed.
“You would date him just because he’s going to inherit money?” Tara scoffed. “Gold digger.”
“I wouldn’t date him,” the redhead said. “I’d marry him, then I’d divorce him and get some cash.”
“Oh my God,” the platinum blonde laughed. “I think this is the first time I’ve really felt connected with you. A girl after my own heart.”
“You two are crazy,” Bailey said. “I’d only marry for love.”
“Yeah,” Anna chuckled. “Me too, but it’s nice to dream.”
“I guess I’m lucky I met you all after money became obsolete,” I laughed.
“Oh, you totally could have gotten into my pants anyways,” Tara said with a shrug. “I’d have like, all the affairs with you while my rich dumb husband didn’t know.”
“For real,” Anna laughed.
Bailey said nothing, but she blushed and looked down to the clothes.
“Good to know,” I said with a grin.
We finished washing the clothes, then we added the conditioner like Tara said, rinsed them once more, and we were done.
“Where should we hang them to dry?” Anna asked.
“There’s a fireplace in our room,” I said. “I’ll build a fire, and we’ll hang them near it.”
“Okay,” the redhead agreed.
We carried the clothes and water bottles back to our room. Paige was exactly where we had left her, on the floor with her maps.
“All good?” I asked as we came in.
“All good here,” the brunette said as she looked up at me. “I think we’re going with my original plan. It seems to be the best route.”
“I figured it would be,” I said. “I’ll go talk to Brody about getting a vehicle in the morning.”
I found some kindling and wood stacked by the fireplace, so I got to work on stacking it just right to get a fire going quickly, but a knock on the door disrupted my concentration, and my small pyramid of kindling fell.
“Who do you think it is?” Bailey whispered.
“I’m sure it’s Brody,” I said quietly.
“I’ll get it,” Anna said.
“No,” I said as I got up and headed toward the door. “I got it.”
I moved to the door and stood for a moment to check if there had really been a knock on our door, or if we had heard a knock on someone else’s door.
“Tav,” Brody called out. “Open up, open up.”
“Hey,” I said as I pulled the door open. “I wasn’t sure if the knock was for our room or not.”
“Of course it was,” the dark haired man laughed. “I came to collect you for a nightcap.”
“I was in the middle of building a fire,” I said with a gesture at the fireplace.
“I’m sure one of the girls can handle that, right girls?” he asked as he peered around me.
“Sure,” Bailey said quietly. “We got it.”
“Alright then,” Brody said, and he pulled me into the hallway. “Come have a drink with me.”
I gave the girls a serious look, then closed the door behind me. I heard one of them rush over to lock it, which put me at ease, though I didn’t like the fact that the only weapon I had on me was my karambit at the moment. I had taken my pistol off earlier so the girls could get an accurate tally of our bullets.
Once again I walked down the hallway to Brody’s extravagant room, and I thought about how I had broken in earlier that day, and the strange letter I had found in his desk. I wouldn’t ask him about it, not yet at least, I would wait for it to come up naturally. I didn’t want him to know that I had snuck into his room. He seemed to trust me entirely at this point, and I didn’t want to give him any reason to doubt that trust.
“I wanted to thank you personally,” Brody said as he pulled two chairs over to the fire that raged at the far end of the room.
“Oh, that’s not necessary,” I said.
“Of course it is,” the dark haired man said as he poured me some red wine.
“Did you make this as well?” I asked.
“Oh, no,” he said and he flipped the bottle around so I could see the label. “I keep a small stash in my room for special occasions.”
“I see,” I said as I took a small swig. The wine was tart and dry on my tongue, but it had a good flavor so I took another swig.
“I appreciate your willingness to take on this operation,” Brody said as he stoked the fire. “It means a lot to me, brother.”
“Don’t mention it,” I said. “Besides, it was a team decision.”
“Maybe,” he laughed. “But we all know who the leader of the team is.”
“I suppose I am the leader,” I contended. “But I value the opinions of each of my girls.”
“Seeing what they could do today,” Brody said, and he whistled low. “I can’t imagine why you never went to Ranger School to be a unit leader.”
“I was thinking about it,” I said with a shrug, “but I wanted to figure out what I really wanted to do with my life, and I never was set on leading in the military.”
“You should have gone,” the dark haired man said seriously. “You were one of the best soldiers I knew. Probably the best, actually.”
“We all went through the same training,” I said.
“Don’t be so humble,” Brody chuckled. “You knew you were better than half the men in our unit, you just played it too humble.”
“That’s the Ranger way,” I said with a small smile.
“You won’t win this with me,” he laughed. “You’re a damn good soldier, and you didn’t get your dues in the military. But now’s our time. We’ll get what we deserve.”
“I’m going on the mission for the fuel,” I said as my eyebrows pulled together. “I’m not worried about getting my dues. I served for my family and my country.”
“All great reasons to serve,” Brody said with a nod. “But it doesn’t change the fact that you deserved far more recognition than you got. All of us vets deserved far more recognition than we got. But now we can get what’s owed to us.”
We sat in silence for a moment, and I took another drink of my wine. Brody’s ideals were strange and foreign to me, but I couldn’t be sure that they were actually harmful. After all, it seemed that he only went after bad dudes so far, but still, I didn’t agree with his motivations. Regardless, though, I needed a vehicle from him.
“I have something I needed to talk to you about,” I said.
“Shoot,” Brody told me.
“We have to go up La Chute river,” I informed him. “We won’t be able to bring our boat back up that way. Do you have any vehicles that we could use to get our boat home? We’ll find a trailer somewhere.”
“Sure,” he said, and he clapped me on the back. “I’ll send the civilians with a couple of jeeps. There’ll probably be some at the refinery, too, you’re welcome to keep one of those, if there are any.”
“Thanks,” I said. “One more thing, do you have a winch setup? We’ll need it to get the boat out onto La Chute.”
“I believe so,” he said, and his eyes narrowed as he thought. “I’ll have someone bring a box by your room, you can take whatever you need from the supplies I have.”
“Thank you,” I repeated, then I took a swig of my drink, and we were quiet once more.
“I know for a fact that you saved more than just my ass in Sierra Leone,” Brody said in a quiet voice, and he gave me a serious look. “I talked to a few of the soldiers after you left, and man, they had some stories.”
“Probably exaggerated,” I said with a smile.
“I don’t think so,” Brody said. “You deserve The Medal of Honor for all the lives you saved during service. Half our unit wouldn’t have survived without you.”
“It’s a dangerous job,” I said. “I was only doing my part.”
“No,” he said
with a shake of his head. “You deserved a damn Medal of Honor, and not only that, but you deserved far better pay than you got. We all did. We risked our necks for this damn country, and they treated us like trash. We got the salary of a desk worker, with a million times the hazard. But now it’s our time, brother. We’ll get what we deserve now that there’s only ourselves to fight for.”
Brody had me heated at that point, and I was about to say something I might later regret, but a knock on the door stopped me.
“Come in,” Brody called, and he held up a finger to me.
A small, blonde haired woman entered the room and closed the door softly behind her. I stared at her for a moment, but she didn’t look up from the floor once.
“I’m afraid our time has come to an end for now,” Brody told me with a grin. “My nightly meeting has arrived.”
“Alright,” I said, and I set my wine glass on the small table between us and stood up.
“I’ll see you first thing in the morning,” Brody said as he walked me to the door. “I even have a surprise for your sniper.”
“What’s that?” I asked warily.
“Well, it wouldn’t be much of a surprise if I told you, now would it?” he laughed.
“I suppose not,” I said as we reached the door, though I had never been a big fan of surprises.
The woman looked sad and slightly scared. She held her arms close to her and stared at the floor. I wanted to ask if she was alright, but I knew Brody would just answer for her, and since she wouldn’t look up, I couldn’t mouth anything to her either. All I could do was give her a soft smile that she didn’t see as Brody ushered me out the door.
“See you in the morning, brother,” he said and he closed the door quickly.
I stood for a moment and stared at the door, almost ready to burst back in and check on the woman, but instead I took a deep breath and headed back to my own room.
All I had on me was my knife, and though I was sure I could beat Brody in virtually any physical challenge, I also knew that he had plenty of weapons stashed in his bedroom, and I doubted he would hesitate to pull a gun on me if I interrupted his escapades.
Perhaps the girl was just shy, and she was embarrassed that I was there as well. Besides my feeling that she was sad, I had no evidence to suggest that she did not want to be there.
I tried to keep my head about me as I made my way back to my room and knocked on the door.
“It’s me,” I said, and I heard the lock click.
“We were wondering when you’d be back,” Anna said as she pulled the door open. “That didn’t last quite as long as last time.”
“No,” I agreed. “Brody had a visitor.”
“Who?” Bailey asked.
“One of the civilian women,” I answered. “He said it was his nightly meeting.”
“Do you think he is seeing one of them?” Bailey asked, always so innocent.
“I bet he’s seeing a lot of them,” Tara said dryly.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Bailey asked, her eyes wide with shock.
“I bet they have sex with him because he keeps them safe,” Anna said.
“That’s not right,” Paige said with a frown.
“No,” I said. “It’s not.” If the girls were right, and I suspected they might be, then we had to do something about it.
“We don’t have any evidence of this, do we?” Bailey asked.
“Not really, no,” I sighed.
“Maybe she wants to have sex with him,” the blonde hippie suggested.
“That’s a reasonable assumption as well,” I said. “But it’s something to keep our eye on.”
“Agreed,” Anna said. “Maybe once the civilians come down to the refinery, we can actually talk to a few of them.”
“Won’t Brody be escorting them?” Paige asked.
“I don’t think so,” the redhead said.
“I didn’t get that impression, either,” I confirmed.
“It’d probably be a good time to talk to them, then,” Tara agreed with a nod.
“We’ll make a point to do that then,” I said, and I looked to the fire that blazed in the hearth and smiled. “Who got the fire going?”
“I did,” Bailey said softly.
“Good job,” I said. “I’m sure it was a bit different building it in a fireplace like that.”
“Same concept, different design,” the blonde said with a smile.
“I don’t know about you all,” Tara said through a yawn. “But I’m exhausted. Is it bedtime yet?”
“I think so,” I chuckled. “You all lay down, I’m going to stay up for a while.”
“You need sleep, too, you know,” Anna said with a raised brow.
“I know,” I said with a soft smile. “But I have a few more things I want to get done.”
“We can help,” Paige said, and she took off her glasses to rub her eyes.
“You girls have done plenty for the day,” I said. “Go ahead and lay down, I’ll join you later.”
“Alright,” Anna said with a shrug.
“We’ll save you a place in the middle,” Bailey said with a smile.
“Don’t worry about it,” I said. “I’ll squeeze in where I can.”
“Oh!” Paige exclaimed, and she turned to me. “Did you ask Brody about a vehicle?”
“I did,” I agreed. “He’s going to send a couple with the civilians. And he said he’d send someone by with a winch setup.”
“Great,” the brunette yawned.
The four girls stripped down to their underwear, except for Bailey who kept her undershirt on since she didn’t wear a bra, and crawled into the large bed.
I couldn’t help but feel some arousal as I watched them all curl up together, but I shook my head to clear it and turned to Paige’s maps.
I trusted the brunette with my life, but I wanted to go over the route myself to get a feel for it. Paige was right, it would be a several-day journey at least, and on the boat there was no guarantee of how fast we would go. The wind could be great, or there could be none. I made a note in Paige’s book to look for some oars wherever we could. There were only two emergency ones on the boat for the liferaft, but if we could get a few more, then we would be able to row when the wind was minimal. That would save us a lot of time.
I also scanned the maps for towns we would have to go through. There were quite a few, and while towns typically meant a good place to scavenge, I wasn’t sure there would be time for that. Towns also meant possible people, though, and that was where my concern came in. We had a set number of bullets, and if there was trouble on the way down there, then that meant less ammo for the oil refinery guys. Plus, at this point even if we could find a town to scavenge, there was no guarantee that there would be anything left. The Canadians had torn through New York and Vermont with a vengeance, and I had no hopes that they had left anything of value.
While the girls slept, I carefully moved about the room and laid out our weapons and ammo. I trusted the girls, but it was always good to have a recount. Once I had finished with the tally, I wrote it down in Paige’s book as well, I wanted to keep track of exactly how many bullets we used, for what, and when.
A knock sounded on the door, and I made sure it hadn’t woken up the girls before I answered it. There was an older man with a box full of ratchet straps and hooks, and an assortment of old tools.
“Brody told me to bring you this,” the man whispered, and he handed me the box.
“Thank you,” I told him. I wanted to invite him in so I could ask him some questions about the fort, but the girls were sleeping and I didn’t want to disturb them, besides, we’d get a chance to talk to the civilians personally once they arrived at the refinery.
“Goodnight,” the man said, and he headed back down the hallway.
I closed the door and set the box on a table in the corner of the room. It was full of useful gadgets, and I was able to find several ratchet straps, some thick webbing, and a hand crank w
inch with a metal cable. That was all I really needed, but I took the ratchet straps and paracord all the same and shoved them in my bag.
I stoked the fire and added a few more pieces of wood. There was a nice, large wingback chair in front of the fireplace, so I took a seat there and put my feet out toward the flames. After a few moments I grabbed the map to look over it while the fire raged in front of me. The heat felt good against my toes, and I settled into the chair and started to memorize the names of the towns we would come across on our journey.
I heard the girls stir and turned around to see Paige make her way out of bed.
“Hey,” I said softly. “Do you need some water or something?”
“That sounds great,” the brunette said, and she grabbed one of the bottles against the wall.
I watched as she stood and drank, she wore only a light pink bra and white cotton panties, and I could see her toned figure in the firelight. Her long chestnut hair fell down her back, and as she pulled the water bottle from her lips a few drops hit her chest and slid down between her breasts.
“What are you doing over here?” she asked in a low voice as she walked over toward me. Her hips swung with each step, and her small, pert breasts bounced ever so slightly.
“Just going over the map once more,” I said.
“Does it all look good to you?” the brunette asked, and she leaned down to look at the map in my lap. Her long hair fell across my shoulder, and her breasts were right in my eyeline as she studied the map that I no longer cared about.
“It looks great,” I answered. “You did a wonderful job as always.”
“Thanks,” Paige said with a blush. The firelight lit up her face in the sexiest way as she looked down and back up at me again. “You’re not tired?”
“Not yet,” I said. “I just want to make sure we’re fully prepared for tomorrow.”
“We’re always prepared,” the brunette chuckled.
“You can go back to bed,” I said softly. I wanted more than anything to rip her bra and panties off and lick every inch of her body, but I wouldn’t keep her up if she was tired. She worked hard and she earned every bit of rest she wanted to take.
“Actually,” Paige said, and she bit her lip. “Can I sit here with you for a minute? It’s so warm by the fire.”
