by Eric Vall
“Please, don’t kill me,” he pleaded.
“Give us a good reason,” Anna countered.
“I’m not a bad guy,” greasy hair cried.
“Were you killing civilians and stealing their supplies?” I asked seriously.
“We were just following orders!” he exclaimed through a large sob.
“Sounds like an asshole to me,” Tara said with a shrug.
“Me, too,” I agreed.
I pulled my knife out and grabbed the man by his greasy blonde hair. He pleaded with me, but I knew his type, he was a bully, but the minute he was overpowered he became a coward. I slid my karambit into the soft pocket of skin behind his ear, and he quickly went quiet.
“Do you think the others will come out?” Bailey asked.
“I’m not sure,” I said. “But I don’t want to wait and see.”
“Wait,” Anna said with a grin. “Does that mean?”
“Plan B,” I said with a nod. “Bailey, how many men are left inside?”
“Five,” the blonde hippie answered.
“One for each of us,” Tara said.
“Yes,” I agreed. “So everyone goes after one target.”
“Nice,” the platinum blonde said.
“You all remember your knife training from last night?” I asked seriously.
“We took out the guards with knives this morning,” Anna said.
“Alright,” I said. “Be careful.”
“Let’s do this,” the redhead said.
I pulled my karambit and my tanto blades out and reached for the front door the men had come out of earlier. It was locked.
“Seems they probably won’t come out,” I said.
“They probably closed the doors in the back, too, then,” Paige said, and she bit her lip.
“What about roof access?” Bailey asked.
“There is a ladder on the left side of the building,” Paige said. “But there’s no guarantee that the roof would be open either.”
“Worth a shot,” I said, and I led us around to the ladder and made my way up.
Once we were on the rooftop, I found the door, gave my girls a serious look, and gave it a pull. The large, metal door came open easily, and I flashed the girls a quick smile before I led us down the small stairwell. We came to a door that had a little window on it, so we could see out. We were on the second floor of the building, which was mostly just metal stairs and such so that employees could reach the top of the machinery if they needed to make an adjustment or a repair.
After a quick recon, I spotted our targets. They were standing on the lowest level with their pistols drawn and were arguing with each other.
“I think if we’re quiet enough we can sneak up on them,” I whispered.
“They have their pistols drawn,” Paige pointed out.
“They do,” I agreed. “But we’ll get to them first.”
“Alright,” the brunette said with a nod. “Let’s do this.”
I slowly opened the door and led my team down the metal stairs behind a large piece of machinery.
The five people had scattered to the windows to look out.
“I don’t see anyone!” a dark haired man yelled.
“Me, either,” another guy called.
“Where the fuck are they?” a tall, blond guy asked, his voice laced with anger.
“I got blondie,” I whispered.
“Dark-haired guy,” Anna claimed.
“I got the one with green sneakers,” Tara said.
“I guess I’ll take the short guy in the white shirt,” Paige said.
“That leaves the other blonde guy for me,” Bailey whispered with a smile.
“Let’s go,” I said.
I slowly made my way behind the machinery to where the tall blond guy stood and was looking out the window. He bounced from side to side as he called out to the enemy he didn’t realize was right behind him.
The guy still had his pistol in his hand, and it was pointed at the air. That could be a problem. I didn’t want it going off, so I would need to get that from him and make sure he didn’t squeeze the trigger out of reflex when he died.
I snuck up behind the guy in a low crouch. He still cursed and called out to the cowards outside, so I crouched lower and prepared to strike.
I jabbed the man in his left side and sent the karambit deep into his lung, and at the same time I pressed his body against the wall and grabbed the pistol from his right hand.
He had tried to scream, but it was hard to breath with a collapsed lung, and all that came out was a gurgle that I suppressed as I shoved his face further against the glass window.
Once the pistol was in my possession, I yanked the karambit free from his lung, and then thrust it straight into his temple.
The man fell with a spasm to the floor, and I pulled my knife out with a hard tug and wiped it off on his shirt.
I turned to get an eye on the other girls, and I saw that Tara already had her target taken out. Green sneakers laid at her feet, his neck split open as blood pooled on the floor, and a grinning Tara stood above him.
That girl liked using knives way too much.
Bailey was the next that I saw, and I watched as she pulled her knife from her victim’s hand and thrust it under their chin with a sharp upward motion. She must have stabbed the man through the hand to get the gun released, a smart move.
Anna had already taken down her kill as well, since the dark-haired guy was leaned up against the wall with blood smeared behind him. It looked like he had given the redhead more trouble than the others. Anna had blood all over her hands, her face, and her neck, and it looked like her guy had gotten more than a few stabs. He looked like the murder victim of a cheated-on wife with all the spots he bled from on his chest and neck, and as I watched he slowly slid down the wall and left a trail of blood behind him.
Paige’s guy in the white shirt laid at her feet and bled from his throat.
I was just about to congratulate the girls when the man at Paige’s feet reached out and grabbed the brunette by the ankle.
Paige let out a scream and tried to kick at the man, but he gripped her ankle tight and tried to crawl up her, or pull her down, I wasn’t sure which.
I ran over to help, and I saw the girls take off out of the corner of my eye. By the time we reached them, Paige was on the ground, and the guy coughed up blood as he tried to reach her neck.
I quickly grabbed him by his short hair and stabbed him behind the ear with my tanto.
“Fuck,” Anna breathed. “Are you alright?”
We pulled the asshole off of Paige. The poor brunette was now covered in blood, and she definitely looked shaken up.
“Paige,” I said seriously as I forced her to look me in the eye. “Are you alright?”
“Y-yeah,” she stuttered. “I’m okay. I just wasn’t expecting that.”
“I don’t think any of us were,” Anna said. “That was some zombie movie shit.”
“I thought I had gotten him,” the brunette said.
I lifted the guy up and saw that Paige hadn’t cut far enough across to get the main artery in the neck. While the man would have bled out, it would have taken much longer, long enough for him to try to attack her at least. And the miss had definitely pissed him off.
“You missed the main artery,” I said in a low voice.
“Fuck,” Paige breathed.
“It’s alright,” I said. “You did good. We got this.”
“Yeah,” Tara added. “It’s over now. All these assholes are dead.”
“I know,” Paige said. “I’m just mad at myself.”
“Don’t be too hard on yourself,” Anna said. “We all make mistakes sometimes.”
“As long as you aren’t hurt, then everything’s okay,” I said.
“Well, I think I hit my elbow on the concrete,” Paige said, and she held up a bloody mess of an arm.
“Are you sure that’s your blood?” Tara asked.
“Honestly,
no,” the brunette answered with a shake of her head. “But it really hurts.”
“Alright,” I said. “Let’s get you cleaned up.”
“We’ll take care of the bodies,” Anna offered.
“Thank you,” I said as I led Paige out of the building.
I grabbed a couple chairs from in front of the building and sat the brunette down, then I took her backpack off and pulled out a bottle of water.
“It might sting,” I said.
“Do it,” Paige said with a wince.
I poured the water over her elbow to clear off the blood, but after it was clear and I stopped, more blood just came from the wound, so I pulled some gauze out of the med kit and held it against her elbow.
“Looks like you got a nasty cut there,” I said with a frown.
“It hurts like hell,” the brunette said.
“I’m sure it does,” I chuckled. “Probably hurts more from bone hitting concrete than anything. I’m sure that wasn’t pleasant.”
“I feel like an idiot,” she said in a low voice and looked down.
“Hey,” I said softly. “You’re not an idiot. Shit happens. It’ll be okay.”
“I know I’ll be alright,” Paige sighed. “But I just feel dumb that I missed the main artery.”
“You are very skilled in a lot of ways,” I said. “But you’re not the strongest with a knife. I shouldn’t have sent you in there. It’s my fault, I’m sorry.”
“You’re not making this better,” the brunette laughed.
“I am sorry,” I said sincerely.
“You don’t have to be sorry,” she said. “You taught me, and I failed to follow through with my training. I know I’m not the greatest with my knife. I should have taken that into consideration.”
“What about if we do some extra practice?” I asked. “Just you and me?”
“Bailey, too,” Paige said seriously.
“Alright,” I agreed.
“She’s not the greatest with her knife, either,” the brunette said. “She did great today, but if I get to improve, then I want her to improve, too.”
“That’s exactly why I love you so much,” I said with a smile, and I kissed the brunette on her forehead.
I got Paige cleaned up, it only took a couple butterfly stitches and she was as good as new, though I knew that elbow would hurt for a while.
This was exactly the type of thing I tried to avoid, and I had to admit that when I saw that man attack Paige, I nearly lost it. The situation could have gone much worse. I was glad it didn’t, but I was also upset that it happened to begin with. I knew that Paige was right, it wasn’t my fault, but I still hated that she had been put in danger.
I had meant what I said about how we would do extra practice with her knife skills. I wanted her to be able to protect herself in any situation, and I was determined to teach her how. She already knew the basics, but I thought it was time for all the girls to get more combat training. They were incredibly skilled with their firearms, and Tara and Anna were pretty damn good with a knife, but they needed more hand to hand training, and they would get it.
I found Tara, Anna, and Bailey near the trees where we had hid earlier that day, a pile of bodies in front of them.
“Is that all of them?” I asked with a low whistle.
“Yes,” Tara said with a glare. “How’s Paige?”
“She’ll be fine,” I assured the platinum blonde.
“What do you want us to do with the bodies?” Anna asked.
“We have a vehicle now,” I said. “There’s a couple of jeeps in the yard. We’ll take them somewhere and drop them off. I don’t want to start a fire and draw any attention to us.”
“Right,” the redhead agreed. “What’s up with all the jeeps, though?”
“I know,” Tara said. “Brody’s people have jeeps, and these guys have jeeps. Where are they getting all these jeeps?”
“Do you think Brody took his from these guys?” Bailey asked.
“Or the other way around,” Paige said with a shrug.
“I'm not sure,” I said. “But we need to go pick up our stuff, and get the civilians as well.”
“Oh, shoot,” Bailey said quickly.
“What is it?” I asked.
“We forgot the captain,” the blonde said with a point at the out building.
“I’ll grab him,” I said with a smile. “Anna, why don’t you pull one of the jeeps over here?”
“On it,” the redhead said.
I headed into the small building from the front door and made my way back to the captain’s room. I passed by several other rooms with open doors, and it seemed that most of the men were just as sloppy as the captain had been.
Once I reached the guy’s room, I kicked the pipe across the room and grabbed him under the armpits and dragged him out to the pile.
Anna had one of the jeeps pulled around, and she and the other girls loaded up the bodies.
“We won’t have room for everyone to go,” I said. “So who wants to volunteer?”
“I’ll go,” Anna piped up.
“Alright,” I agreed with a smile.
“Sucker,” Tara snickered.
“I’m just happy to ride in a car again,” the redhead laughed.
“We’re just going to drop off the bodies, get the civilians, and pick up our things from the other house,” I said.
When we pulled up the civilians offered to help us unload, but I told them it was fine, they should head down to the refinery. There was no telling if the machines had been left on or not, and I didn’t want to leave them unattended. I didn’t know much about refineries, but the idea of explosives being left unsupervised made me nervous.
We finished with the bodies, then Anna and I hopped into the jeep and I pulled off down the road. My redheaded companion had taken off her helmet and vest, and a few strands of her red hair blew around her face in the wind.
We had a backseat full of bodies, but it was a beautiful day.
Chapter 14
After Anna and I returned from dropping off the bodies and retrieving our supplies from the house we had camped at the night before, we found the other girls wandering through the barracks.
The day was still bright, and we had a few hours before sundown. I guessed the girls wanted to see if there was anything usable in the building while we still had daylight.
“What have you found?” I asked as I came into the room with Anna behind me.
“Nothing,” Tara sneered, and she threw a blanket back onto the bed. “These guys were pigs.”
“It’s true,” Bailey agreed. “There’s nothing here but dirty underwear and empty cigarette packs.”
“Don’t forget the porno mags,” Paige said dryly.
“Ew,” Tara said, and she wrinkled her nose. “I’m telling you, we should just get to work making some fuel.”
The platinum blonde gave a pointed look at Paige.
“I’ve told you a million times!” the brunette exclaimed. “I don’t know how to use this equipment.”
“You know how to do everything,” the platinum blonde said, and she put a hand on her hip.
“They’ve been like this since you left,” Bailey told me.
“Even if Paige knew how to use the equipment,” I said, “I think she’s done enough for today.”
I gestured to the brunette’s makeshift sling and raised an eyebrow.
“Hey, I got shot in the chest once,” Tara quipped back. “And I still had to do stuff.”
“In the vest,” Anna corrected. “You got shot in the vest.”
“It still hurt,” the platinum blonde said with a shrug.
“And we brought you back to the house and gave you wine,” Paige reminded her.
“Well... it’s not my fault I don’t have wine,” Tara said, and we all laughed.
“We still have a few hours of daylight,” I said. “If we can find a trailer, then we could pick up our boat.”
“Oh,” Anna said. “That’s a
good idea.”
“I’m sure we could find one in Fort George,” Paige said.
“It’s a short drive,” I said. “Anyone up for a little road trip?”
“Let’s go,” Tara said with a grin.
“Alright,” I agreed. “But first help Anna and I offload our stuff into the building.”
We got our things offloaded, then everyone hopped into the jeep. Anna had told Paige to sit up front since she didn’t want her elbow to get bumped, and she sat in the back with Tara and Bailey.
I pulled off onto the road and headed back up the way we had come just a couple days before. Where it had been a day's journey on foot or bike, it was less than an hour’s drive to Fort George, and on the way we drove through Fort Edward, a place we had tried to avoid on the way there. The city was large, and we had taken a back road around to avoid running into anyone else, but this time I drove straight through. I knew all the girls had their weapons at the ready, so I wasn’t worried about running into anyone, and I wanted to see if it would be a good place to scavenge.
The town was definitely ransacked, but it looked like it had potential, and I thought we could make a trip up there to check it out while we waited for Brody’s crew.
“Everyone look out for a hardware store or boat store,” I said once we were in Fort George. “Anywhere that might have trailers.”
“I bet there’s some at that hardware store we went to,” Anna said. “Probably in the back.”
“Good call,” I said. “We’ll check there first.”
I headed toward the hardware store Anna and I had gone in to get the carts a couple days prior and pulled around back. There were a couple trailers out there, but there were none large enough to haul our boat.
“Shoot,” Bailey said as we inspected the trailers.
“We definitely need a larger one,” Paige sighed.
“What about a boat shop?” Tara suggested.
“There has to be one around here,” Anna said.
“We’ll keep looking,” I said, and we all hopped back into the jeep.
We drove around town for a few minutes as I scanned the streets for boat shops, or even trucks with trailers attached. Part of me wondered if those who had boats had taken them and set sail somewhere. If I knew my country was under attack, that might have been what I did as well, especially if I had the means to. That would mean not having to fight for supplies, or go to a camp, you could try to sail somewhere and take refuge. Or if you had enough cash, you could sail somewhere and find a place to live out the rest of your days. I bet Mexico had been a good option for plenty of people with boats, though I didn’t know how they were faring down there, either.
