by Eric Vall
“How was that?” I asked.
“Amazing,” she muttered. “Having you come inside me is really fucking hot. The other girls were talking about it one day, and I just couldn’t get the idea out of my head.”
“Well I’m glad it was as good as you hoped,” I said.
“It always is with you,” she chuckled.
For a couple minutes the two of us just laid there in each other’s arms. I gently traced a path along her torso with my fingers as I stared at the dark ceiling. If ever there was a good way to spend your time before a big fight this was it.
“Tav, you really think we should take out this National Guard outpost?” Anna asked me. “We could live here in peace, and they’d never know about us.”
“I think we have to try, or they will keep harassing the farmers,” I said. “I can’t guarantee we’ll win, but our track record so far has been pretty good.”
“I just hope we’re ready,” the redhead said. “I mean, this is a whole different sorta fight than the one we had with the bikers.”
“You’re right, and because of that I need you to be strong,” I said as I looked at her. “You’re my second, and that means you need to help me keep everyone calm. No matter how scared you might be you have to keep a level head. We are the ones who are going to keep them from panicking if things go tits up. Keeping the team cohesive and calm could mean the difference between life and death. Do you understand?”
“Yeah, I think so,” she sighed, and looked down at my chest. “I’m worried I’m not the right person for the job.”
“Hey, look at me,” I said as I cupped my hand around her chin and gently forced her to meet my gaze. “I choose you for a reason. You’re stronger than you think, all of you are.”
“Sometimes I don’t understand what you see in us, but you haven't been wrong yet,” Anna said with a small smile. “I guess I did pretty well in our last big fight.”
“You did great,” I said. “You’ll do great in this one too. Just keep calm, listen to my orders, and, if we get separated, go with your gut.”
“Alright, I’ll keep that in mind,” she replied.
I pulled her close and kissed her on the forehead. As I pulled away, I smiled because I could still taste her on my tongue.
“We should probably get back to the others and get a good night's rest huh?” Anna asked.
“Yeah, I’m already up later than I planned to be,” I said.
“You don’t seem too upset,” Anna teased as she sat up.
“This is better than sleep,” I laughed.
“That is definitely true,” she said.
The two of us pulled on some sleeping outfits and made our way to the common room.
The rest of the girls were already asleep, and they didn’t even shift as I laid down with them. They did, however, move to encompass me as soon as my head hit the pillow.
I laughed quietly and pulled a blanket up over all of us as I snuggled in.
I woke up early the next morning and wormed my way out of the pile of women. As I got dressed, I thought about everything that was to come. This was going to test everything I had taught the girls up till this point. With a sigh I slipped out of the room and made my way back to the common room. I made a brief stop along the way to make sure Rolly was awake and then continued on.
All the girls were still fast asleep. They hadn’t even moved to take up the spot I had been a few minutes before. They all looked peaceful and content. It was almost a shame that I had to wake them up.
“Rise and shine ladies,” I said loudly.
“Ugh, is yelling really necessary?” Tara asked as she threw a pillow over her head.
“I wasn’t yelling, but I can if it helps,” I teased.
“No, it’s okay, we’re getting up,” Anna groaned.
“Good, I want to see all of you in the library as soon as possible,” I said.
Paige sat up, moved the tangle of brunette hair out of her face, pulled on her glasses, and nodded. “We’ll be there. Just give us a minute to get dressed.”
“I’d suggest choosing something that you feel comfortable crawling around in,” I said. “I have a feeling we’ll be spending a lot of time in the woods.”
“Yes sir,” Bailey said before she let out a large yawn.
Tara let out a small sigh but sat up. She shook her hair out then stretched and reached for a nearby T-shirt. All of her crankiness seemed to melt away as she stood up and started to search through a pile of clothes for the rest of her outfit.
“I’ll go make some coffee,” I said.
“That’d be awesome,” Paige said.
“Yeah, I’m fine with getting up early, but a boost never hurts,” Bailey added.
“Alright, see you soon,” I said with a nod. Then I headed downstairs and jogged across the courtyard and into the library.
The faint hint of daylight lit the library enough for me to see where I was going, and I made my way back to our meeting table. After I got the coffee going, I turned to the white board, cleared half of it off, and started to write down what I knew about the outpost.
Rolly and the girls all entered the room shortly after the first beams of sunlight streamed in through the dusty windows.
“Is that coffee I smell?” Rolly asked as he took a seat.
“Yep, there’s a fresh pot on the table,” I said.
The group sat down and started to fill their cups as I finished at the white board. Once I was done, I turned and leaned over the table. All five of my friends sat there and sipped at their coffee with smiles on their faces. It was a shame that I had to ruin what looked to be a perfectly good morning. I sighed and took a seat.
“So is it time to finally talk about the outpost?” Tara asked.
“Yeah, I think it is,” I said.
“Alright, so what do we know?” Paige asked as she raised an eyebrow.
I stepped aside and pointed to the white board. Written on the board was a list of information. X2 fifty cal, forty-ish soldiers, razor wire, chain link perimeter, watch towers, concrete barricades, patrols, fortified buildings, and slave labor force.
“This is the information we have so far. As you can see, we don’t know a ton, but what we do know tells us that this isn’t going to be easy.”
“Yeah, forty-ish National Guard troops seems like a lot,” Bailey said.
“Especially since they have a fortified position,” Anna added. “We know what sort of crazy shit you can pull off when you have a little time to put defenses in place.”
“These guys have some serious stuff too,” Paige said. “Look at that list. I mean I don’t know what exactly razor wire is, but I know I don’t want to mess with it.”
“Aren’t .50 cals, like, really big machine guns?” Tara asked.
“Now do you see why I wanted to spent yesterday enjoying some down time?” I asked.
“Yeah, you wanted us to have one last day before we marched off to die,” Paige said.
“We’re not going to die,” Bailey cut in. “Though I am curious why this has to be our problem. Can’t we just keep ourselves and the farms protected and ignore them or something?”
“We’ve already kicked the hornet’s nest by taking out their supply trucks,” Rolly said. “They’re not going to be happy that some locals cost them food, soldiers, and women.”
“Yeah, but can’t we just place defenses?” Bailey asked. “We already know that our defensive plans work, and then the National Guard would have to come to us if they wanted to cause trouble.”
“There’s no good way for us to keep the farms safe,” I said. “We could try setting up defenses around those places like we have here, but, including the farmers, there’s only twelve of us. That’s a really small number of people to split between four locations. Plus, we can’t just let them keep using the civilians like slaves. This Colonel guy has at least a dozen women on site just to keep his men happy.”
“You don’t mean…”
“That's
exactly what I mean,” I interrupted with a nod. “Why do you think they took Jenny in the first place?”
“I guess I tried not to think about that,” Bailey said quietly.
“He’s right,” Anna said. “We can’t just let these sick fucks get away with enslaving people and raping women.”
“Yeah, I won’t just stand by and let that happen,” Tara said.
“Agreed,” Rolly said. “People like these need to be taught some manners, and it seems that we’re the only people around willing to do that.”
“Alright, yeah, I get why we have to go to them,” Paige admitted. “How are we going to pull this off though? I know we have a lot of guns, but they have more. Well, maybe not, but they at least have more people to hold them. Plus they have an entrenched position.”
“Well, that’s why I got you guys up early today,” I explained. “We’re going to gear up, head to this outpost, and spend the last day we have doing some recon. I think there is a chance we can find a weakness or two that we might be able to exploit with our small team.”
“I’m all for taking out horrible people, but do you really think we can do this?” Bailey asked.
“We might not have much of a plan yet, but I have faith in us,” I said. “Since we met we have faced dozens of challenges and trials, but every single time we have come together, adapted to the situation and overcome the problem. This might be larger than anything we have faced so far, but I honestly believe that if we stick together, believe in each other, and remember what we have practiced for these past weeks we can make it through this too.”
“Well, we certainly have to try,” Tara said.
“Alright, we’re all in,” Anna said.
“Yeah, I think at this point we’d pretty much follow you into hell itself,” Paige said.
“I would appreciate it if we all got a turn at the cabin before that happened,” Bailey joked.
“Yeah, we’ll wait a while before we make our trip to hell,” I chuckled. “Now that you know a bit of what we are up against I need you all to get ready. We’ll be gone for a few days so you need to make sure you have food, water, ammo, and clothes for several days. I think we’ll pack that National Guard truck with anything we don’t need to carry on us, but we can’t take it too close to the outpost.
“Got it,” Anna said. “Me and the girls will go grab our kits and then load stuff into the truck. Aside from food, water, and sleeping gear is there anything you want us to bring?”
“Pack the bikes,” I said. “I don’t know if we’ll use them, but they could come in handy. Oh, and uh, don’t forget to grab some of those grenades. I’m pretty sure we’re going to need those.”
“Oooo, that sounds kinda fun,” Paige said.
“Weirdly enough, I agree,” Anna said as she got up.
“Well we better go get them then,” Tara said.
“Yeah, there’s no time to waste,” Rolly said.
Everyone rushed out of the room leaving me alone once again. I stood up, turned back to the whiteboard, and sighed. Getting everyone on board was the easy part. Now I just had to kill the bad guys, save a bunch of civilians, and make sure none of my team died doing it. I shook my head and made my way back up to my room.
The dorm room was abuzz with activity as I made my way through the common area. Each of the girls rushed back and forth as they worked to pack their bags. All of them already had their guns out and on their person.
“How’s it going?” I asked as I passed by.
“Good, I think we’re about done up here,” Anna said.
“Yeah, I restocked my medical kit, and have extra bandages just in case,” Paige said.
“Not a bad idea,” I said. “Keep at it, I’m going to put together my kit.”
“We’ll make sure everything is ready to go for you,” Anna said.
I gave the redhead a nod and continued down the hall to my room. Once inside I started to put together my kit. For once I left my old vest behind knowing that I could use one of the kevlars we pulled from the Guardsmen. I readied my rifle with three spare thirty round magazines, my Springfield XD 9mm pistol with two extra magazines, and lastly my knife. I tucked it, sheathed, into my belt for now. After I got my weapons sorted I packed my bag. I only put a day’s worth of food and water in it so that I had more room for ammo and extra gear like binoculars, compass, matches, first aid kit, the area map, and notebook. I left a lot of basic camping supplies out since I knew we could throw them into the truck.
The day was bright, and the sun had only just started its ascent into the sky. Under different circumstances it would be a perfectly pleasant day to spend improving our little home. Unfortunately improvements would have to wait.
I heard heavy footsteps and turned to see Rolly making his way towards me. He had on a pair of comfortable jeans, heavy boots, and a button up work shirt under a kevlar vest. He had his pistol strapped to his hip, an M4A1 in his hands, and a couple grandes on his belt. A large full backpack hung off his back, and he had on one of his old leather newsboy caps on top of his head of grey hair.
“You look ready to go,” I said with a grin.
“Well you said to make it quick,” the handyman said with a shrug.
“You sure you feel up for this?” I asked. “As much as I would love to have you with us I’d understand if you’d feel better staying with Betty or guarding the campus.”
“No, not this time,” Rolly said. “It’s been a long time since I had this much of a reason to fight. These bastards came into our neighborhood and started to mess with our friends. That’s not just something I can abide.”
“Man, that night with Betty must have been really good,” I teased.
Rolly grinned and shook his head. “It’s not that, but she does give me something more to fight for.”
“Good,” I said as I put a hand on his shoulder. “Never forget what we’re fighting for.”
“I don’t think I could if I wanted to,” he replied. “Don’t worry; I’ll make sure I won’t slow you down.”
“Oh, I was never worried about that,” I said.
“I just want to let you know that I’ll do everything in my power to ensure that I'm nothing but helpful.”
“I appreciate it,” I said. “Now come on, let’s make sure the truck is packed and ready to go.”
The two of us started to move extra ammo, food, water, grenades, and equipment from the cafeteria to the cargo truck. The girls showed up shortly after, and we spent the next hour going over everything to make sure that we didn’t miss a single thing.
We made use of almost all of the truck’s available space while making sure that we still had enough room for the six of us. Three could ride in the cab, and the other three would ride in the back with the cargo.
The whole thing was set up like a mini moving campsite. It would act as our home away from home by giving us a dry place to lay our heads every night.
When everything was said and done, we had enough supplies to support us for one week away without the need to scavenge or hunt. I hoped that we wouldn’t be out there nearly that long, but I wanted to be prepared in case this took far longer than I expected it to.
“Well, do you think we’re ready to go?” Anna asked as she peered into the back of the truck.
“The truck looks good,” I said. “You ladies sure you have everything you’ll need?”
“Oh, come on, just look at us, we’re very ready,” Tara said.
I took a second to inspect my team. Anna carried the M249 SAW. After firing it the other day on the range she had decided that it was one of her new favorite things. Not only did the gun suit her but she was probably the only one of the girls that could lug it around for any length of time. She carried the three full two hundred round belt boxes as well as four hundred spare rounds in her pack. On top of that she had her Colt 1911 pistol, two spare magazines, and a box of fifty .45 rounds just in case. She also carried three grenades strapped to a kevlar vest of her own. She looked
formidable in every sense of the word. The knife tucked into her boot, and the spear sticking out of her backpack helped to complete the warrior woman image.
Bailey stood behind her with her AR-15 prepared for long range combat. She had a collapsible bipod on the end, an 8x scope on top, and a twenty-two inch chrome lined barrel. She had a full magazine in the gun, and three extras attached to her kevlar vest. She had a 9mm glock in her old school leather shoulder holster with two extra magazines. Her pack was smaller than the one Anna wore, and she only carried one grenade on her vest.
Tara was kitted out lighter than the others. She opted for one of the new M4A1 carbines, the Hi-Point .45 pistol, and two knives. She didn’t carry any grenades, and she only had two spare carbine magazines, and one spare pistol magazine in her kevlar vest. The backpack she wore was smaller than the others too. It was a combat black backpack that probably only held enough supplies for her and her alone. The platinum blonde looked ready to move swiftly and quietly if the need arose. It was really just a shame that I didn’t have a silenced weapon for her to carry.
Paige still had more guns on her than the rest of us. She had the black pump action Mossberg 500 on her shoulder, and the little 9mm carbine stowed on her backpack. She had a bandoleer of spare shells over her kevlar, and two spare magazines for the carbine. She too carried a 9mm glock, but unlike Bailey she carried hers on her thigh. A couple grenades hung off a belt pouch first aid kit, and her olive green backpack was emblazoned with a red cross.
The whole team looked ready for war. The only thing missing was matching uniforms and camouflage. Still, they stood with an air of authority and each one of them looked like they were ready to use the weapons they carried.
Having seen them fight before I knew that this was not all just for show either. They did more than simply look the part of strong warrior women.
I smiled as I admired my team. I enjoyed seeing how they had each fallen into a different individual role. The gear they carried seemed to be an extension of their personality.
