Without Law 3

by Eric Vall

  I pulled on my vest and made sure everything was in place. My knife sat in its sheath on the front, the chest pocket held the ever useful Zippo lighter I had taken from the first biker I had killed, and my compass was tucked into the pocket below it with a map of the local area.

  The 9mm Springfield XD was tucked into a thigh holster along with both spare magazines, and I slung my new favorite rifle, the HK MR556A1 over my shoulder. Then I tucked a couple spare magazines into the last pouch on my vest.

  I filled my backpack with enough food to last me the day, a full bottle of water, and the other two magazines for my rifle. I knew Paige would have a medical kit if anyone got hurt, and any extra space could be used to store more loot. So I slung the pack onto my shoulders, adjusted my rifle sling, and headed downstairs to prep the vehicles now that I was ready for the trip.

  I hooked up the trailer to the Jeep and found a smaller one to fit on one of our ATVs. It had been sitting out behind Rolly’s shed. Apparently he used it to haul stuff around the campus back when he had a working tractor. We would have to look for another in Lanceton, but between the two trailers and the truck there would be no shortage of storage capacity on this journey. Once that was done I moved over to the truck. The rusted blue beast had seen better days. The top half of the cab had been torn off, and the body was full of bullet holes.

  I spent a while cleaning broken glass and shreds of metal from the seat before I finished removing what was left of the window from the frame. It was certainly not pretty, but at least it ran.

  “Are the others back yet?” one of the girls yelled.

  I looked up and saw Anna standing there with her spear in one hand and her backpack in the other. She had changed out of her running outfit and now had on a pair of olive green cargo pants and a plain black T-shirt. The SKS, now cleaned and polished, hung around her back on a makeshift sling, and her Colt 1911 hung in a holster at her side. Each of the girls had found a holster to fit their gun in among the gear I scavenged from the bikers just a couple days prior.

  “Not yet,” I said as I grinned at her. “Looks like you’re ready to go though.”

  “Is it too much?” She asked as she looked at herself. “I didn’t know how prepared I should be.”

  “No, it’s perfect,” I said with a nod. “You never know what sort of trouble waits for us out there, and we have the gear so there’s no reason not to use it.”

  “That was kind of my thinking,” the athletic redhead said.

  “Are we ready to go?” Bailey asked as she came walking up. She was armed in a very similar fashion to her redheaded counterpart. Her spear was strapped to her backpack, and her choice of a rifle, a Smith and Wesson M&P Sport AR-15 with custom forest camo pattern, hung from her shoulder. Her 9mm Glock was tucked into a shoulder holster with a spare magazine, and she wore the same outfit as earlier except she also wore a red bandana to keep her light blond hair out of her eyes.

  “Just about,” I said. “We are just waiting for our hunters. I doubt they will be gone much longer.”

  As if on cue the other two girls came walking into view. Tara carried a skinned rabbit and was covered in blood up to her elbows. Paige had a gutted fish in each hand and a big smile on her face.

  “Welcome back,” I called out to them.

  “Hey,” Tara said with a wave. “Seems that, like, today was really good for food.”

  “It certainly looks that way,” Anna said.

  “We are set for a couple weeks,” Bailey said. “Now we just need to get some more vegetables to go with all this meat.”

  “Well, we are gonna drop this stuff off with Rolly and get ready,” Paige said. “It almost looks like you guys are ready enough for all of us though.”

  “Hey, no reason not to use what we have,” Anna said with a wide smile.

  “Come on, I want to get going already,” I said. “You guys made good time, let’s not waste that by standing here chatting.”

  “Yes sir,” Tara said before she gave a sloppy salute and then stuck her tongue out at me playfully.

  “Go on,” I chuckled. “I hate to be kept waiting.”

  “Oh, I know,” The platinum blonde called out as she and Paige made their way to where Rolly sat boiling water by the fire pit.

  Anna, Bailey, and I waited by the truck while Paige and Tara went inside to clean up.

  “What if the bikers don’t come looking for trouble?” Bailey asked out of the blue. “You did kick their asses pretty hard so maybe that will keep them in their own little area.”

  “It will, but not for as long as it should,” I said. “What I did will be taken as an insult that must be punished.”

  “Are they really that stupid?” Bailey asked.

  “Guys can be real idiots like that,” Anna said. “No offense, Tav.”

  “None taken,” I said. “It actually works in my favor. It makes meatheads like those bikers easy to predict.”

  “I guess that’s good,” Bailey said. “Still, why would you go pick a fight with someone who has already proven they can beat you?”

  “People can do dumb things in defense of their pride,” I said with a shrug. “Plus, if they don’t act their leader risks being seen as weak. Usually the position of top dog is based on the guys under him assuming he is the biggest, meanest, and most badass guy out there. The fact that I rocked them so hard will call his abilities into question.”

  “At least we know what’s coming,” Anna said.

  “Wow, we leave you alone for a few minutes and look what happens,” Paige called out as she walked up. “Shouldn’t you be doing something productive?” The brunette carried her spear in both hands and had a black Mossberg 500 pump action 12 gauge tied to her pack. She had a bandoleer of shotgun shells strapped around her waist, and she had a small glock holstered at her hip.

  Tara walked behind her armed with a carbine length black AR-15, and Hi-Point .45 that was taken from the drug cabin, and her spear was slung over a shoulder on a handmade sling. She had tied her hair neatly back with a black ribbon, and she had three spare magazines shoved into her tight pockets.

  “You guys were taking so long that we figured we could be lazy too,” I teased.

  “We would have been ready sooner if Tara had not wanted to fix her hair,” Paige said as she looked back at the platinum blonde.

  “What, it was a mess,” she said with a shrug.

  “It’s alright,” I laughed and shook my head. “You guys still made good time, but let's get going before it gets any later.”

  “I’ll drive the truck,” Bailey volunteered as she jumped into what remained of the cab.

  Anna hopped on the ATV with the trailer while Paige jumped on the other one. Their engines roared to life as I hopped into the driver's seat of the jeep.

  “I guess that means I’m with you,” Tara grinned as she climbed in next to me.

  “You could always ride with Bailey,” I teased.

  Tara looked over at the battered truck and wrinkled her nose as she inspected the torn and mangled vehicle. “Yeah, no thanks. I think I would rather get there without taking a bug to the face.”

  I laughed and turned on the Jeep. Then I looked over my small group of armed women around me and grinned. We were finally starting to look like a group of people not to be messed with. The fact that they knew how to use the weapons they carried made their warrior woman appearance all the more fearsome and sexy. I gave them a thumbs up, revved the engine, and took off down the hill and out of town.

  Chapter 2

  We rolled down the road like a small convoy, each of us loaded for trouble. This time when I saw Lanceton looming ahead I didn’t stop to survey the land. Instead, I kept on driving right into the middle of town with my girls right behind me.

  I pulled up in the center square to find things exactly as I had left them. The two dead bikers I had come across last time, at least what the animals hadn’t eaten, had started to rot. Everything about the town seemed to be the same as when I had
last left it. That helped to confirm my theory that it would be a while before the bikers came this way.

  “It looks pretty quiet,” I said as I turned off the old olive green jeep and stepped out. “Let’s not take any chances though. I want you girls in pairs and no one grabs anything until we do a check of the area.”

  “How exactly do you want us to go about that?” Anna asked as she stepped off the ATV and pulled up her rifle.

  “We’ll stick together and go building to building,” I said. “Once we are sure the main square is clear, we will break off to start looking for supplies.”

  “What about the houses in the neighborhood?” Paige asked. “Are we going to just avoid those this trip?”

  “No, we need to get everything we can, but we don’t have the time to clear out the whole town,” I said. “Whoever gets assigned to the houses needs to do a sweep of the building before they start looting, and if anyone hears or sees anything weird, they drop what they are doing and come find me.”

  “Let me guess, you’re going off on your own again,” Anna said with a raised eyebrow.

  “Yeah, we can cover more ground if we split into three groups,” I confirmed.

  “You know, one of these days we might get you to let us watch your back,” Paige said with a smirk as she pumped her shotgun to put a shell in the chamber.

  “It’s nothing personal,” I said with a shrug. “Just trying to be efficient.”

  “It’s alright, I think the whole lone hero thing is sexy,” Tara said with a grin.

  “I hope you aren’t disappointed when I expect the rest of you to help me when the real fighting starts,” I replied.

  “Nah,” the platinum blonde said as she shook her head. “Shooting guns seems to turn me on just as much as watching you work.” She looked at me, winked, and pulled out her pistol.

  “I’ll keep that in mind,” I chuckled as I pulled up and readied my own rifle.

  “Well it sounds like you need to teach us how to clear a building then,” Bailey said with a grin.

  “Yeah, lead the way,” Anna said.

  We started with the hardware store as it was small and familiar to all of us.

  “I’m going to clear this solo first,” I said. “I won’t send you guys into a hostile building before you have had any training, so sit tight.”

  “You sure that’s a good idea?” Anna asked.

  “It’s not a big building, I’ll be okay,” I assured her.

  I made sure I had a round in the chamber and approached the front of the store. I went in, checked my corners, and made my way up and down the aisles ensuring that each one of them was clear before I headed back to the entrance. As I lowered my gun, I stepped outside to where the girls waited.

  “It’s clear,” I said. “Now huddle up, and I’ll give you a quick briefing.”

  I cleared my throat as the girls all gathered around.

  “Alright, here’s what you’re gonna do. You’re going to form a stack along the wall outside the main doors. That means getting into a close single file line. Once the person in front is ready, they will give a nod to let the rest of the team know it’s go time. That’s when you will enter the building.”

  “What do I do once I’m inside?” Anna asked.

  “You stick to your zone depending on where you are in line, and then you want to keep your gun up and do a quick but thorough visual sweep of your zone,” I explained. “Once you are sure no one is there yell clear to the rest of us. You got it?”

  “Got it,” she confirmed. “Though how do I know where I should be looking?”

  “First guy in line will swing right and cover nothing but the right corner. Second one through the door swings left. Alternate left and right with the remaining team members but always remember to set up a zone of fire that doesn’t overlap with the teammate who came before you.”

  “Do we yell clear too?” Paige asked.

  “Yes, once you have done a visual sweep of your zone, you will yell to let the rest of your team know the area is clear,” I said. “Once we get the all clear will we keep our angle and walk the length of the store.”

  “I don’t think I get it still,” Bailey said.

  “Anyone have any paper?” I asked as I nodded at the blonde.

  Paige quickly shrugged off her pack and pulled out a notebook and a small assortment of pens and pencils.

  I took the book and plucked a black pen from her grip before I turned to a random page and drew a rough diagram. I made a square box to represent the room and used the first letter of our name as a rough representation of us. Then I drew arrows to show how I wanted them to go through the door, and where they should be standing after. The last thing I added were cones coming out of where they should be standing that represented where they should be looking.

  “Alright, look at this,” I said as I passed the paper around. “Note each of your positions and the cones of fire. One of the most important things is to make sure you are never sweeping your buddies with your gun or including them in the zone.”

  “This makes a lot more sense,” Bailey said as she looked at the paper.

  “Another thing to note is that even if you see someone while entering you are to ignore them unless they are specifically in your zone,” I said. “We have to trust each other to cover our sections and clear them accordingly.”

  “And then once we hear the all clear on our initial breach we start making our way through the store?” Anna asked.

  “Yeah, but you need to maintain your angle,” I said. “That cone I drew on the paper should stay pointed in the same direction the entire time.”

  “Right, because we don’t want to shift and catch any of our friends,” Paige said.

  “So it’s that easy huh?” Tara asked. “That honestly doesn’t sound as hard as I thought it would be.

  “The basic premise is simple,” I said with a nod. “It only gets complicated if we find something inside.”

  “Oh shit, what happens then?” Anna asked.

  “Then we get to find out how well you really do under pressure,” I said with a shrug. “To be safe though I think you guys should clear this first building dry.”

  “What do you mean?” Paige asked.

  “Everyone unload your weapons,” I said.

  “You sure this is safe, Tav?” Anna asked as she removed her magazine, and cleared the chamber.

  “I cleared the building already and I would rather you all practice without bullets,” I said. “It’s way too easy to accidentally plug your friend in the back without any proper training.”

  “Well I’m unloaded,” Paige said. “We ready to give this a try?”

  “Yeah, stack up,” I said with a nod.

  I had Anna take point, and the other girls stacked up behind her.

  “Aren’t you going to join us?” Bailey asked.

  “I’m gonna wait inside and watch your entry,” I explained. “I gotta make sure you are doing it right.”

  “Suddenly I feel like I’m in school again,” Tara teased with a smirk.

  “Remember, move together and keep your gun in your zone only,” I said as I looked at them all. Then I nodded and entered the front of the building.

  I waited a few seconds and then called for them all to start.

  Anna came in, hooked right, and covered the corner while Bailey moved in after her and took the left.

  “Clear right,” Anna yelled after she did a sweep of her zone

  “Clear left,” Bailey yelled after she checked her zone.

  I watched as Paige entered next and went left. She swept her gun across Bailey’s back as she brought it up to cover her area. I shook my head and frowned.

  Tara came in last, but managed to keep her muzzle clear of Anna as she took up her position.

  “Move forward,” I yelled to them once they had all settled into their spot. They moved forward while maintaining their angles until they reached the end of the store. The moment they finished the girls lowered
their guns and each of them grinned wide.

  “Well that was kinda exhilarating,” Bailey said.

  “Yeah, I mean that got my heart pumping, and we didn’t even find anyone inside,” Anna said.

  “You did okay,” I said as I walked over to the girls. Then I pointed to Paige. “You swept Bailey with your gun though. I don’t want to see that again.”

  “I’m sorry,” Paige said with a frown as she went red.

  “Hey, it’s alright,” Bailey said in an attempt to be supportive.

  “It’s really not,” I said. “We must hold each other accountable for this sort of stuff, especially if we want to be safe.”

  “Don’t you think that’s a bit harsh?” Tara asked as she glared at me.

  “Yeah, it was her first time,” Anna added.

  “I understand that,” I said with a nod. “I just need you all to understand how serious this is. What if her gun was loaded, and she had a malfunction that sent a bullet through Bailey’s back?”

  “Could that happen?” Paige asked

  “It’s not a likely outcome but it could happen, yes,” I confirmed.

  “Shit,” Tara muttered.

  “You get it now?” I asked

  “Yeah,” Anna sighed.

  “I am not trying to be an asshole but some of this shit is serious enough to warrant harsh judgement,” I explained.

  “I understand, and won’t do it again,” Paige said quietly.

  “Good,” I nodded. “Now come on, you ladies will get plenty of practice today.” I grinned and motioned to the door. “Stack up and do it again. If I see anyone sweep a teammate, I’ll stop you and make you go back to the start.”

  “This is like school,” Tara groaned.

  “Well, I like it,” Paige said with a small smile as she headed for the front door.

  The girls stacked up again and on Anna’s mark they entered the building once more. Half way through their walkthrough though Anna coughed, and the other three girls all spun towards her with their guns up.

  “Stack it up and do it again,” I shouted.

  It took them three more times to clear the building before they did it without one of them sweeping the other.