by Eric Vall
We stepped through what I assumed had been the main lobby and into the bullpen. There were half a dozen burned desks scattered about the large square room, and lots of ash had drifted into the corners. Each of the desks had piles of melted plastic on top of them and hollow computer cases beside them.
“Wow, I always forget how much damage fire can do,” Paige muttered.
“Yeah, this is grim,” Anna muttered as she kicked at what remained of a desk. The burnt wood crumbled at the smallest touch.
“At least we haven't seen any bodies,” Bailey said.
“Not yet anyway,” Tara added.
“Stay sharp,” I said. “If you notice anything that is not completely destroyed, give me a shout.”
I kept my gun up as we made our way through the room. Nothing moved, but I didn’t want to be caught unprepared again.
We moved as a group through the large central room towards a set of double doors at the far end. We left footprints in the ash with each step, and soot stained the bottoms of our pants.
The bullpen had nothing useful. The only objects that survived the fire were a few wire paper holders, and they were so badly burned that I doubted they would last long.
As I pushed through the blackened double doors they came off their hinges and fell to pieces as they hit the stone floor. I wouldn’t be here if this place was not made of bricks.
The hallway had a door on each side of it and looked to end in a T intersection at the end with cells along the back wall. The door on the right side of the hallway was made of thick metal and had a keypad melted onto its front.
“That’s probably the evidence locker,” I said as I pointed to the door.
“Do you think we can get it open?” Paige asked.
I walked over to the door, grabbed the handle, and pulled it open.
“Well alright then,” Anna said. “That makes it easy.”
I stepped into the small room as the girls came up behind me. It was maybe ten feet wide, and twelve feet long with shelves running the full length of the room on either side of the door. Unlike the rest of the police station this room was not stained black from fire. That did not mean it was unaffected by the heat as there were several bundles of melted plastic sitting atop the metal shelves. Whatever evidence the bags had contained was mangled beyond recognition.
“Anything in there?” Paige asked as she tried to peek around me and into the room.
“Nothing useful,” I said. The only thing that might have contained helpful supplies, the gun locker at the back of the room, was empty. My guess is that the bikers took whatever was in it before torching the building, but there was a good chance that the gun locker had been empty to begin with. I could not imagine this town had been brimming with crime.
“This isn’t where you hoped to find the spike strips was it?” Anna asked.
“No, they aren’t usually held in the evidence locker,” I said. “I would guess if we find them anywhere they will be in an armory of some type.”
“Well let’s find it and get outta here,” Bailey said. “This place is kinda unsettling.”
“Man, if you don’t like this you really wouldn’t have liked the old cabin Tav and I explored,” Anna said.
“Yeah, I am okay that I missed that one,” The blonde hippie said with a nod.
“Me too,” Tara muttered.
“Come on, let’s finish up here,” I said as I pushed my way back into the hall. I crossed over to the door on the other side. The wooden exterior of this one had burned away enough to reveal a steel core. That had to be a good sign. I tried the door, but it didn’t open.
“Can we shoot our way in?” Paige asked.
“Let me try kicking it down first,” I said. “The frame looks wooden so I might be able to just force it.” I took a step back and planted my heel into the door right where the lock was. The frame cracked, but didn’t give. I grunted and kicked again. This time the door burst open to reveal a modest sized space also untouched by the fire.
“That was hot,” Tara muttered.
“Yeah,” Bailey agreed.
I looked back and grinned at the girls before I stepped into the room. There were a couple long tables, a whiteboard, ten metal chairs, and a whole wall of lockers at the back of the room. Thin and crumbling paper sat scattered on one of the tables.
“Looks like we found the briefing room,” I said as I headed for the lockers.
“At least this room did not burn,” Tara said
“Stone construction really helps compartmentalize the fire,” Paige said. “It helps that this place is only one story too. If there was a second floor, the ceiling would probably have collapsed and let in the flame.”
“Well let’s hope these lockers have something good in them,” Anna said.
Bits of the room seemed to be torn up, and as I approached the locker I noticed it was littered with various sized bullet holes.
“Um, what happened there?” Bailey asked as she noticed the holes too.
“They probably stored ammo in here,” I said. “The flames might not have gotten to the room, but it must have gotten hot enough to set off the powder inside the bullets anyway.”
“Remind me not to throw bullets into a fire,” Anna chuckled.
“Yeah, that’s never a good idea,” I said. “You have no control over where the bullet is going to go, and while it won’t travel as far as it would be shot from a gun it can still tear you up pretty good.”
“Weirdly enough, like, getting shot is not on my bucket list,” Tara said.
“Where’s your sense of adventure?” Paige said with obvious sarcasm.
“I think I had enough adventure for the day,” Tara said as she nodded to her arm.
“We took care of that problem,” Bailey said.
“Well, we at least ran them off,” Anna added.
“Don’t worry, if those guys come back we will be ready for them,” I said. “I just hope they stay away.”
I pulled open one of the lockers and frowned. There were several shotguns with melted plastic pieces, and four Glocks in a horribly damaged and unusable state. All that remained of the boxes of ammo were shreds of ashen cardboard. The next locker held more of the same, only instead of guns there were a bunch of melted polycarbonate police batons.
“Well, I think this is the armory,” I groaned.
“Oh, that doesn’t seem good,” Anna said.
“It’s not what I had hoped to find,” I said as I shook my head. “Though this place is not exactly huge, so it makes sense that their armory wouldn’t be either.”
“Well, are there any spike strips?” Paige asked.
“Haven't found any yet,” I said. “Though there are still a couple of lockers.”
“Hey, wait, look up top,” Bailey said as she pointed at the top of the lockers.
I looked up and noticed several bits of black metal poking into view. I reached up and felt around for a moment before I pulled down a ten foot length of spike strip. It was fully extended now, but could fold up to a more manageable size thanks to the criss crossing metal plates that the spikes were welded too.
Anna reached up and pulled down a second strip.
“Those are cool,” Paige said.
“Pretty sweet stuff to have when fighting guys on bikes,” Anna said as she inspected her strip.
“Is two of them enough?” Tara asked. “I mean it sounds like there are a lot of guys left.”
“Two is a good start,” I said. “We could possibly make some of our own using nails if we decide it is necessary.”
“So then, can we leave?” Bailey asked. “I am still not a fan of this place.”
“We haven't checked the cells at the back of the building,” Anna said.
“I don’t think we need to,” I said. “Cells are usually not full of gear.”
“True,” Anna said. “So then we are leaving?”
“Yeah,” I nodded. “Let’s get out of here.”
I scrunched the spike
strip into its smaller and easier to carry form and headed back outside. No surprises waited for us as we made our way back through the bullpen, and the area outside the police station was still clear.
“What now?” Anna asked as she stepped out behind me.
“Let’s drop off these spike strips and head for the houses,” I said. “I think we can find more useful stuff there than we can in any of the shops anymore.”
“Tara and I did notice they were looking pretty cleaned out,” Paige said.
“Hey, look at this,” Tara said.
I looked over and saw her standing by one of the desks. She stared at a piece of paper on the table, but as she went to pick it up, the corner she grabbed turned to ash.
“What is it?” Anna asked.
“Some sort of memo,” she said.
I walked over and looked down at the paper. It was an evacuation order. Someone had gotten enough warning about the EMP attack to send this town a message. It talked about a National Guard refugee center that was about sixty miles from here. The memo said it would be a place for people to stay safe until the government got everything sorted out.
“Anna and I saw something kinda like this while we were up in the cabin,” I said.
“Do you think that place is still there?” Bailey asked.
“Maybe,” I said. “I know the bikers have had some run-ins with the National Guard.”
“This could be good, right?” Tara asked. “I mean if the government has a place we could just go there.”
“I don’t think that is a good plan,” I said. “The minute that place runs low on food, water, and medicine it’s going to turn into a madhouse.”
“What if things aren’t as bad as we think they are,” Paige said.
“Then maybe it is peaceful,” I said. “Though we can’t worry about that right now. Make a note of the camps location on your map and let’s get outta here. This refugee center is not our concern until after the bikers.”
“He’s right,” Anna said.
“Come on, let’s get this stuff back to the truck,” I jogged off with the girls behind me.
We stopped briefly at the truck, dropped off the spike strips, and then headed further into town. I picked a neighborhood we had not explored much, cleared the houses, and started to loot.
Each house told a story of those who lived there before. It was strange to think that the people in all of the family pictures we passed by would probably never see their homes or stuff again. All I could hope was that whatever they had chosen to do when they left this place has been safe.
Our scavenging turned up nothing amazing, but we were able to find more clothing, bedding, and some more camping supplies and plumbing parts. We found a roll of plastic out in one of the sheds, and plenty of extra gardening supplies. Bailey and Paige managed to find a small stash of seeds, and while most of them were for flowers, there were a couple, such as carrots, ginger, and mint, that would be particularly useful to us.
“Hey, Tav, I was curious about something,” Paige said as she passed me with a bundle of fresh blankets in her arms.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“What are we going to do about clothes and stuff once we run out of stuff to scavenge?” She asked. “I mean I know we have plenty, but we also have a large pile of dirty and stinking stuff. Plus, if we keep getting hurt I will probably need fresh cloth to use for bandages.”
“I’ve been thinking about this too,” I said. “I think we might need to build a washboard and spend a day at the stream every couple of weeks.”
“Aw man, we are going to have to wash clothes too?” Tara whined as she walked by.
“You could just re-wear dirty clothes if you want,” I said with a shrug.
“Oh, hell no,” the platinum blonde said as she shook her head.
“That’s what I thought,” I said with a smirk.
“So, will setting up a washboard be hard?” Paige asked as Tara disappeared.
“I don’t know,” I said with a shrug. “Haven't exactly made one of those before. I really doubt it will be complicated though.”
“Looks like I have more research to do,” the brunette said with a smile.
“Try not to sound too excited about that,” I chuckled.
“Sorry, I just like learning new things,” the brunette said as her cheeks turned a bright red.
“It’s okay, I was just teasing,” I said.
“We taking a break out here?” Anna asked as she poked her head out from one of the nearby rooms.
“Don’t worry, we’re still moving,” I assured her.
“You better be,” she teased. “I would hate to find out those rumors about you getting lazy are true.”
We scavenged for several hours. Each time we found enough stuff for a load we would make our way through town, fill up our vehicles, and head back out. No matter how much stuff we gathered we always appointed one person to be the guard. That way we always had at least one person with their gun up in case of trouble, but no trouble came. In fact, the rest of the day went by without any issue, and we were hauling out the last load to the truck as the sky grew orange overhead.
“All things considered, this has been a pretty good day,” Tara said.
“Agreed,” I said with a nod.
“We have a ton of stuff here too,” Bailey said as she patted the side of the truck.
“Now we just have to find out what is actually useful,” Anna said.
“We’ll get that sorted out in the coming days,” I said.
Our truck and trailers were loaded with everything but the lumber I had set aside, and then once that was in place all we had left to do was strap it all down.
I pulled out a couple containers of bungee ties and tossed them to the girls. “Get your vehicles ready to go.”
“Will do,” Paige said as she caught one of the containers and started to strap down the load in the truck.
“We might actually make it back before dinner,” Anna said as she did the same.
“Bet Rolly cooked up something good too,” Bailey said.
“I bet we will get some fresh deer,” Paige said as she grinned over at me.
“I guess we’ll just have to see,” I chuckled, but as I loaded the last bits of wood into the trailer I heard a growl. When I turned I saw the black wolf and its remaining pack approaching from the houses.
“Well, at least there are fewer of them this time,” Anna muttered as she readied her rifle.
“Yeah, but I hoped we wouldn’t have to kill them all,” I said as I brought up my own.
The wolves had started to fan out again, but this time we were better prepared.
“We have to shoot them, don’t we?” Bailey said as she aimed down the sights.
“I’m afraid so,” I said as I closed one eye and did the same.
The wolves charged, but they didn’t have the numbers or the element of surprise. They went down fast as all five of us opened fire on the charging pack. Even Tara used her pistol and got off a couple good shots.
I ended the Alpha with a bullet to the skull, Tara and Paige combined fire on one of the pack members and tore it apart with shotgun and .45 fire, and Anna put two holes though a third wolf.
Bailey only took one shot, but it tore through the wolf’s front leg and went through his heart. The sound of gunfire was replaced with silence and the smell of sulphur as all of the wolves lay dead on the ground before us.
I sighed, shook my head, and let my rifle fall to my side.
“Nice shooting, guys,” Anna said with a small smile.
“You guys did really well,” I said. “It’s still sad we had to kill them,” Then I crouched over the Alpha wolf. I ran a hand through its fur and scratched it behind the ear. These things were not feral like the dogs we had fought. They were wild, but they were not starving, and I guessed they attacked us because we were in their territory.
“Can we eat them at least?” Bailey asked as she walked up behind me. “At least
then they won’t go to waste.”
“Yeah,” I said with a nod. “Let’s gut these guys and throw them onto the back of an ATV. We can salt and smoke them once we get back to campus.”
“Sweet,” Paige exclaimed and rushed over to the nearest wolf.
I looked back at her and raised an eyebrow as I pulled out my own knife. Never had I met anyone who enjoyed all aspects of the hunt as much as Paige. Maybe it was her background in medical studies, or maybe it was just some primal enjoyment. I shrugged and turned back to the black wolf in front of me, flipped it over, and started to cut it open.
Twenty minutes later all four of the wolves were neatly gutted. We left the large pile of entrails in the courtyard for whatever creatures came through here next, slung the creatures onto the back of Anna’s ATV, and headed home.
As the beat up green jeep rumbled down the road, I looked over and saw that, despite her injury, Tara had a content smile on her face. It was nice to know my girls were past the point of dwelling on their moments of weakness or failure. Everything we had been through was making my team tougher. I watched Lanceton start to disappear in the rear-view mirror and hoped that they would be tough enough to face the coming storm.
Chapter 4
I stopped on the bridge on our way back to the campus. If I was going to use it as a defense point I wanted to make sure I knew the area well. Since we did not know exactly when the bikers were going to show up, I wanted to be ready as soon as possible.
“Why’d we stop?” Tara asked.
“So we can get a look at our ambush site,” I said as I stepped out of the vehicle.
“What are we doing?” Anna asked as she pulled up on her ATV.
“Just a little planning. Let the others know so I don’t get that question two more times.” I grinned and winked at Anna.
The redhead shook her head and rolled her eyes, but I caught her grin.
The bridge itself looked to be a little tighter than a standard two- lane stretch of road. If I had to guess I would say it was between ten and eleven feet across with no walking space, and only small two foot stone barriers on the side. This would be the perfect place to funnel the bikers, especially since we had found the spike strips.
I looked up the road to where a sedan sat abandoned off to one side. We could roll it up on the bridge to create an even tighter funnel. That would make it almost impossible for the bikers to just go around the spike strips, and it also meant we had a narrower channel to shoot at.
