by Eric Vall
“Yeah, that’s huge news,” Tara said.
“Really all of yesterday was pretty big,” Tara said. “I mean these are the first friendly people we have come across since Tav arrived.”
“That’s true,” Paige said.
“Well we had a good day here too,” the platinum blonde said. “That shower you made is amazing.”
“Not that the rest of us would know,” Paige said.
“Yeah, Tara got a little carried away and used all of the water,” Anna chuckled.
“I said I was sorry,” Tara pouted.
“We just have to give you a hard time,” Bailey said with a grin.
“I am just glad to hear it worked well,” I said with a smile. “Since we won’t all be able to use it every day, I think I will pop down to the stream today for a bath.”
“I’ll join ya,” Rolly said. “The water is getting a bit warmer at the stream anyway.”
“Since we’re heading that way the two of us will check the traps today,” I said to the girls. “You can spend the morning training with your spears and knives. This afternoon we start working full time on our defense efforts.”
“Where will we start?” Anna asked.
“We’ll start here,” I said. “If things don’t go as planned having our hilltop prepared will give us the best shot.”
“Alright, we will be ready when you get back,” Paige said.
“Anything else you want us to do this morning?” Tara asked.
“No, we got it under control,” I said. “Just get some practice in while Rolly and I are away.”
“Sounds good, and thanks for the eggs,” Anna said.
I finished my own plate of eggs and pushed myself away from the table. I looked back at the whiteboard but there was nothing new to cover. We were good, at least until we got through the inevitable biker assault.
“You ready to go?” Rolly asked as he sipped at his hot water.
“Yeah, but take your time,” I said as I nodded to his plate of unfinished eggs.
He nodded, pulled his plate closer, and started to scarf down what remained.
The room went silent as all of the girls did the same thing. A couple of them made a cup of tea but the rest were just happy with the hot water.
Rolly finished before the girls, wiped his mouth, and nodded at me.
“Well, we’re gonna head out,” I said as I stood up and stretched.
“Have fun, you two,” Paige said.
Rolly and I slipped out of the library, gathered up a fresh change of clothes, a couple small knives, our pistols, and the toiletries needed to take a quick bath. Then we headed out into the forest together.
“Man I can’t stop thinking about Betty,” Rolly said as we headed for the first trap sight.
“Oh yeah?” I asked as I looked at him and raised an eyebrow. “Seems you have a little crush.”
“I think so,” the handyman said with a nod. “I haven't felt this way about a lady since my wife passed.”
“You only just met her, you sure you don’t need to slow down some?” I asked.
Rolly laughed and pushed his way through a small copse of trees. “Tav, you get to be my age and the whole taking it slow thing seems silly. I mean I won’t be around forever.”
“No, but I bet you have another couple decades in you,” I replied.
“Yeah, but why waste time?” he asked.
“I guess you’re right,” I admitted with a shrug. “Especially not with the state of the world.”
“Next time you go back I want to go with you,” my companion said.
“Of course,” I said.
“I’m gonna tell her how I feel, and see if she feels the same way,” he explained.
“I think she might,” I said with a grin.
“Really?” Rolly asked as he looked at me with wide bright eyes and a childish smile.
“Did you not notice how hard it was for her to pull her eyes off of you?” I asked.
Rolly went bright red, chuckled, and shook his head.
We pushed through the trees to where our first trap waited. There was no rabbit, but the trap had been sprung. I knelt down and reset the trap while Rolly waited nearby with a silly grin on his face.
I laughed as I finished up and stood. “So should I expect this attitude for a while?”
“At least until the bikers come,” he said. “That might pull me back to reality.”
“Well, enjoy the feeling while it lasts then,” I said as I put a hand on his shoulder. Then I gave his shoulder a firm squeeze and smiled at the handyman.
“I will,” he laughed.
“Come on, let’s move on,” I said.
It was nice to see him this happy. He didn’t seem one to complain, but I had never seen him quite as happy as he was now.
A half hour later we arrived at the stream after having checked all of the trap sites. We didn’t catch anything, and a couple of the sites didn’t even look like they had been disturbed. It might have been time to search for a couple new locations. Even rabbits could grow smart enough not to go to certain areas.
The trotlines brought in a lot more than the traps. We got half a dozen fresh fish from the lines and cleaned them before we finally stopped for our bath. We ran a length of rope through the fish and hung them from my backpack for transportation.
“So how much of a chance do you really think we have against these bikers?” Rolly asked once he finished undressing and stepped into the stream.
“Honestly, I don’t know,” I said as I did the same. “The girls are a little green, but our plan is solid, and if we get the time to build all of our traps and defenses, there is a good chance we can at least run them off.”
“What if we don’t though?” he asked with a raised eyebrow. “No offense, but no one but you have ever seen real combat.”
“You’re right,” I nodded. “I can’t know for sure how you or the girls will react to getting shot at until it happens, but with enough training I think you will know how to stay alive even if you panic.”
“Well I am glad that you are in charge of all of this,” Rolly said as he started to scrub himself clean.
“We’ll rehearse our defense plan so many times that it will be second nature,” I explained. “When shit hits the fan, we’ll be running on autopilot.”
I washed quickly as I tried to keep my mind off the cold that still lingered in the flowing stream. It might have been better, but it was far from comfortable, and I was excited for a chance to try the shower out at some point.
Once we were clean, Rolly and I crawled onto the warm banks of the stream, dried ourselves off, and pulled on a clean set of clothes.
“You know anything about washboards?” I asked
Rolly looked over at me and raised an eyebrow. “How old do you think I am?”
“That’s not what I meant,” I chuckled “Our supply of clean clothes isn’t going to last forever, and our pile of dirty laundry is just going to become a breeding ground for bugs as we move into summer.”
“I suppose you’re right,” Rolly said with a nod. “I did use one when I was really young. Don’t remember exactly how they work, but I am sure they can’t be that hard to figure out.”
“That was my thinking too,” I agreed. “Well, let’s get back to the others. There is a lot of work to be done before our enemy shows up. You think you can run into town and start boarding up windows while I show the girls where and how to set up some snipers spots?”
“Of course, I gotta make up for all that time I wasted yesterday anyway,” he joked.
We shared a laugh and made the journey back to the campus. When we emerged into the courtyard all four of the girls seemed to be in the middle of a rather intense four person skirmish. They all tried to get the upper hand on the rest of the girls as they dodged, parried, and swiped at one another.
I stood there with a smile, crossed my arms, and watched as Anna let out a yell and came at Paige with a quick thrust.
Paige sidestepped the attack and went for the counter strike. Before it could land Tara checked her with her shoulder causing the brunette to tumble to the ground.
Bailey saw her opportunity and went in to slash at the platinum blonde’s exposed back.
Tara glanced over her shoulder and saw the hippie charge at her. She smirked, waited for her friend to commit to the attack, dropped low, and then shifted to cause Bailey to roll over her back and onto the ground.
“Man, you’re getting really good at this,” Paige said as she tried to steady her breathing.
“Thanks,” Tara said with a grin. “I think I am remembering a little bit of the martial arts training I did when I was little.”
“You never told us you took martial arts,” Anna said.
“I was like ten at the time, and I didn’t do it for very long,” Tara said.
“Seems like you remember a little of it though,” Bailey said as she picked herself up off the ground.
“Could be why this, like, feels more natural to me,” Tara replied.
I clapped as I walked up to the group.
“Hey, when did you get back?” Anna asked as she wiped the sweat from her forehead and stuck her foam knife in her belt.
“Just a minute ago,” I said. “I caught the end of the fight.”
“What’d you think?” Bailey asked after she brushed the grass from her pants.
“I think you guys stand a chance if it comes to close combat,” I said. “You’ve come a long way since I first started to train you.”
“We’ve been practicing pretty hard,” Paige said.
“It shows,” I replied.
Each of the girls had a red face and was covered in a layer of sweat. They must have been practicing for quite a while.
“Wash up,” I said. “Grab some water and meet me by the shed in fifteen minutes.”
“I’m gonna head off down into town,” Rolly said. “If you guys need anything I won’t be hard to find.”
“Stay safe,” I said as I gave him a nod.
“Oh, don’t worry about me,” he replied with a smile. Then he waved and headed off towards the parking lot. There was little reason to walk down the hill when he could just grab an ATV.
Anna turned to look at the rest of the girls. “Alright, you heard him, let’s go get cleaned up.” The others waved at me as she ushered the group away.
“See you soon,” I chuckled and returned their wave. Then I headed over to the smoker, tossed in the fresh fish, and moved the now prepared rabbits into our shed.
The interior of our meat shed was pleasantly cool, and I was glad that we had been able to keep it fairly well moderated, but I wondered if we could get some hay from Betty’s farm to help insulate the shack. It could be just another thing to help us keep it at an acceptable temperature during the coming summer months.
As I dropped off the previous days freshly smoked food, I took a moment to marvel at how well we had done for ourselves. Most of our main needs had been met and exceeded, at least for the time being. I gave a contented nod and left the shack.
Time to get ready for the upcoming war.
The bikers would be coming soon.
Not long after I met up with the girls at the shed just as instructed. They looked refreshed and Tara, Anna, and Paige had all changed their shirts. Bailey was still in the same bright purple T-shirt she had been wearing earlier but the rest of them had on black tank tops.
“Alright, now that we’re all here let’s go over some basic ideas,” I said. “What we are going to do today is find and prepare several spots in the treeline where we can take cover and shoot from. We want the shooting spots to have good visibility of the parking lot and courtyard to allow us to set up one big crossfire.”
“Can’t we just use the buildings?” Paige asked. “I mean we have three of them and plenty of places to shoot from inside.”
“The buildings are our fall back point after the bridge,” I said. “We are going to fight them there, but I want to make sure we have our last holdout spots figured out. Then we’ll work on the village, and then we’ll work on getting our spots by the bridge.”
“So basically we are going to shoot them from three spots?” Tara asked.
“It will be three phases,” I explained. “First, we’ll get them when they try to cross the bridge, then we’ll run through the forest and get to the village. Then we’ll set up there and shoot them when they come on the streets. Then, if we need to, we’ll fall back here.”
“So, three gauntlets,” Anna said as she nodded.
“Pretty much,” I confirmed with a nod. “My idea is to create a sort of semi-circle so that if anyone comes up that hill they won’t be safe no matter where they try to hide.”
“Couldn’t that be dangerous for each other?” Bailey asked.
“Not if we set it up right,” I said. “We will create zones of fire kind of like when we cleared those buildings. As long as we each keep to our zone no one should hit anything but the enemy.”
I grabbed some basic tools from the shed, filled a pocket full of nails, and found a can of white spray paint that I could use to mark any potential positions. Then I led the girls into the woods. We stayed just inside the treeline and quickly found our first spot. There was a rather large tree with a solid view of the entire courtyard. I pulled out the spraypaint and marked the ground around it so we could find it later.
“What we are going to do is build a small elevated platform into this tree,” I said. “Then we will use branches, leaves, and foliage to obscure the platform in an attempt to keep the shooter concealed.”
“Makes sense, I would guess the best way to not get shot is to not be seen,” Anna said.
“That’s the idea,” I said with a smile
“How many of these are we looking to make?” Paige asked.
“I’m thinking half a dozen,” I said. “That will give us options and tactical flexibility.”
We spent the next hour picking out the rest of the spots. Once they were all marked, we gathered up the needed materials and got to work making the first spot. We nailed a simple ladder into each tree and then built a basic platform among the branches. We built it in such a way that you could take a seat on one of the branches and use another of them to steady your rifle on.
Next we decorated the spot with branches and leaves, and by the time we were done the only way to see the platform was to know it was there. We even moved into the courtyard and tried our best to spot it from the open while Anna sat in each one, but we really couldn’t see her.
“Well that’s pretty cool,” Tara said.
“Just five more to go,” Paige said before she crossed her arms over her chest and gave a nod.
“It’ll work,” I said. Then I smiled, turned to the girls, and motioned back to the woods with my head. “They won’t build themselves though.”
We headed back out and spent the next few hours putting up the next five shooting platforms. None of them could be seen from the courtyard even if you knew where you were looking. The flash of our guns could still give away the location, but even then it would be hard to pin down our exact location.
A few hours later we had finished making the platforms, and we all gathered up at the first one we had built.
“Alright, there is one more thing we need to do,” I said. “If you get pinned down, you need an escape route, and the forest provides the perfect cover.”
“Where should we run?” Tara asked
“We’ll plot out a course through the woods that leads us around the back of the buildings,” I said. “Then you can get inside and take up a spot in a window.”
“Solid plan,” Anna said with a nod.
“Lead the way then, Tav,” Bailey said.
We went around to all six of the spots and found the best route to use through the woods. Each path took you into the woods a little deeper than the treeline and headed around to the back of the property where we could exit the forest with the buildings b
etween us and the center courtyard.
After we had the routes placed, we ran drills until the sun dipped below the horizon. I would have the girls get up on the platforms, then get down and run the path until they came out around back. The routes weren’t particularly long, and it didn’t take them much time to become proficient in running them. The chaos of combat would complicate that some, but I would make them run it until they could use the path with their eyes closed.
My stomach growled and alerted me to just how hungry that afternoon’s activities had made me. I patted my abdomen and looked to the girls. “I think we’ll call it there. It’s getting late, and I need some food.”
“Me too,” Anna agreed.
“Let’s go find Rolly and get something cooking,” Bailey said. “I’ll make dinner tonight. I want to use some of those vegetables.”
An hour later, we all sat around the fire with some bottles of booze, and four fish roasting over the flame. Bailey also prepared a small simple salad of lettuce, tomato, and nuts and topped it with a simple dressing of olive oil and basil. It wasn’t fancy, but it was a nice addition to our usual fare.
“It’s so cool that there is someone else out there,” Tara said as she sipped at a vodka soda. “I mean, someone who isn’t trying to rape and murder everyone they meet, obviously.”
“Yeah, next time can we go along and meet these people?” Bailey asked.
“I think that can be arranged,” I said with a nod. “Might help get the grandkids to trust me a little more too.”
“Yeah, when Tav first mentioned you guys Dan assumed you were some kind of slaves,” Rolly said.
“Yeah, we should probably go clear that up,” Anna said with a nod.
“I’m pretty sure Betty believes us,” Rolly said with a large smile. “It was so nice to meet another person my age.”
“Look at that smile, I think our handyman might have a little crush,” Tara teased.
“Maybe,” Rolly said as his cheeks went flush.
“Well I think it’s cute,” Bailey said while she poked at one of the roasting fish with a fork.
“I never said it wasn’t,” Tara was quick to reply. “I think he has done a lot for us and deserves to find a friend.”
“Agreed,” Paige said with a nod. “Gives him a reason to get away from the campus every now and again too.”
