by Eric Vall
“Man, I thought I slept good last night,” Anna muttered as she dismounted.
“Right? I never actually knew I could feel this spent,” Tara said.
“You know, at one point today I was thinking about asking Tav for some one-on-one time,” Paige started, “now though I think I would rather just sleep.”
“I know the feeling,” I said with a laugh. It was a fun idea, but my whole body was tired, and I felt I might be lucky just to make it up the stairs to our sleeping area. A hot meal and a good night's sleep would have me ready to go for tomorrow though.
The flickering flames of the firepit drew us in like moths, and we found Rolly already cooking dinner.
“Welcome back,” he said with a wide smile. “Saw you guys running around a bit from my spot on the tower and wondered when you were going to call it quits. Everything go well today?”
“Yeah, the bridge is prepped and ready to go,” I said. “I think our chances of getting through this alive are pretty damn good.”
“Good,” Rolly said. “Think you ran the route enough times?”
“We just want to be ready when shit goes down,” Anna said as she lowered herself onto a bench. “Oh man… wow, sitting feels nice though.”
“I’m afraid if I sit down I won’t get back up again today,” Bailey said with a smile that made it seem like she was only half joking.
“Well, once we get some food, we can all head to bed,” I said. “What’s on the menu for tonight?”
“I made us a sort of casserole,” Rolly said. “It’s beans, meat, spices, and canned corn topped with a cheap box of cornbread mix I found. Tossed it all in a dutch oven and tossed it on the fire.” He leaned forward and pulled the lid off the large black pan. “I think it’s ready to eat whenever.”
The minute the lid left the pot the air was filled with the savory aroma of all of the mixed ingredients.
“That smells amazing,” Paige said.
“Hey, I know we are all tired, but we should celebrate,” Anna suggested. “We have been working fucking hard, and I feel that what we have done deserves a drink.”
“I think you’re right,” Tara said.
“I’m down with that,” Bailey agreed.
“It’s hard to turn down a drink right about now,” I chuckled.
“Then I’ll be right back,” Anna said before she forced herself up and shuffled off.
“Man, I don’t think I ever actually knew what hard work was until now,” Paige said
“I know I didn’t,” Tara laughed.
“Feels good doesn’t it?” Rolly asked.
“Yeah it does,” the platinum blonde agreed as she glanced at her hands. “Definitely been a change for me.”
“You’ve grown a lot,” Bailey said as she laid a hand on the other blonde’s shoulder.
“Thanks!” Tara laughed. “You have, too. I guess we all have.”
Anna returned a moment later with several bottles and started to pass them around.
I unscrewed the cap on a half empty bottle of vodka and winced as I took a swig. It was cheap and harsh, but the warm burn was welcome.
“Here’s to us!” Anna toasted as she raised a bottle of whiskey.
Everyone cheered and raised a drink with the redhead. After the first taste of alcohol the team seemed to loosen up, and right after that Rolly started to serve up bowls of his food.
As we ate, there was an energy about the group. Most of the girls chatted about the coming conflict with a sense of excitement and anticipation. Bailey however, sat off to one side and quietly ate her meal and drank some whiskey.
“You okay?” I asked with a frown after I moved to sit beside her.
“Yeah,” she muttered.
“That’s not very convincing,” I said.
She sighed, set down her food, and looked at me, “I don’t know, I’m just really nervous.”
“There’s nothing wrong with that,” I said with a warm smile.
“Look at the others though,” she said as she nodded to her friends who all chattered with a smile. “They are looking forward to the fight, so shouldn’t I?”
“Look, no one is going to be smiling once the bullets start flying,” I said. “Being nervous doesn’t make you any worse than any of your peers, and I am glad you are going to be there to have our back.”
“Really?” she asked.
“Of course,” I said with a nod. “You are an amazing marksman, and I have a feeling that you are going to step up when needed just like you did back in town with the wolves.”
“I did do pretty well then,” she said with a smile.
“Yeah, Tara would be a lot worse off if you hadn’t been around,” I pointed out.
“I guess that’s true,” she said. “Thanks Tav, I guess I am still just trying to figure out my place in all of this.”
“Your place is with us, simple as that,” I said as I placed a hand on her shoulder and gave her a big smile. “Now come on, let’s drink and enjoy ourselves. We deserve to live a little after all we have done.”
“That I can do,” she said with a grin as she picked up her cup of whisky. Then she downed it and went back to eating her meal.
We all drank, talked, laughed, and enjoyed the night until we all felt that comfortable buzz start to kick in.
“I think that means it’s bed time,” I said as I put the lid back on my vodka.
“I’ve been waiting for someone to say that,” Paige chuckled. “I wasn’t going to be the one to suggest it though.”
“After the day we had no one would have faulted you for wanting to get some shut eye,” Anna said.
“She’s right,” Tara said with a nod before she took one last sip of vodka and tossed her paper cup into the fire. “It would be crazy to not want to sleep at this point.”
“You guys head in,” Rolly said. “I’ll take care of everything out here.”
“You sure?” Bailey asked. “We would be more than happy to help clean up.”
“Oh no, you guys get some rest,” the handyman insisted.
“You’re the best, Rolly,” Paige said.
“Yeah, seriously, thanks for taking care of so much,” Anna added. “I feel like I’m sleeping on my feet.”
“Get outta here,” Rolly chuckled as he shook his head.
“You don’t need to tell us twice,” Tara said. “Come on ladies, lets go pass out.”
I chuckled and watched the four of them shuffle off towards the dorms before I turned back to our handyman. “Have a good night, Rolly.”
“You too, Tav,” he replied. “See you in the morning.”
I nodded, gave him a small salute, and headed inside. Each step up to the second story made my legs burn once more, but I was able to make it without grunting or moaning thanks to the additional fortification of the alcohol. When I reached the top, I found the girls already changed and snuggled up.
“Hurry up and get in here,” Tara muttered as she patted a spot next to her.
“Yeah, you need sleep just as much as we do,” Bailey said.
“Plus, we sleep better when you’re here,” Paige muttred.
“Alright, alright, give me a moment,” I said before I stripped off my shirt, shoes, pants, and climbed into the mess of pillows and blankets that made up our bed. My whole body relaxed as the four gorgeous women around me all shifted to snuggle up beside me.
“Sleep well and see you in the morning,” I whispered before I closed my eyes and quickly fell asleep.
But sleep didn’t come as easily as I wanted it to.
I knew the bikers were coming, and while I knew I was doing the best to prepare the girls, I also knew that it was going to be a tough fight.
That we might not live through.
Chapter 12
The next morning I woke up before the sun had started to rise. I knew that we could not count on the bikers showing up on our schedule, so I had to be sure that the ladies were ready to act at any time. There was a good chance they would all hate me for a while t
his morning, but I could deal with it since I knew this drill would help them stay alive. So I slipped out from the tangle of their bodies, got dressed, grabbed my gear, and came back into the common room.
“Wake up,” I shouted before I started to clap loudly. “Come on, up up up.”
“What the fuck, Tav,” Anna grumbled as she pressed her hands to her ears and pried open one eye.
“You all have five minutes to get up and get dressed,” I said. “We are going to go run the routes. First the bridge, then the village, and then the school.”
“What time is it?” Bailey mumbled.
“Doesn’t matter, I want you up now,” I said. Then I crossed over and pulled the blankets off them and yanked each of their pillows out from under their heads.
“Alright, we get it,” Anna said as she sat up. “Come on guys, get up.”
All four of the girls grumbled as they rubbed their eyes and pulled on whatever half clean outfits they had nearby.
“Grab your backpack and get to the ATVs!” I ordered loudly. “Go! Go! Go! Imagine that we just heard the booby-trap blast, and the bikers are going to be at the bridge in a few minutes.”
The sky was still a dark blue as I stepped into the courtyard. A few of the stars still hung in the sky, and the morning dew was thick on the tall grass as I marched out to the parking lot. It had been a while since I had been awake this early, and my body protested somewhat after the series of long days it had just endured.
A minute later my team ran out of the building and made their way over to me.
“We are here,” Anna said as she rubbed some sleep out of her eyes.
“Do we have to run a drill this early?” Tara whined. “I totally want to go back to slee--”
“That is not a luxury you get,” I said. “We’re going to head to the bridge and run the route through from start to finish.”
“It’s dark though,” Bailey said.
“That shouldn’t stop you,” I said. “We need to be ready no matter when the bikers come for us.” I turned around and took a seat on my motorcycle. “Hustle up, the sooner we get this done the sooner you girls can have some coffee.”
The roar of the engine drowned out anything else the girls might have said, and as soon as I saw them loading up onto their rides I drove off down the hill, moved the spike strip out of the way, and headed for the bridge. This time I kept pace with my team as in a time of actual danger I would not want to pull too far ahead.
We arrived, and I dismounted. “Alright, take your positions in the trees. You get out your guns and get into a ready position. As soon as you hear me yell you get to your ATVs and fall back.”
The girls, all of whom still looked a little sleepy, nodded and scurried off into the woods around the road. I followed and took up my own position. There was no way I was going to just sit back and watch on this one. We were a team, and that meant doing the shit shifts together. I sat there for a moment to give the others the time to get set up. The forest grew very quiet around me as none of my team made a sound.
“Fall back!” I shouted into the still darkness around me.
The air filled with the sound of rustling leaves and breaking branches, and I took off down the hill towards where my bike waited.
As I stepped onto the pavement, the girls were already loading up onto the four wheelers. They then turned them on and tore off through the woods along our path.
I followed on the motorcycle and bounced along beside them. I wished I had something a little more suited to the rough and uneven terrain we rode though, but it got me where I needed to go.
The faintest bit of morning light stained the sky as we pulled into town. We rode straight into our little maze, abandoned our vehicles, and scattered into the houses we had previously marked.
Again I waited for a minute to let everyone get into place. I scanned the quiet streets and wondered if we could find a better place to stash our wheels. They were right out in the open and could easily get trashed, but I decided that our personal safety was more important than worrying about some useful, but ultimately replaceable hardware.
“Back to the school!” I shouted. Then I sat there for a moment and watched to see if anyone left through a front door or in view of my perch. Even in their sleepy state none of the girls made that mistake.
I smiled and slipped out the back door to join them on the forest trek back up the hill.
“Well this certainly gets the blood pumping,” Bailey said as we ran through the trees.
“Yeah, at least I am awake now,” Tara said as she jumped over a log like she had a hundred times before when we trained.
“You can get this feeling every morning if you join me for a jog,” Anna huffed.
“Still a hard pass,” Tara groaned.
“We’ll see how my body feels after this whole situation rolls over,” Paige said. “Right now I can’t imagine starting every morning with this much cardio.”
We made it back up to campus and spread out through the trees to cover the courtyard in a wide crossfire. From there we fell back through the woods and towards the college buildings. It was there that we all emerged from the trees and met up again.
“Good work,” I said as we all stepped out into the early morning sun.
“Really?” Paige asked as she raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t even feel awake until we reached the town.”
“Yeah that was pretty miserable,” Anna said.
“Did we really have to do that so early?” Tara asked.
“Yes, we did,” I said with a nod. “We don’t get to control when our enemy comes for us, and so we need to be able to react at a moment’s notice.”
“While I really don’t like how suddenly you woke us up, I get it,” Tara said.
“Yeah, that makes sense,” Bailey muttered.
“It’s alright, you guys still did very well,” I said. “I was expecting a lot more complaining from all of you.”
“It wasn’t fun, but at this point we all know that you have a good reason for all the shit you do,” Paige said.
“She’s right,” Anna said. “Once I got past the initial shock of being woken up, I sorta just knew to shut up and listen.”
“I’m glad that you all trust me like that,” I said with a wide smile. “Now come on, let’s get to the library and make some coffee.”
“Yes please,” Paige said.
“That nasty drink has, like, never sounded better,” Tara chuckled.
As we headed for the library building, we ran into Rolly heading the same direction.
“Well now, this is a surprise,” the handyman said as we approached. “Saw that you were all up already, but figured you were at the library.”
“I got them up early and ran the plan through half-awake in the dark,” I said. “I’m a bit surprised you didn’t hear me get them up. I was not exactly quiet.”
“Slept hard last night,” Rolly said. “How’d it all go then?”
“Good,” I said as I looked back at the girls and nodded. “They are quite the team.”
“That they are,” the handyman agreed.
“Can we please have this conversation inside?” Bailey asked.
“Yeah, we were promised coffee,” Anna added.
“Well then, don’t let me stop you,” Rolly said.
I chuckled and led them all to the library. Then we took a seat around our usual table, and I started to brew some coffee. The pungent aroma of the roasted beans smelled wonderful, and everyone started to relax in their chairs.
“So what’s on the agenda today?” Anna asked while we all waited for the coffee to finish.
“We are going to run through the plan again,” I said. “But this time we are going to do it with full gear. You are all going to be armed, prepared with your backpack, and carrying extra ammunition. It’s how we will run during the actual attack so you might as well get used to how it feels to lug all your gear around.”
“Seems fair,” Bailey said.
“Good,” I said with a nod. “After that we are going to spend some more time on the range. I am going to see about getting something set up to simulate a moving target. You are all getting pretty damn good at shooting stationary objects but I doubt those bikers are going to be standing still.”
“Sweet,” Tara said. “I’ve been kinda missing our range time.”
“Well we have to consider our ammo reserves whenever we practice,” I said. “If we do it too often, we won’t have enough ammo when a fight comes.”
“You say that like you think these bikers won’t be the end of our troubles,” Anna said.
“They probably won’t be, but taking care of them should bring us peace for a while,” I explained.
“At least we can get more ammo from the bikers,” Paige pointed out.
“Yeah, assuming we win,” Tara said,
“We will,” I was quick to add. “We have a good plan and we’ll have the practice to back it up. No need to start worrying now.”
“Sorry,” Tara muttered. “I guess I really need that coffee.”
“Well, I don’t expect you to make it through today on coffee alone,” I said. “We are going to chill for a bit this morning while I cook you guys a big breakfast.”
“Oh my god that sounds good,” Bailey said.
“You won’t hear any complaints from me either,” Rolly said.
The minute the coffee finished, I poured everyone a cup. Despite the heat of the beverage everyone drank it down quickly and took a second cup.
“Alright, if you empty this pot make a fresh one,” I said. “I’m going to go get a fire going and make us something to eat.”
“We’ll be waiting here,” Tara called out as I started to leave.
“Don’t keep us waiting too long,” Paige teased.
I laughed, shook my head, and headed back outside. It didn’t take me long to start a fire, and then I picked out a couple choice looking rabbits, skewered them, and started to roast them over the fire. While that was going on I opened one of our last cans of fruit and found a handful of granola bars that would go with it nicely.
Twenty minutes later, I walked back into the library with a tray full of food and enough silverware and plates for everyone. While searching for dishes I realized that was another issue we would have to sort out before too long. Like our clothes the dirty dish pile was starting to build up, and that would only lead to problems down the line. At least we didn’t need a washboard to clean dishes.
