by Eric Vall
“Bring it on,” Anna said. “We are going to be rested and ready for anything.”
“That was the hope,” I said with a grin.
“Well, speaking of rest, I might head that way,” Rolly said with a yawn.
“Why’d you have to go and do a thing like that,” Tara teased after she also let out a yawn.
“Didn’t mean too,” Rolly chuckled.
“He has the right idea though,” Bailey said. “I think I am going to do the same.”
Rolly got up and headed inside for the night. After that, one by one, the girls started to follow his lead. Paige was the last one out by the fire with me. She stared into the dancing flames with eyes half open.
“Go to bed,” I said gently.
“I’ll get to it,” she said before she let out a yawn. “I just wanted to enjoy the night a little longer. It’s clear and the sky is full of stars.” She shifted her weary gaze skyward, and a smile spread slowly across her face.
“Alright,” I said as I stood up, stretched, and started to put out the fire. “Just don’t stay up too late.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll be in before too long,” the brunette said as she shifted to lay on the bench and stare up at the stars.
Once the fire was out, I went over to her, brushed some stray hairs out of her face, and gave her a kiss. “See you in the morning then.”
“Yeah, see you then, Tav,” she whispered back with a smile.
I chuckled, shook my head, gave one look at the brilliant night sky, and then headed for bed.
Chapter 13
I woke with the dawn the next morning. The girls all slept soundly around me, and none of them so much as shifted as I got up. One of them even snored quietly, and I smiled down on the sleeping bunch before I went to get ready for my day.
Once I was dressed and geared, I crept through the dorm and made my way outside. Then I took a drink of water, stretched out, and sprinted off into the forest.
It was pleasantly quiet as I made my way through the woods. The only real sound was the crunching of plantlife under my boots, and the chirping of birds in the surrounding trees. I relished this perfect forest of spring, because I knew that soon enough the weather would grow hotter, and the air would be abuzz with mosquitoes, gnats, and flies. That’s why spring and fall were the perfect months. They hovered between the extremes of temperature just long enough to keep the bugs at bay and make for some of the best time to spend outdoors.
My morning jog to the rabbit traps was peaceful. Even with the coming fight there was a sense of calm to this place that could not be broken. It felt right, in a sort of primal way, to be spending so much time among the beasts and the trees.
The first trap sight was empty just like it had been the last few times we had checked it, so I took the trap and headed off into the woods until I found signs of more small game. Then I set the trap again, made a mark on a nearby tree with my knife, and headed off to check the other locations.
The next trap contained a plump black rabbit that squirmed and struggled against the wire that held it. Our traps were very efficient at capturing the rabbits alive, so if we took the time to build a rabbit hutch we could get some live ones and breed our own supply of rabbits. Our current methods of finding meat were working well, but having a controllable stable of food would be even better.
I put the fat black animal out of its misery with my knife, gutted the creature, let it bleed for a minute, and tied it onto my backpack.
I kept moving and found the third trap full as well. The brown rabbit that struggled in this one was not nearly as large as the first, but it would still taste good. I took care of it like I did the first and added it to my backpack.
The rest of the traps were as empty as the first, and I took a few minutes to relocate them and mark where they were with a slash on a nearby tree so I could remember them easier.
After all of the traps had been checked I jogged to the stream. Most of the trotlines were empty, but on one of the lower lines I found a nice large fish caught on one of our large hooks. Unlike the rabbits this fish was already dead, so I just added it to my haul before I took a moment to crouch by the stream.
I briefly paused to enjoy the beauty of nature before I dunked my hands into the water and washed away the blood of my morning's work. The cool water felt nice against my skin and splashed some of the stream water into my face as a refresher for the trip back. Then I let out a happy sigh, shook off my hands, and headed back towards the campus.
“Tav!” I heard one of the girls yell in the distance a few minutes after I started on the path towards home.
I pulled my gun and quickened my pace only to find Anna running up the path towards me.
“Oh thank god,” the redhead said as ran up to me.
“What's wrong?” I asked.
“There’s smoke,” she said. “We got up this morning and walked outside to see smoke coming from Lanceton.”
“Then we need to get back to the others,” I said with a growing sense of dread in the pit of my stomach. “Come on.” Then I ran down the path at full speed with the redheaded athlete hot on my heels.
It couldn’t have been more than a ten minute run, but every passing moment felt like an eternity. I knew we had a little time, but I didn’t want to waste it.
Anna and I broke free from the trees to see Paige, Bailey, Tara, and Rolly standing in the middle of the courtyard as they stared at the billowing, thick black smoke that rose up over the trees.
I stopped and stared at the smoke for a moment as well. It couldn’t have been burning long or I would have noticed it when I left to check the traps.
“Oh good, Anna found you,” Bailey said as she turned and noticed the two of us by the forest's edge. She rushed over to me, threw her arms around my waist and buried her head in my chest.
Gently, I pushed her back so that I could look into her eyes. “Hey, now is not the time to fall apart. We've trained for this, we are going to be okay.” Then I smiled at her and gave her a soft hug in return.
“You’re right, sorry,” Bailey said as she pulled away.
“Don’t be sorry,” I said.
I walked with her back to the others. Everyone looked worried as they glanced from the smoke to me.
“I didn’t think they would be here so soon,” Paige said.
“Yeah, like, I thought we would have three or four more days at least,” Tara added.
“Well it’s a good thing we spent all the time we did working on our defense plan,” I pointed out. “That smoke means the bad guys are coming, but they don’t know that we are ready for them. When they hit that bridge we’ll be waiting, and they will learn that every action has its consequences.”
“Hell yeah,” Rolly said. “When we’re done with these assholes, they’ll wish they stayed home.”
“He’s right,” Anna said. “These past few days we have pushed ourselves so that when these biker douche bags rolled up towards our home, we would be prepared to defend it. Like Tav said our defenses are in place, all we have to do is stay behind them and give them hell.”
“We can’t get cocky now,” I said, “These bikers are still extremely dangerous, and we cannot take them lightly no matter how prepared we are.”
The girls all nodded along and pulled themselves up straighter as they listened to us talk. Their frowns were replaced with a stoic look of determination, and when they glanced back at the smoke they did not cower or flinch.
They were ready.
“Let’s go get our gear,” I said. “We need to get to the bridge.”
“What about me?” Rolly asked.
“Set up in the dorms,” I responded as I pointed to the three story building full of windows. “Make sure no one tries to sneak through the woods or anything, and if they make it up the hill remember to move around after you pop off a few shots. That will make you harder to track and might trick the enemy into thinking there are way more of us than there are.”
“I’ll g
et ready then,” the grey haired man said with a smug grin. “We have enough guns than I can leave one in all the rooms that look over the courtyard.”
“Good plan,” I said before I turned back to face the girls. “Let’s get going.”
The ladies and I ran into the dorm building, headed up to the second floor, and started to grab our gear.
I used my old room as my staging area as I checked over my things. I had my pistol, my rifle, my knife, four extra full magazines, one of which was loaded with tracers, and a couple hundred extra rounds of 5.56 in the bottom of my backpack. Then I packed up my simple medical kit and rope. After that, I grabbed the rest of the tracer rounds for Bailey, and tossed them to her on my way downstairs.
“What’s this?” she asked as she caught the box. “Tracers to light up the propane,” I explained. “Load up a magazine with those and only use it when you want to set off one of the tanks. They will make our position very obvious.”
“Got it,” Bailey said with a nod as she pulled out a spare magazine and started to load it.
I found Rolly already putting loaded guns in spare dorm rooms so that he always had a gun ready to shoot.
“We’re going to be heading out soon,” I said.
“I figured as much,” the handyman replied.
“We won’t be back for a while, and I wanted to stop in and tell you to stay safe,” I said.
“Thanks, Tav,” Rolly said with a nervous smile. “You too. I expect all of you to be around after this day is through.”
“That’s certainly the plan,” I said. “I think the girls will do well.”
“Me too, but be careful anyway,” the handyman cautioned.
“We will,” I smiled. “Sit tight and keep your eyes open for anything strange. Hold your fire for a second and identify your targets too. I would hate to get caught in your crosshairs.”
“I won’t pull the trigger unless I know what I’m looking at,” Rolly said.
I smiled at the handyman and gave him a pat on the shoulder before I left him and headed downstairs.
The girls waited for me in the courtyard as I rushed out of the building. Each of them had already gathered their gear. They had kept their backpacks full and ready to go at a moment’s notice, and none of us were ever far from our guns.
I waved for them to follow as I made my way across the courtyard to the parking lot where the motorcycle and ATVs waited, and a grin spread across my face as I realized the girls had taken the liberty of getting the vehicles ready.
The side bag on my motorcycle was stuffed with molotovs, and each of them already had the keys in the ignition.
The girls looked ready for a fight. They were decked out in jeans, boots, and black t-shirts. Tara had her hair pulled back and used some of her makeup to apply a couple lines of warpaint on her cheeks, but I didn’t have the heart to tell her that it looked more cute than fearsome.
“Let’s get a move on,” I said as I hopped onto my motorcycle.
The girls jumped onto the forest camo ATVs and started the engines before they looked to me.
I nodded, turned on the old bike, and zoomed off down the hill. We slowed only briefly to get around the spike stip at the bottom before we tore off down the road towards our first battlefield.
Once we arrived at the bridge, we quickly hid the machines in the woods where we could get to them when we needed to retreat.
“So this is it huh?” Paige asked me as we ran up the hill and into the trees that overlooked the bridge.
“Yep, today you guys see your first real bit of combat,” I said. I looked over to her. “You nervous?”
“Yeah, kinda,” she said.
“Me too,” Bailey added.
“I’m less nervous than I thought I’d be,” Anna said with a shrug. “I think it might hit me more when I see the bikers riding up on us.”
“Yeah, I’m not real excited for that,” Tara said.
“Everyone gets nervous before a fight,” I said. “Just keep your wits about you and always remember the plan.”
“I don’t think we could forget it if we wanted to,” Anna smirked.
“Yeah, we ran it way too many times to forget it any time soon,” Tara added.
“That’s good, it means you won’t have to think about it while in the heat of combat,” I explained. “That’s why I had us run it so much. Once adrenaline starts pumping the less we have to think about what we are doing the better.”
“The adrenaline is good though right?” Bailey asked.
“Kind of,” I said. “It should help you overcome any fears you have, but it won’t do you any favors when you are trying to shoot.”
“That’s comforting,” Paige muttered.
“Just remember that everything we have done these past few days has been to prepare for this moment. Sometime in the near future a pissed off gang of degenerate bikers is going to be coming down this road, along this bridge. When they do we’ll be ready, and they’ll learn why we are not to be fucked with. You have all been given the tools and the training to defend your home so use them well. Now let’s get into position and kick some ass.”
After that we scattered and headed off into the woods to prepare for the coming assault. Tara and I took the left side of the road while Paige, Bailey, and Anna were posted up on the right side. I settled in to the hillside and stabilized my gun on the small bit of cover that had been built for me.
“So what do we do now?” Tara whispered to me from where she was hidden.
“We wait,” I said. “Get comfortable and keep your weapons ready. We might be here for a whole day or maybe even two. ”
“Alright,” she replied. Then the forest went quiet as we all sat ready.
Hours passed, and there was still no sign of the bikers coming down the road. No roar of distant engines filled the air.
“What if they aren’t coming this way today,” Anna called out from the other side of the road.
“Then we wait here until tomorrow,” I called back.
“We’re really just going to sit here until they show up?” Paige chimed in.
“Yes, we are,” I said. “Since we cannot predict when they will head this way we just have to be ready when they do.”
“This is not exactly how I thought today was going to go,” Anna said.
“Well get used to it,” I chuckled. “This is a lot of what combat is, especially in an ambush situation. Sometimes you might have to wait days for just ten or twenty minutes of fighting.”
“Man, I thought we would ride out here, wait a little bit, and then fight for hours,” Tara said.
“If the firefight goes on that long we have done something wrong,” I chuckled. “We want to keep engagements short. The longer we fight the more chances they have to find out where we are and return fire. If we are going to get into a prolonged fight, we should do it back at campus where all of our ammo and supplies are.”
“I hope it doesn’t come to that,” Anna said.
“Me too,” I said. “Now quiet up and stay alert. Now’s a good chance to get some food in your bellies.”
Silence fell over the area again as I dug some smoked meat out of my bag and started to chew on it as I watched the road on the far side of the bridge. I had never cared much for the waiting, but I was not dumb enough to do anything reckless.
Another hour passed, but there was still no sign of the bikers.
“How you holding up Tara?” I whispered to wherever the platinum blonde was sitting.
“I bit bored honestly,” she replied with a chuckle.
“Yeah, I know the feeling,” I replied. “Stay sharp, and our patience will be rewarded.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t fall asleep if that’s what you’re worried about,” Tara replied.
“No, I’m not worried about any of you,” I said.
“You have a lot of faith in us,” Tara said. “I don’t think anyone has ever had as much faith in me as you have.”
“That’s kinda sad
,” I said.
“Yeah,” Tara replied quietly.
Things fell silent for a moment before Tara spoke again. “Thanks though, for seeing that I am more than just some party girl. Turns out all I really needed was someone to believe that I was capable enough to do more than be the dumb blonde.”
“I think most people will rise to the occasion if given the opportunity,” I said.
“Seems like you might be right,” she replied.
We fell silent again and continued our vigil. The rest of the day slipped by and as the sun started its slow descent towards the horizon, I started to think that we might be here for the night.
“Might as well get comfortable, Tara,” I whispered.
“Oh don’t worry, I already am,” she replied.
I chuckled, shook my head, and hunkered down as the sky started to turn a deep orange above me. Just as I leaned against a nearby tree with my gun in my lap I heard it, the boom of a distant explosion.
“You hear that?” I asked.
“Yeah, they triggered the Booby-trap,” Tara replied.
“Won’t be long now,” I muttered to myself as I rested my gun on my barricade once more and prepared myself for the coming fight as the sound of the roaring engines filled the air.
Chapter 14
Headlights flooded the road and forest ahead of us with brilliant light as the horde drove onward. I pressed my cheek to the stock of my rifle and watched at least four dozen bikers advance through my sights.
It was just about time to see how the girls would react to full scale combat.
Our enemies were undisciplined, and I guessed that the moment they started to take fire they would fire back into the trees without a plan. It wouldn’t really work, but if they put enough bullets in the air, they could get close to one of us even if they didn’t know where we were. That was enough to make anyone nervous, and if one of the girls broke cover, it could be fatal. I just had to trust in them. They had proven themselves time and time again, and I had to believe that this time would be no different.
The bikers got to the bridge and stopped at the edge.
I watched them through my scope and took stock of the blockade. It looked like the majority of the guys were armed with an assortment of semi auto rifles, but some of them were carrying either shotguns of what was left of military M16A2s. It wasn’t exceptional gear, but they would be able to put a lot of bullets into the air.
