Without Law, page 14
“We heard a shot and came to help,” Anna explained.
“I’m fine. Ran into a small bit of trouble but nothing I couldn’t take care of,” I said with a nod after hefting the dog up into sight.
“Aw, poor puppy,” Tara said with a frown.
“I wouldn’t feel bad for this one,” I said. “The thing was feral. Found it chomping on the dead bikers before it came after me later.”
“Well I am glad you took care of it then,” Anna said as she grimaced at the sight of the dead dog.
“Not entirely,” I said as I continued my walk. “There are a few more out there that will cause problems once they sort out who the new alpha is.”
“Oh, that like totally doesn’t seem good,” Tara said as she fell in behind me.
“It’s not but we should have more than enough time to come up with a plan to take care of the rest,” I assured her.
“Alright,” Tara said as she nodded and snuck a glance down the hill behind her.
“Man, just when things were going so well we have to do something like fight my favorite animals,” Anna said with a sigh.
“Would you feel better about it if I let them try to eat you first?” I joked.
“Maybe, I mean it is fun watching you save us,” Anna said with a grin.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” I replied before I winked at the redhead.
“So, uh, we aren't gonna eat that or anything are we?” Tara asked as we walked.
“What, you don’t want to expand your culinary palette?” I asked with a smirk.
“I don’t think any of us do,” Anna said.
“I know what they say about Chinese food, but at least then I could at least pretend it was something else or whatev’,” Tara added with a laugh.
“Nah, don’t worry,” I said with a chuckle. “I thought about it but we are not so low on food yet. However, some of this will be real useful for fishing bait.”
“I am still not sure I like that either,” the platinum blond said.
“Trust me, you wouldn’t feel so bad about any of this if you had been the ones attacked by the beasts,” I said as I looked back to the girls.
“Alright, fine. We can use the dog parts for fishing,” Anna said.
“Oh can we?” I asked with a raised eyebrow. “I didn’t realize I needed your permission.”
Anna rolled her eyes and stuck out her tongue at me.
We all arrived in the parking lot, and I dropped the dog and stretched before I turned to grin at Anna.
“How did the morning go for you guys? Get anything in the traps?”
“Nah,” Tara said as she shook her head. “Looked like one of them had been tripped but, like, nothing was there.”
“We did find some berries to bait them with,” Anna added.
“Good thinking,” I said with a nod.
“It was actually, like Paige’s suggestion. She totes gave us some tips,” Tara said.
“Nothing wrong with using the knowledge of those around you,” I said. “Listening to that stuff makes us all better. Don’t worry though, traps are a waiting game. We were very fortunate to get what we did yesterday.” I grabbed the dog again and motioned towards the campus with my head. “Come on, let's go see how the rest of them are doing.”
Bailey and Paige were seated around the firepit as we approached. One of their jugs had already been emptied into the massive stock pot, and they had a nice blaze going underneath it.
“Good morning,” Bailey said as she gave us all a wide grin. “It’s a nice day today isn’t it?”
“Well, aren't you happy,” Anna said before she sat down beside her.
The hippie chick shrugged and closed her eyes as she basked in the sunlight. She had removed her shoes and was spreading her toes out into the grass.
“It was a good morning,” Paige added as she looked at the dead dog.
“It’s funny what a bath and some sunlight can do to your mood,” Bailey said. However, she opened her eyes and looked back in my direction and frowned as she laid eyes on the dog. “Oh my god, what happened to that poor puppy!”
“Relax,” I said as I put a hand out to calm her. “It was a feral creature. Tried to make me its lunch, so I had to put it down.”
“Why did you bring it here though?” Paige asked.
“Oh my god, we aren’t going to eat it are we?” Bailey asked as her eyes went wide.
“I don’t think that is necessary yet,” I said as I shook my head.
“Yet?” Anna asked as she crossed her arms.
“I know I just kinda stopped being a vegetarian but there is no way I am going to eat dog,” Bailey protested.
“Let’s just settle down,” I said as I dropped the dog onto the grass. “I dragged this guy up here because his parts might be useful for setting up some fishing lines.”
“Oh, okay,” Bailey said quietly.
“Come on, you don’t think Tav would really expect us to eat dog do you?” Paige said. She looked at me, but then she frowned when I didn’t answer quickly. “You wouldn’t expect us to do that, would you?”
“If things get tight enough, I expect you to do whatever is needed to survive,” I explained. “Even if that means eating dog. Though right now things are good, and I won’t force that on anyone.”
Rolly joined us, and it was clear by the grease that covered his hands and shirt that he had been busy with the jeep. He noticed the dog on his approach but just shrugged.
“How’s the jeep?” I asked as he got close.
“Oh, you know, it goes. Not sure I can do much but make it turn over without a part or two.”
“Anything we can find in town?” I asked as I pulled off my backpack and pulled out the motorcycle part.
“Not unless there happens to be a second old jeep hiding down the hill,” the graying handyman said with a grin.
“Sadly there isn’t, but I got you what you need for the motorcycle,” I said before I tossed him the part.
Rolly caught it and inspected it.
“Why are we worried about the vehicles?” Anna asked. “Are we going somewhere?”
“Not yet,” I said as I turned to face her. “But it doesn’t hurt to be prepared.”
“Prepared for what?” Tara asked as she raised an eyebrow.
“Everything,” I said before I turned back to Rolly. “You said the stream was a good fishing spot and after being there myself I am inclined to agree. You think you could set up a trotline or two?”
“Gotta check the shed and see how many hooks I got, but yeah, I could do that.”
“I figured you could,” I grinned and clapped him on the shoulder. “I figure this dog will make good bait. Something this big might give us a couple hauls too.”
“Suppose so,” Rolly agreed with a nod.
“We will do that tomorrow though. You and I can take water duty and set up the lines after. Today you can call it quits once you have that part in place.”
“Will do.” The old man grinned at me.
I turned back to the others who, despite the dog, appeared to be in good spirits again. “As for you all, stay put, I’ll be right back.”
I left the girls to share confused looks as I headed for the dorms. They needed to learn to defend themselves. I just needed to find something non-lethal to teach them with.
I searched through the classroom building, but didn’t find anything useful until I made my way into the basement. It was a large cavernous space of uncovered concrete, support pillars, and pipes. There were no windows, but with the aid of the windup flashlight I was able to make my way through the maze-like area. It would be really easy for someone to get lost down here if they were not careful. Due to the low visibility and abundance of cover this would be an ideal place to hide if a dire situation arose.
There was an abundance of pipe insulation wrapped around the tangle of metal running through the basement, and it was exactly what I had hoped to find. The black foam was rigid enough to act as a rough blade, but soft enough to ensure that no one gets seriously injured while training. I stripped some insulation from the pipes and made my way upstairs where I grabbed a roll of electrical tape.
I cut the insulation into roughly sixteen inch strips, bent them in half, and created a handle of wrapped electrical tape. I made half a dozen and headed out to find the girls.
Chapter 12
I met with the girls in the outside area next to where Paige and Bailey were boiling our latest haul of water. The four of them were whispering to each other, but they stopped when they saw me exit the dorm.
“I have presents for you all,” I said.
“I love presents,” Tara purred as she eyed me hungrily.
“Jesus, can you like, not think about sex for half an hour?” Anna asked as she rolled her eyes.
“How do you know I was thinking about sex?” Tara scoffed. “Also, it’s been like an hour since I’ve seen Tav. Also, I’m totally thinking about sex.”
“Let’s focus on some martial arts for a bit,” I laughed as I reached into my backpack and pulled out five black foam tubes covered with electrical tape.
“What are these?” Paige asked as they moved to stand next to me.
“It’s pipe insulation wrapped with electrical tape,” I said as I handed them each one. “Or, for the purpose of this exercise. It is a knife.”
“Knife?” Bailey asked.
“Yep,” I said as I took one of the eight inch tubes in my hand and slowly thrust it into her stomach. The tube bent when it pressed into her, and she let out a little giggle as she swatted it away.
“I get it,” Paige said. “We can practice stabbing each other.”
“Yeah,” I said, “The knife is one of the world’s oldest tools and weapons. It’s perfect for self-defense because it is easy to conceal and use, but difficult to defend against. First, I’m going to go over the basics. Then, you all are going to practice stabbing me.”
“Ohhh, stabbing you…” Tara chuckled. “Can you stab me later? Pretty please?”
“Oh. My. God. Calm the fuck down, horn dog,” Anna hissed.
“You think it’s funny,” Tara replied as she stuck her tongue out at the redhead.
“Focus, girls,” I said. “Everyone grab your fake knives, and I’m going to show you how to stab someone. Then I have to go cut some of the branches from the trees so that we can see the road from the roof. It will help with the dog situation.”
“You need help with that?” Anna asked.
“Maybe,” I said, “let’s train first.”
I took a step back from them. I grasped the insulation tubing in my right hand and then stood casually.
“There are three things you need to know about knife fighting. First is that you never let them see that you have a knife until you’ve stabbed them a bunch of times.” After I finished speaking, I flipped the foam pipe up in my hands so that the longer blade was concealed by my forearm. Then I pointed at Anna and turned my body to the side a bit. “If Anna is my target. I want to stand so she doesn’t know I have a blade. Got it?”
“Like this?” Anna asked as she matched my position.
“Yep. Perfect. Everyone else give it a try.”
The other three women matched Anna’s movement, and I glanced at their arms to make sure it was difficult to see the small insulation pipes.
“You can also conceal them on your chest or legs or stomach like this,” I said as I pushed the foam against my leg with the palm of my hand. Then I moved my arm to my stomach and did the same thing before doing it to my chest.
“I can totally tell you are hiding something on your chest, though,” Tara said.
“That’s fine,” I said. “You might have to act to pull it off. For example…” I bent my knees, clutched my hand to my chest to cover the fake knife, raised my left hand, and opened my mouth like I was in pain. “Please, please, don’t hurt me.”
As I spoke, I took a step toward Tara. She smirked at me, but then I snaked my left arm down, caught her by the elbow, and then flipped around the foam pipe in my hand so that it was pushing into her neck. I hadn’t even been quick with my movements, but she gasped with surprise when she realized I could easily kill her.
“Wow,” Paige said, and both Anna and Bailey’s eyes opened wide.
“You all have a great advantage being women,” I said. “No one is going to expect you to fight back. Use that to get in close to someone. And then you can end them. Everyone split into pairs, and practice moving the foam around your bodies so that the other can’t see them.”
Anna turned to Tara, and I half expected the blonde girl to tell her to pick a different partner, but instead, Tara moved her fake knife against her hip with the palm of her hand and asked Anna if she could see it. Bailey and Paige did the same stuff, and I walked between the two pairs giving them pointers for ten or so minutes until I was happy that the four of them were thinking about hiding their knives properly.
“Okay, now we are going to try it with real knives,” I said as I dug around my backpack.
“Uhh, real knives?” Paige gulped.
“Yep,” I said. “This is just to practice hiding something with an edge. I’ve got some of the kitchen knives for us to use. Some of them are a bit longer than what is optimal, but all four of these have sheaths, so I want you to start carrying them around with you on your belts. Be careful with the edges and go slow.”
I handed each girl one of the boning knives I’d taken from the cafeteria, except one of them didn’t have a leather sheath, so I’d fashioned one out of duct tape.
The girls carefully took each knife, drew the blades from the sheaths, and then began to practice pushing the flat wide sides of the blade against their legs while they held their palms over the weapons. I walked around them again for ten or so minutes to make sure they were doing a good job, and then I told them to put the knives back in the sheaths and grab their practice foam pipes.
“Second thing you need to remember about knife fighting is that you need to go for the face first,” I continued.
“The face?” Tara gasped as she reached her fingers up to touch her nose.
“Yep,” I said as I pointed to my own face. “Lots of sensitive spots up here. If you can stab through their skull, you might kill them. Taking out an eye will make it really hard for someone to attack you, same with the nose. The skin on the face bleeds a bunch when it is cut, so even slicing open someone’s forehead might blind them. Also, as soon as someone is hurt on their face, what do they do?”
The four women looked at each other and then Anna spoke up. “Uhh, whenever I’ve gotten smacked in the nose or face I put my hand up to touch the spot.”
“Yes!” I laughed. “That’s exactly what happens, Anna.”
“Oh, yeah,” she said as she blushed a bit.
“Anyways, even if you don’t kill them, a cut to the face will probably blind them or make them move a hand up to there. Then you can stab other places since they won’t be guarding.”
“So how do we stab someone in the face?” Paige asked. “It’s not like someone will just let us walk up to them.”
“Remember the first rule,” I said. “You’ve got to get in close. Then, there are a few things you can do to get to their face. First, you can stand on their foot. Tara, come here.”
“Uhhh, okay,” the blonde princess said as she walked up to me.
“Stand on my right foot,” I said as I pointed down to my boot.
“Like this?” she asked.
“Put more weight on it,” I said.
“This?” she asked as she leaned forward more.
“Yep,” I said. “Now what happens to me?”
“Uhhh, I dunno?” she asked with a shrug.
“Well, I can’t really move,” I said. “Or at least, I can’t step away unless I put a lot of effort into the movement. Even if I’m strong enough to get away, it will take me a second to pull my foot from under yours. Also, I’m focused on your foot, and I’m going to be looking down or whatever. Not paying attention to the knife you’ve been concealing.”
“That makes sense,” Anna said, and the other girls nodded.
“You can also grab one arm,” I said as I nodded for Tara to grab me. “Get me on the wrist or behind the elbow.”
“Like this?” she said as she reached behind my elbow.
“Yeah, now pull me so that my arm is at your hip.”
“Ohhh, I like this,” she purred as she tugged on my arm.
“So, a couple of things about this position,” I began. “I can’t use my right arm, but you are also kind of neutralizing your own left arm. That’s fine because you’ve got the knife in your right hand. I outweigh you by a bunch, so I can probably throw you away if I want to, but the purpose of this exercise is to kind of hang onto me so that I can’t push you away easily.”
“Then I stab you?” Tara asked.
“Yep,” I said. “Why don’t you try it? I’m going to attempt to push you away or stop you from stabbing me. You just try to stab me in the face or wherever you can. Ready?”
“Uhhh, I guess I’m--”
“Go!” I hissed, and Tara’s eyes opened as she tried to get the foam up and into her hand. She was a bit slow, but after half a second, she tried to stab me in the face with the foam.
I knew she was trying to attack me, and I had told her to get started, so I was able to twist my face out of the way of her thrust, but the side of the foam touched my shoulder when she pulled the fake knife back. I tried to push her away, but she held onto my elbow and made another stab. I twisted my hips to the side, but she was on my foot, and her foam weapon bounced off the side of my stomach. Then I reached for her wrist, but she made another stab again, and if the knife had been real, she probably would have sliced all my fingers off, since my grab wasn’t clean.
“That’s enough,” I said, and then I let Tara’s wrist go. “How many times did you get me?”
“Uhh. Two? I think?” she panted, and I could see her shoulders shaking a bit.
“Three actually,” I said, and then I looked to the other girls. “You get the idea. I know how to defend myself, but you still cut me a bunch. So getting in close to someone with a knife and hanging onto them so they can’t get away while you stab the shit out of them is really useful.”
