Without Law 19, page 14
“That’s not a bad idea.” I nodded.
Another blue light flashed in the sky, followed by a laughing fit and another guzzle of whatever they had in that flask.
Whatever it was, it had to be strong to have both of them feeling good. I didn’t speak Korean, but even I could tell they were slurring their words, and their languid movements were a dead giveaway that they were intoxicated.
If we killed them, there was the potential that would come back to bite us, especially if some of the NK troops figured out there were enemy soldiers in the area. We could try to make it look like there’d been some sort of drunken accident, but there was no guarantee the other soldiers would believe that.
There was always the option to let them live, though I wasn’t partial to that, either. At the moment, though, I figured that was our best bet.
As much as I didn’t want to leave these assholes here, we didn’t really have a choice if we wanted to get over to Birmingham without drawing any attention whatsoever.
The two men clearly hadn’t seen or heard us yet, so it didn’t matter if they were left alive since they’d have no story to tell about seeing some American troops out in the woods.
“I think it’s best if we leave them,” I whispered. “Come on.”
“Alright.” Anna nodded.
I turned to make our way back to the jeeps, but just as I stood up, I heard something behind us.
The flask the NK soldiers had hit a tree and fell to the ground, and a second later, one of the soldiers appeared. He laughed and yelled at his buddy in Korean, then he bent down to pick up the metal flask, but as he did, he saw our feet.
The man stopped with his hand just above the flask, and he looked up and locked eyes with me.
“Well, shit,” Anna breathed.
“Guess leaving them alive is out of the question now,” I sighed.
“Pity.” Tara grinned.
The man left the flask as he stumbled backward and shouted to his friend.
Before he could get too many words out, though, I yanked my M9 from my holster and landed a shot right in the back of his head.
Blood sprayed out of his head as the bullet went straight through his skull and out the front, and he tumbled forward ungracefully and landed with his face just barely on the asphalt.
“Fuck,” Anna cursed, and she took off toward the road.
“We’ve got to get his friend,” I said as I followed her.
The redhead and I stepped over the dead man and stopped in the middle of the road.
I surveyed the area with my MP5 at the ready, but I didn’t see the sonofabitch anywhere.
“He couldn’t have gotten far,” Paige said as she joined us.
“It’s all just woods and roads,” Bailey added.
“Yeah, but we don’t know where his camp is,” I said. “He could be running through the trees right now back toward his base camp.”
“And if he gets there and says he saw American soldiers this far west, our whole plan is going to be thrown off,” Anna said. “The Birmingham soldiers would be hella on edge if they found that out.”
“To be fair, he’s drunk as fuck.” Tara shrugged. “I doubt anybody would believe him.”
“That’s not a risk I’m willing to take,” I said.
“So, what’s our plan?” Anna asked.
“Fuck, if we had Minji we could have her call out to him,” Paige said.
“Right,” I sighed and narrowed my eyes as I looked more closely at our surroundings.
There was forest on either side of the road, and I knew firsthand how thick the brush was through there. There was no way the soldier was actually running through there without us hearing him, and that meant he was hiding somewhere.
I knew he was armed, though, and that made him dangerous, so I had to play this carefully. If I scared him too bad, he could shoot, and if I didn’t know exactly where he was, it could get bad.
“Hey,” I called out as I started to walk down the middle of the road.
“What are you doing?” Anna whispered.
“There’s no guarantee he can’t speak English,” I said. “Even just a little bit.”
“I guess you’re right.” The redhead nodded as she followed closely behind me.
“And even if he can’t, he can at least read body language,” I said, and I raised my voice and waved my arm toward myself. “Come out here or we’ll have to hurt you.”
“Come out here or we’ll have to hurt you?” Anna asked, and I could hear the confusion in her voice even though I couldn’t see it.
My eyes were focused on the foliage on the side of the street. There had to be some indication of where this bastard had gone, and I was going to find it.
“Yeah, that’s not very menacing,” Tara whispered.
“Maybe not, but it’s straightforward,” I said. “Non native speakers are more likely to understand simple phrases.”
“He’s right.” Paige nodded.
“Come out,” I repeated with another wave of my hand.
“Do you think he’s even still here?” Paige asked in a low voice.
“He’s here,” I said as I continued to look around the area.
Finally, my eyes landed on a broken tree branch near the side of the road. It was just a little ways down from where the NK soldiers had been sitting in the road, and I knew it had to be him.
The hairs on the back of my neck stood up, and my heart rate accelerated as I took a step toward the broken branch. My gut told me this had to be the right area, and I wasn’t about to let this asshole get away, especially not after seeing us take out his little buddy. We were damn sure not going to allow him to take that knowledge back to his NK buddies, wherever they might be.
“Come out!” I yelled, and this time my voice was utterly serious and my weapon was held at the ready.
I took another step toward the tree line, and off to the right I saw a plasma gun in the ditch.
“Paige,” I whispered. “Does the dead guy have a plasma gun on him?”
“Uhhh, hold on,” she whispered, and I heard her take a few steps back the way we’d come. “Yes, he does.”
That meant this sonofabitch wasn’t armed at all. His gun must have fallen off his hip while he was running.
“I’m going in,” I said, and I grabbed my tanto blade from my other hip and held it above my MP5 much like how a police officer would hold their flashlight.
“What?” Anna asked. “Are you sure?”
“Yeah, we could try to smoke him out somehow,” Paige offered.
“Fuck that,” I whispered. “We need to get this sonofabitch now and get back on the road. We’ve already wasted enough time here.”
“Be careful,” Bailey said softly.
“Always.” I nodded and took a step toward the tree line.
I moved carefully and kept my weapons at the ready, but I hadn’t gotten five steps into the trees when the NK soldier jumped out from behind a large bald cypress and tried to run further into the brush.
The foliage was thick, though, and he didn’t get very far. It was clear he was in a panic, and he stumbled over a vine, picked himself up, and tried to climb over several small bushes all at once.
I immediately assessed the situation and found he wasn’t armed at all. We were close range, but there was a lot of foliage for him to hide behind to block my shot, so instead, I holstered my M9 and flipped my tanto blade in my hand so it was primed for slicing.
The guy looked back at me with panicked brown eyes as he tried to stay out of my sight and navigate the foliage at the same time. It wasn’t working, though, and the next time he turned to look ahead of him, I leaped forward and landed just behind him.
The soldier spun toward me just as I brought my knife up, and the blade made contact with his chest, so I dug it in deeper as I pulled it all the way across his body to his other shoulder.
“Ahhh!” he screamed in pain and tried to push me away, but I was a lot bigger than he was.
Even in his drunken state, he could clearly feel the pain of the knife, because his grasp on my hands was weak as he tried to pry the knife out of them.
He wasn’t in any position to try and escape, though. I had him pinned against some dense foliage, and I’d already made a mean slice across his chest. This fucker wasn’t going anywhere.
Blood dripped down from his open wound, and his head flipped back and forth as he tried to push himself away from me.
I was growing tired of his drunken escape plan, so I fought against his grip and lifted my knife up to the soft spot under his chin.
His eyes grew wide as he comprehended what was happening, and he started to say something in Korean, and even though I couldn’t understand the words, I knew he was begging for his life.
I didn’t care, though. This sonofabitch had taken plenty of lives from American citizens, and it was time for him to pay.
He pulled down on my hand with all his might in an attempt to stop me from getting the blade into his throat, but I had far more muscle mass than he did. I gritted my teeth and yanked up as hard as I could and my blade sunk deep into his throat.
The man’s eyes went wide for a second, and his hands went limp on mine, so I yanked the knife from his throat and watched as blood poured down his chest to the thick foliage underneath us.
The life quickly drained from his cold brown eyes, and his body went still on top of the blood soaked dirt.
I leaned down and wiped my knife on his uniform, then I turned around to head back out to the girls but found them to be only ten feet away waiting for me.
“Fuck, is it wrong of me to say that was kind of hot?” Paige asked as she gave me a heated look and bit her bottom lip.
“I mean, yes,” Anna said. “But it was, so I guess I’m just as fucked up as you are.”
“It was so… carnal,” the platinum-blonde said, and she licked her lips and looked me up and down.
“You know, I can’t even remember what it was like when you were all innocent and didn’t know how to fight,” I laughed.
“Me, either, honestly.” Tara shrugged and continued to eye fuck me.
“Yeah, and I’m not mad about it, either,” Anna added.
“So, what should we do with these bodies?” Bailey asked.
“Yeah.” Paige nodded as she looked at the dead soldier behind me. “We don’t want to leave them around to be found.”
“I’m not sure anybody’s going to miss these two drunken assholes,” Anna scoffed and rolled her eyes. “But you’re right, we should probably dispose of the bodies.”
“Tav?” Hammer’s voice called out, and we all walked out of the tree line to see him make his way to the road with his weapon raised.
“Hey,” I said. “We’re over here.”
“Everything alright?” he asked. “I heard a shot, and well.”
He kicked the dead guy near his feet and shrugged.
“Yeah, we’re okay.” I nodded. “Thanks.”
“How many of them were there?” he asked. “I only heard the one shot.”
“Only two,” Bailey said.
“But they saw us, so we had to get rid of them,” Paige added.
“Right.” Hammer nodded. “I’m guessing you’re all done. Anything I can do to help with cleanup?”
“We were just trying to decide how we should dispose of them,” I said.
“Fire would probably be too noticeable,” Hammer said. “Especially since their crew must be nearby.”
“I was thinking that as well,” I agreed.
“Why can’t we just hide them in the woods?” Bailey asked. “Their bodies won’t last long out here, right?”
“That’s a good point,” Paige said. “There’s also plenty of wildlife around here.”
“What if their troop comes looking for them, though?” Anna pushed.
“Do you think they’re going to take the time to scour the forest?” Paige asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Fair point.” I nodded. “We should split them up, though, that way if they find one they won’t find both. We’ll be done with this mission before they’re found, though. We’ll make sure of that.”
“Alright,” Anna said, and she looked at Hammer, Paige, and Bailey. “You guys take that guy, we’ll handle this one.”
“Yes, sir,” Hammer chuckled.
“That’s right.” Anna grinned playfully and popped a finger gun at the SEAL.
“You’re ridiculous, you know that?” I laughed.
“Yeah, I do.” She smiled and rubbed her hands together. “Now, let’s hide a body.”
“You know, I always thought I’d have to hide a body at some point in my life,” Tara said as we walked over to the dead soldier and lifted him up. “I just didn’t think it’d be like this.”
“How did you think it would be?” Anna laughed.
“I figured one of my friends would, like, accidentally kill their boyfriend or something,” she said with a half shrug.
“You seem pretty nonchalant about that,” the redhead remarked.
“My friends didn’t have the greatest taste in men,” Tara said dryly.
“And in this hypothetical scenario of yours, they call you to help them with this dead body?” I asked.
“Uh!” the platinum-blonde scoffed. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing,” I said as we walked the guy back to a heavily overgrown area of the woods. “You’re just super tiny. I would think they might want to call a friend with a little bit more muscle, that’s all.”
“Hey, I’ve got plenty of muscle.” She glared at me.
“Yeah, now you do,” I chuckled.
“I guess I was pretty thin when you met me,” Tara laughed.
“Yeah, I definitely wouldn’t call you to help me move a body,” Anna said. “At least not before all this went down.”
“Whatev.” Tara rolled her eyes.
“To be fair, I wouldn’t call Paige or Bailey, either,” Anna added. “You all are teeny tiny cute girls.”
“Oddly, that makes me feel better,” Tara said, and she cocked her head to the side.
“Good,” the redhead laughed.
Once we were far enough into the brush, I nodded to the girls, and we set the guy down behind a large group of bushes.
“Should we cover him up?” Tara asked.
“I’m going to push him under the bushes,” I said. “Scoot some pine needles and stuff this way.”
“Oh, I see.” Tara nodded and used her hiking boot to push some of the plant litter toward me.
After the guy was snuggly tucked as far underneath the bushes as I could get him, I pushed the plant matter against him and fanned some out around it so it looked more natural.
My hope was that a large animal would find him and make quick work of him, but in case that didn’t happen, I wanted to get him as hidden as possible in case the NK soldiers did decide to comb the area looking for their missing buddies.
“Looks good,” Anna said as I stood up and admired my handiwork.
“I think so.” I nodded. “Let’s get going.”
“Yeah, we’ve already lost, what, half an hour?” Anna asked.
“Probably about that,” I agreed. “We’re making good time, though, so it will be alright.”
We got out to the road and found Paige, Bailey, and Hammer standing in the middle of it chatting.
“You all done?” Hammer asked.
“Done,” I agreed. “Let’s get this show back on the road.”
“Sounds good,” the SEAL said. “And, uh, listen, I know you asked me to stay at the jeeps with everyone, so I hope you’re not upset that I abandoned my post, I just heard the shot and didn’t think, I just sprung into action.”
“It’s alright,” I told him with a clap on the shoulder. “The girls and I can handle ourselves, but it’s nice to know we’ve got backup.”
“Always.” He grinned.
The girls, Hammer, and I headed back to the jeeps and found everyone gathered around waiting.
We didn’t have time to explain everything, though, so I just told everyone to load up, and we started down the bike path once more.
It seemed like the trip went by even faster then, and we made it to Jacksonville, Alabama before noon, but unfortunately, that was as far as the bicycle trail went. It got us past the roads that crossed the Alabama and Georgia border, though, and that was our main goal since that was where the NK had troops set up.
After we made it to Alabama, we followed Paige’s directions and took all back roads to get to a small part of the city called Roebuck that was close to the airport.
At that point, I knew we ran the risk of running into NK troops, even if it was a small risk, but it was the only way we would be able to get there quickly. Besides, there were too many of us and it would take far too long to try and walk from Jacksonville to Birmingham.
At least it was still daylight out, so we had a good eye line on everything around us, and the area wasn’t particularly hilly, so we were able to see a good distance in front of us at all times.
The outskirts of Birmingham was made up of a lot of smaller towns, and as we went through them, I was surprised to see just how trashed they were. There were broken down vehicles all over in random fields, though I wasn’t sure if they’d been there before the EMP hit or not. Some of them certainly looked like they had been. I saw some late 60s and 50s model cars, and each was more rusted than the last.
A few old farm houses sat a ways off the road, and they were quite pretty and reminded me of Betty’s home, but then there were places that looked more like shacks than homes.
Part of me suspected there might still be some survivors around here. It felt like the kind of place people who hunted and fished a lot lived. It also felt like most of the people around here probably had at least one weapon.
I saw several highway speed limit signs with bullet holes in them. It was probably the work of some drunken assholes just out raising hell, but it was still somewhat unnerving.
“Geez, this place is creepy,” Tara said as we drove.
“Yeah, it’s not great,” I agreed.
“Bad vibes all through here,” Anna chuckled, but her eyes were serious as she looked out the window.
“Does anyone else feel like somebody could just show up at any minute?” Paige asked. “Something tells me we’re not alone in this part of the woods.”
