Without Law 19, page 15
“I was thinking the same thing,” I agreed. “I’m sure the people who live out here have managed just fine on their own.”
“You think?” Tara asked.
“It doesn’t even really look like the NKs have come through here,” Paige pointed out.
“Hm, it probably wasn’t really on their radar.” Anna nodded. “Most of these… houses are still standing.”
“I like that you stumbled on houses,” I laughed. “I had the same thought. Some of these are basically shacks.”
“This looks like it was probably the kind of place where those cannibals came from.” Bailey shuddered.
“It does,” I agreed.
I kept my eyes peeled as we drove through these small towns, but not just for NK soldiers, for citizens as well, and when we finally got closer to the city, I breathed a sigh of relief to be out of the woods.
That relief was immediately washed away by dread as soon as I saw the city. As we entered the suburbs of Birmingham, my jaw nearly dropped at how leveled the place was.
A lot of the buildings were reduced to rubble, and the street was littered with dust and dead, decomposing bodies.
There was no question as to what happened, either. All the bodies had distinctive burn wounds that indicated it was the NKs who’d done it.
My blood boiled as I took in the sight of what once was a thriving city now reduced to dust and decay. I’d seen plenty of cities destroyed, but this was by far the worst, and I shook my head as I pulled into a storage unit area and parked the jeep between the rows of containers.
“Jesus,” Anna breathed after I shut the jeep off.
“It’s awful out there.” Paige shook her head.
“Ugh, it makes me so mad,” Tara said, and she narrowed her eyes and clenched her fists. “This has gone too far.”
“Do you think that’s what all the west coast looks like?” Bailey asked quietly.
“It might be,” I said with a shake of my head. “But right now, we’ve got to focus on the task at hand.”
“Right.” Paige nodded. “The airport isn’t that far away, we should be able to walk over there from here.”
“Good,” I agreed, and I hopped out of the vehicle and walked over to where Hammer and the rest of the group were gathered around. “How’s everyone doing over here?”
“A little pissed,” Jess, the female pilot said. “But other than that, I’m alright, I guess.”
“Good to know,” I chuckled. “I know seeing our country like this isn’t easy, but we’re going to do whatever it takes to take it back.”
“Fuck, yeah, we are.” Ben grinned.
“Paige says we’re close enough to the airport we can get there easily from here,” I said. “But first, let’s open up some of these storage units and pull the jeeps in. I don’t want to leave them out in the open since the NKs have MiGs flying around.”
“Good idea,” Hammer said as he looked around. “I’m surprised more of them aren’t broken into.”
“I bet most people didn’t think to check these,” Anna said. “If they had one they either came and got what they needed out of it, or they left it behind.”
“Yeah, and they don’t seem easy to break into,” Paige said. “At least not without some heavy duty bolt cutters.”
“That’s fair.” Hammer nodded.
“We don’t need bolt cutters, though.” Anna grinned, and she pulled her plasma gun from her hip and shot the lock on one of the nearby storage units.
“Good shot,” Paige said, and she walked over and tried to lift the roll up door, but instead she grunted under the weight of it and gave up after a few seconds. “Jesus, it’s stuck.”
“Here,” Hammer said, and he gestured to me. “Come on, Tav, give me a hand.”
“You got it,” I laughed, and Hammer and I walked over to the door and gripped the bottom. “One, two, three.”
The SEAL and I yanked up with all our strength, but even with our combined muscle, it took a good few seconds before the metal broke out of place and slid up with a terrible creaking sound.
“Maybe that’s why they’re not broken into,” Tara said.
“Yeah, not being opened for a while definitely eroded them into place,” Paige said, and she wrinkled her nose as she looked at the storage unit.
Unfortunately, once the unit was open, we found it to be jam packed with the most random shit I’d ever seen. There was a foosball table, a cabinet filled with fine china, some sort of antique doll collection that gave me the absolute creeps, and tons and tons of boxes with various labels.
“What the fuck is this?” Hammer asked with a shake of his head.
“I bet that unit’s worth like two grand,” Tara said.
“What?” I asked.
“Haven’t you ever seen that show?” the platinum-blonde asked. “The one where people go to storage units and buy them when people stop paying on them?”
“It’s pretty good,” Paige added. “They auction the units off and people sell the stuff they find inside.”
“Yeah, but they’re not allowed to look inside before they buy it,” Tara said with a nod.
“No, I’m afraid I haven’t seen that.” I shook my head and pushed a hand through my hair as I tried not to laugh at how ridiculous the girls were.
“You know, sometimes I think it’s good people don’t have TV anymore,” Hammer whispered to me.
“I heard that,” Tara scoffed.
“Aaaalllright,” Hammer said with a clap. “Onto the next.”
Tara glared at the SEAL, but she pulled out her plasma weapon and shot another lock off one of the units.
“There,” the platinum-blonde said, and she cocked her hip to the side and gave him a sarcastic smile. “Now you guys gotta get it open.”
“Your woman’s feisty,” Hammer chuckled as we walked over to the unit.
“That’s how I like ‘em,” I laughed and winked at the SEAL.
“Good to know.” He grinned as he leaned down to grab the rolling door.
Tara’s plan backfired on her since this door was a lot easier to open than the last one, and I saw the platinum-blonde cross her arms and huff as Hammer and I lifted the door fully.
This unit was less full, but there was still a decent amount of shit inside. There was an old red leather couch that looked like it was from the late eighties, some hippie style tapestries with weed and the Jamaican flag colors on them, along with some boxes labeled ‘Charlie’s stuff’, and finally, a small stuffed raccoon that sat in the corner all on its own.
“Okay, is it me or is this creepier than the last one?” Hammer asked.
“Definitely creepier,” I chuckled. “But at least a vehicle can fit in this one.”
“Fair enough.” He nodded. “Now we just need two more like this.”
“Let’s get it.” I smiled and shot the lock on the next storage unit over.
It was only early afternoon by that point, so we still had plenty of time to get things done today, and I’d rather spend the extra few minutes to get our vehicles hidden than have them be seen by a MiG flying overhead.
While I wasn’t sure one of the pilots would notice us, I didn’t want to take that chance, and there really weren’t a lot of great places to hide three jeeps and sixteen people in the city, so this was our best bet.
Finally, we managed to find three storage units cleared out enough for us to pull into.
“We call dibs on one of them without the raccoon,” Tara said once I’d announced we had three.
“Hey, no fair,” Jess laughed. “I don’t want the raccoon.”
“Me, either!” Minji chuckled.
“Honestly, I don’t think anybody wants the raccoon,” Hammer said, and he looked into the storage unit. “That thing is creepy.”
“Get rid of it,” Tara said. “Then nobody has to have it.”
“What am I supposed to do with it?” Hammer asked.
“I don’t know, throw it in one of the other storage units,” the platinum-blonde suggested.
“Alright.” He nodded. “I’ll get rid of it, but only because I don’t want to sleep by that thing, either.”
“Oh, we’re still not taking that unit.” Tara shook her head. “That thing was in there far too long. And not to play the pregnant card, but, I meaaannnn.”
Tara gestured down to her stomach and shrugged.
“You’re awful,” Minji chuckled. “But fine, we’ll take that unit. I’m sure the SEALs don’t mind.”
“Speak for yourself,” Hammer joked.
The SEAL went into the unit and retrieved the stuffed little raccoon and walked him over to one of the other units we weren’t using, then he promptly threw him inside, closed the door, and brushed his hands off.
“Who stuffs a raccoon anyway?” Tara asked.
“Yeah, isn’t stuffing things for, like, larger animals?” Paige asked. “Usually it’s for trophy kills like huge deer and things like that.”
“I mean, you can get anything stuffed.” I shrugged. “The taxidermist doesn’t care.”
“Poor little raccoon.” Bailey frowned.
“It would be you who’d sympathize with that gross little thing,” Tara said, and she turned to glare at Bailey, then point at the unit the raccoon had just been thrown in. “You know that thing would try to eat you if it were alive, right?”
“No it wouldn’t,” Bailey laughed.
“I mean, she’s kinda got a point.” Anna shrugged. “You haven’t had the best experiences with wild animals.”
“That’s not my fault,” Bailey scoffed. “Wrong place at the wrong time is all.”
“Sure, sure.” Tara nodded unconvincingly.
“You’re so mean,” Bailey chuckled. “Raccoons are adorable. They’re little trash pandas.”
“They’re little rabies pandas is what they are,” Tara said.
“I’m with Bailey,” Minji said with a shrug. “I think they’re pretty cute.”
“Definitely not cute.” Hammer wrinkled his nose as he walked up to us and wiped his hands on his pants. “Are we ready to go?”
“It looks like it,” I said, and I turned to Paige. “Do you have our route mapped out?”
“I do.” The brunette nodded. “But I mapped it out using the map I have, which isn’t going to allot for all the broken down buildings and stuff. But we’re going to mostly be in the trees by the airport, so it shouldn’t make too much of a difference.”
“Alright,” I said. “Let’s pull the jeeps in, then everyone gather your supplies and we’ll follow Paige over there.”
The group nodded, and I hopped in the jeep and pulled it into one of the storage units we’d found. It was just large enough to fit, and once it was in, I opened the tailgate so the girls and I could grab our bags.
“There’s a lot of storage units around here,” Anna said as we gathered up everything. “You think we’ll be able to find them pretty easily?”
“Hm.” I pursed my lips. “You’re right, if we need to leave quickly, it might be difficult to find them fast enough. We should mark them somehow so we know which ones are which.”
“What should we use?” Paige asked.
“Oh, I think I saw some paint in one of the units,” Bailey said, she ran over to one of the other units we opened, then returned with a small can of dark green paint.
“Nice,” I told her. “Let’s not make it too obvious, just do a line just past the edge of the door.”
“On it.” The blonde waited for me to close the door, then she marked ours before she moved on to Hammer and the pilots’ doors while I closed the rest of the ones we’d opened.
We were pretty close to the airport, and just in case some of the NK troops patrolled over this way, I didn’t want them to come back and see a bunch of doors open. That would be suspicious in and of itself.
A small green line was a lot easier to write off, and after Bailey was done, I gathered the team up and gave them the rundown of how things were going to be. I’d only worked with the SEALs up until now, and I wanted to make sure there was absolutely no confusion with the pilots.
“Alright,” I said with a small clap. “Everyone stay close while we’re walking.”
“Right.” Jess nodded.
“And if we get into trouble and have to hide,” I said. “Even if you have a shot, don’t take it unless I shoot first.”
“You shooting is our signal to shoot, then?” Jess clarified.
“That’s right,” I agreed. “We have to be careful while we’re here. We absolutely cannot give away our presence before we attack.”
“Which means, if we do run into anybody, our best bet is to hide as long as they haven’t seen us.” Minji nodded.
“Yes,” I said. “If we take out any of the men in this area, it could easily clue in the rest of the troops to the fact that they have a fox in the henhouse. We don’t want that at all.”
“Are we attacking tonight?” Jess asked.
“We’ll see,” I told her. “Since it’s still early, I’d like to do some reconnaissance today and see what we’re working with. I imagine they don’t have a lot of men around here, probably only a few troops to protect the planes.”
“I can’t imagine they’d need much aside from that,” Minji said with a shake of her head. “This place is absolutely destroyed. I doubt there’s a single survivor left.”
“I know.” I nodded. “It looks like they only left a few smaller parts of the city intact , but we’ll worry about rebuilding the city later, right now, we just have to take it back.”
“You’re right,” Minji said.
“Everyone has their go bag and some water?” I asked, and the group nodded. “Alright, follow Paige.”
“This way.” Paige smiled and made her way out of the storage unit area and onto the road beyond.
We were all cautious as we walked along the street. I could feel the tension of the group, and it matched my own. There could be NK troops anywhere around here, and I made sure I had my weapon ready to go at all times.
Once we were out actually walking through the city, a small section though it was, I realized just how incredibly awful it was up close.
When we drove in, I didn’t stop to look at anything in particular, but now, I couldn’t help but take in the sights and smells all around me. The street was covered with rubble and trash, and every now and then I saw a decaying body. The buildings that were still standing had plenty of markings to show the NK troops had been here. There were burn marks from their plasma weapons all over, and I shook my head at the thought of how many innocent people died here.
We were nearing the small section of trees near the airport when suddenly, a crunching sound made me spin around.
Tara’s wide open eyes caught mine, and I looked down at her foot.
“What the fuck did I just step on?” she asked, but she closed her eyes and took a deep breath instead of looking down.
“Ummm,” Anna said as she crouched down near the platinum-blonde’s foot. “This is just a wild guess, but I’m going to say a skull.”
“A skull?” Tara asked, and she flung herself backward and nearly took out Minji in the process.
On the ground in front of her was a small pile of shattered bones, and as I looked at the pieces, I could clearly see an eye socket.
“I think Anna’s right.” I nodded.
“I stepped on a fucking skull?” Tara asked, and her whole body shivered. “Jesus Christ. This place is awful.”
“Aww, I feel bad for them.” Bailey frowned.
“Don’t feel bad for them, they’re dead,” Tara scoffed. “Feel bad for me, I’m the one who stepped on it.”
“You’re terrible.” Bailey smiled and shook her head.
“I thought bones were supposed to be, like, super tough,” Tara said. “How the hell did I break this one?”
“How’d you step on it in the first place?” Anna countered. “Watch where you’re going.”
“Uh, I was a little busy looking out for NK assholes, thank you very much.” Tara glared at her redheaded friend.
“Whoever this was has probably been here for quite some time,” Paige said as she crouched down and used a stick to push around the bones. “My guess is they were weathered and it cracked more easily than they usually would have. It also doesn’t look like the entire skull is here, so there was probably only half of it to begin with. I’m betting it splintered from where it had already split when you stepped on it.”
“Well, shit,” Tara sighed. “I do feel kind of bad.”
“How long do you think this person was here?” Bailey asked. “I thought it took a long time for someone to become a skeleton.”
“Not necessarily.” Paige shook her head. “Depending on the environment, sometimes it only takes weeks.”
“Weeks?” the blonde asked, and her jaw dropped. “You mean this person could have been here just a few weeks ago.”
“In this case, I highly doubt it,” Paige said. “Like I said, this isn’t even a full skull, and it’s been quite weathered. They probably were bones before winter hit.”
“I’d think that would be right.” Minji nodded. “Especially since the humidity would speed up the process a bit.”
“I guess I didn’t think about the environment having a role in it,” Bailey said, and she bit her lip.
“It certainly does,” Hammer said. “Just ask Tav. He’s done tours overseas, I’m sure he’s seen how fast bodies skeletonize over there because of the heat.”
“It’s true,” I agreed, but I shook my head all the same.
Hammer was right, I’d seen what happened in Afghanistan and Iraq, but thinking about the same thing happening at home made me sick to my stomach. Bailey kept saying ‘person’ in reference to the skeleton, and that in itself made my gut wrench because she was absolutely right. This skeleton used to be a person, and they’d died for no real reason.
This war was bullshit, and it reminded me of why no wars had been fought on American soil in so long. We were a super power, and nobody dared come after us on our own turf. Usually, we stepped in to help others if anything.
However, not having war at home had made most citizens completely oblivious to what we went through when we were fighting. I’d met plenty of people who didn’t seem to understand what it was like, they just said war was bad, and we shouldn’t be in it to begin with. They’d thank me for my service, but their ignorance put a sour taste in my mouth that I couldn’t seem to shake for days afterward.
