Without Law 14, page 17
Most people didn’t.
We watched for about half an hour or so, and in that time we heard motorcycles come down the road, and four other men showed up in our sight line. After that, I called the group back further into the trees and had us huddle around.
“I’ve counted six enemies so far,” Missy said once we were in a circle.
“Good job,” I told her with a smile. “We can’t assume that’s all of them, though. There could be others.”
“What’s the plan?” Tara asked..
“Did you all see the back area?” I asked. “There’s a large tree that’s overgrown.”
“Yeah,” Anna agreed. “It looks like we could use the branch to get over the barbed wire pretty easily.”
“Right,” I told her. “We’re going to climb the fence and get to the roof of the building closest to there.”
“Did you see an outside ladder?” Bailey asked.
“I couldn’t see one,” I said with a shake of my head. “But we’ll check once we’re over there and have a better view. If there isn’t one, then we’ll have to go through the inside.”
“Are all the buildings unlocked?” Anna asked, and she looked to the Cadets.
“Oh, um, yeah,” Micheal said. “Or at least all the doors are opened. Some of them looked busted into, though.”
“Alright,” I said. “That’s enough to get us inside.”
“They have a grenade launcher,” Missy said, and she bit her lip. “How are we going to go up against that?”
“Easy,” Tara said with a shrug. “Take out the guy with the grenade launcher.”
“They probably have more,” Micheal pointed out. “We saw a few when we were here before.”
“I have no doubt that they have more,” I said. “But they don’t have them on themselves at the moment. They were playing around with it, it’s not one of their everyday weapons.”
“How do you know that?” Omar asked.
“If it was their go to weapon, then they wouldn’t waste the ammunition for it,” Anna said.
“I guess that makes sense,” Missy agreed with a nod.
“Cadets,” I said sternly. “Why are we going to make our way to the roof?”
“Oh, um, so that you have a vantage point,” Micheal stuttered.
“Good,” I congratulated the young man.
It was easy to tell that they were new to being out in the field, but they were picking up on things quickly, and they were trying their best. They might just make good soldiers yet.
“Missy,” I said, and her dark eyes snapped up to meet mine.
“Yes, sir?” she asked.
“What were you counting earlier?” I asked. “I saw you counting on your fingers.”
“Oh,” she said, and she looked down, embarrassed. “I was just counting the number of buildings to make sure I had gotten them right. And I was trying to figure out the distance between each building.”
“Nice work,” I said. “And did you get them right?”
“I thought there were four or five,” she said. “But I think there are six actually.”
“That’s what I counted as well,” Bailey agreed.
I smiled at the short haired brunette. Missy had managed to recall most of the layout of the arsenal even though they’d only been there once, and I found that quite impressive. She was also being innovative trying to figure out the distance between the buildings. It wasn’t something that we needed to know exactly, but I liked where her mind was at. She showed a lot of potential.
“Missy,” I said. “How much distance between the fence line and the building we’re headed to?”
“At least a thousand feet,” she said, and she bit her lips. “It’s pretty far.”
“That looks about right,” I told her. “Good job. It’s a bit less than that, but not by much.”
“Thanks,” she said with a small smile.
“Alright,” I said, and I looked around at everyone. “Are we all clear on the plan?”
Anna leaned in next to me, and she gave me a hard nod. The determined look on her face told me everything I needed to know about how this was going to go. She was in Major mode, and that was exactly how I needed her.
Tara looked at me with a set jaw that thinned out her usually pouty lips, and I knew that she meant business.
Bailey flashed me a soft smile, which was at odds with the large sniper rifle on her back, but I had total faith that she could get the job done.
Paige’s eyebrows were pulled together, and she bit her lip slightly to show that she was completely focused on the task at hand.
The Cadets all stared at me with unsure but determined looks, and I gave them a reassuring smile before I pulled away and gestured for everyone to follow me.
We made our way through the trees and toward the back of the compound, but as we did so we could hear several other shots get fired off. These guys were still playing around with their newly found weapons, and it bugged me because resources like that were so precious nowadays. It wouldn’t be easy to make more grenades or ammunition, not without the proper equipment and a decent bit of time. Depending on how the arsenal was set up and the supplies that it had on hand, we might be able to get it running at some point, but that wasn’t something I could think about at the moment.
Right then all that mattered was getting through the fence and up to the roof of the building. We needed to take out these guys and get those weapons. After that, we could figure out where we stood with the North Koreans, and then we’d be able to formulate a plan of attack. There was nothing we could do before we knew what we were up against, though. I most definitely wouldn’t underestimate my opponent, but I also wasn’t going to try and make a plan without seeing their forces up close first.
I heard a couple more motorcycles as we walked, and it sounded like they came from the road as well. That meant that there were probably more men now than there were before we had started through the trees. We’d need to do another tally once we made it over to the tree line behind the building. I wasn’t sure that we’d have a good view of the area where they were at from the tree line, but once we got on the roof we could most definitely take a quick tally before we started firing.
The compound was huge, and even though there weren’t many buildings, the ones that were there were massive. The entire place was surrounded by an eight to ten foot tall chain link fence, too, and at the top sat several strings of barbed wire to deter anyone who might try to get inside.
I had checked out the buildings before we started walking, and I saw that all of them were equipped with numerous cameras. Obviously they wouldn’t work now, but it was clear that this place had been heavily guarded at one point. Honestly, I was surprised that it had been abandoned. The Cadets had said that there were signs that someone had been there a while ago, but that it didn’t appear that anyone had been living there for any length of time. And if these motorcycle assholes had managed to stumble across the place and take it for their own, then there obviously wasn’t anybody here that was well trained.
I found the whole situation odd. This was the largest continuously running arsenal in the United States, so it made sense that the military would put someone in charge of watching out for it. Although, if some soldiers had been left in charge but nobody had come back for them, then they might have decided to leave, especially before winter hit.
I couldn’t imagine that a place like this would be well suited for survival in harsh weather. Most of the buildings appeared to be warehouses or workshops, and those weren’t easy to heat. There was probably nowhere for anyone to stay warm here, so they may have been forced to leave before winter or succumb to the elements.
As much as I loved my country, I understood leaving in that situation. I could always come back to my post, but I couldn’t bring myself back from the dead.
Everything around us was dry as we walked, and I was careful to keep the crunching under my feet to a minimum. The sun beat down on us through the trees, and I wiped sweat from my brow several times before we finally made it over to the tree line behind the compound.
Once we got to the area we had scouted, I gestured for the group to stay back while I made my way up to the tree line and scoped out the situation. It was just as I had thought from a distance, there was a large branch that had grown overtop the fence. It laid on the barbed wire and would make it easy for us to get over and climb down the other side.
It looked like the best way to get up would still be to climb the fence, and then grab onto the branch, pull ourselves over, and climb down the other side.
It would be tricky, especially with the men on the other side of the gate, but I’d have Bailey stay behind so that she could cover everyone.
There was a dumpster on the other side of the fence, and it looked like once it had gotten full people had just started to throw whatever trash they could over to the other side. I didn’t blame them, what else could be done when nobody was coming to collect the trash? It made our job a bit more difficult, though, considering that we had to navigate around it. There were boards with nails in them, sheet metal, and various other things that could cause injury. We’d all have to watch where we stepped, but as long as we could get up onto the tree then the mission would work out fine.
I went back to the group and pulled them all in together once more.
“It looks like this should be pretty straight forward,” I said. “We’ll climb up the fence on this side, use the branch to get over the barbed wire, then climb down the other side.”
“Sore arms, here I come,” Tara muttered, but I ignored her and looked around at each of my team members.
“Bailey, I want you to go last so that you can cover everyone as they go over,” I instructed.
“On it,” the blonde agreed with a nod.
“And once you’re over you get to the back of the building for cover,” I told everyone. “We can’t risk getting shot at while we’re climbing over the fence.”
“Roger that,” Anna said seriously.
“One more thing,” I said. “There’s a lot of debris by the tree, so be careful not to step on anything sharp as you go over. We don’t exactly have tetanus shots lying around.”
“Um, Tav,” Tara said sweetly. “What are we going to do with, you know?”
The platinum blonde used her head to gesture not so subtly over to the Cadets.
“Hey!” Missy exclaimed.
“Shh,” Anna warned her.
“Sorry,” the brunette said, and she slapped a hand over her mouth.
“See what I mean?” Tara asked with a raised eyebrow.
“We’ll do exactly what you tell us to,” Micheal said. “We’ll just observe.”
I thought for a moment about whether or not to allow the Cadets to come with us up to the roof, but ultimately I decided that was the best choice. I wanted them close to us so we could keep an eye on them. The last thing that we needed was one of them deciding that we needed their help, only to get shot because they revealed themselves to the enemy.
I hoped that none of them would be stupid enough to do something like that, but I couldn’t be sure. They were only Cadets, after all, and this would be their first real taste of battle. As long as they didn’t slow us down, then I didn’t see a reason to leave them behind.
“You all can come,” I said seriously. “But you have to be careful and follow directions. If I tell you to duck, you duck. If I tell you to run, you run. The same goes for any of the girls. If they give you orders you follow them.”
“Yes, sir,” the three of them said together.
“Alright,” I said. “Let’s do this.”
The Cadets were bound to make a mistake sooner or later. I hoped it would be later, but all rookies fucked up eventually. Even Anna had made a mistake, it happened. If they never got experience, though, then they’d never learn. Besides, I was confident that my team would be able to make up for whatever mistakes they might make.
I had the girls and the Cadets line up according to the order they’d go over the fence, with the Cadets being last besides Bailey. After that, I dropped my to go bag on the ground and secured my rifle around my chest so that there was no chance it would fall as I went over the fence. I also double checked the magazines I had on me and the one in my pistol.
Once I felt I was ready, I nodded to Bailey, and she nodded in return as she sunk to her stomach and aimed out into the compound.
I made my way over to the fence and lifted myself up. It wasn’t extremely tall, and I pulled myself up quickly and grabbed onto the branch that would allow me to get over the barbed wire fence unscathed.
Just as I grabbed onto the branch, though, I heard the sound of vibrating sheet metal, and I looked down to see Missy on a piece that sat next to the tree. She must have fallen onto it because she looked up at me with huge eyes full of surprise. The noise was loud, though, and I held my breath as I waited to see if any of the men inside had heard.
“What the hell was that?” I heard a male voice call, and I closed my eyes for a split second. I was livid, but I couldn’t focus on that now. Our cover was blown.
I pulled myself up to the tree branch and scooted back so that I had room to lay forward and pull my rifle out.
“Cadets, into the woods, take cover, now,” I hissed, and Missy looked up at me with eyes filled with tears before Micheal grabbed her and forced her further back into the trees. “Girls, get ready.”
My team was already spreading out into place to get criss-crossing fire lines before I said anything, so I leaned forward and lined up my rifle so that I had a good shot on whoever came from the side of the building directly in front of us.
Now that our cover was blown we’d lost the element of surprise. These guys definitely knew we were here, and all we could do now was fight.
“This way!” I heard another voice yell, and I narrowed my eyes as I peered through the sight of my rifle and waited.
We might have lost the element of suprise, but we weren’t out of the fight yet.
Chapter 12
“There’s somebody over there!” Someone shouted, and I had no idea if they saw any of us or not, but I couldn’t risk that they hadn’t so I knew we were going to have to fight, especially while we still had the advantage.
The long black haired man came around the corner with an M16 in his arms, but I had my sight on him already, let out a deep breath, and pulled the trigger.
My rifle exploded with a bang, and the dark haired guy flew backward with the force of the bullet that hit him dead in the forehead.
A couple of guys were right behind him, but they skidded to a halt and ducked back behind the building.
“Come on, you sonofabitch,” I said out loud as I focused in on the corner where the men were.
I knew my anger was getting the better of me, but at that point I didn’t care. I was ready to take out these assholes, and I was ready to do it right then.
A scattering of bullets came our way suddenly, and I turned to see that one of the men inside had run to the opposite end of the building to open fire. Before I could line up my sight, though, Bailey’s rifle sounded and the firing was halted as the guy fell face forward onto the pavement.
That was two, but there were at least four more, but most likely six more if the motorcycles we’d heard on our way over were any indication.
“Come out and fight like a man!” someone shouted, and I couldn’t help but roll my eyes.
I hated when people used that saying. Not only was it sexist, especially considering my female sniper had just taken out one of their men, but it was also just stupid. All that I heard when someone said that was an admission that they didn’t have enough skill to fight in typical combat. It was almost as if they were asking for an advantage. Why would I step out into the open so that some asshole could shoot me from behind his post. I never understood that phrase.
I didn’t even dignify that with a response, I simply lined up my shot so that it would hit the corner of the building and pulled the trigger.
Concrete burst off the wall and little pieces fell to the ground.
“Fuck off!” one of the men shouted, and he leaned the top half of his body out to let off a few rounds in our general direction.
There was no way they could see where we were among the trees. They were spraying and praying, which didn’t bode well for them. But they also had the cover of the concrete buildings, which made the situation more difficult.
The man who let off the rounds was taken out by a shot that I realized came from Anna’s gun. He fell forward with a spray of bullets and landed on the concrete.
That was three down, but at least three more to go.
These assholes had to come out sometime, but for the moment it was a standoff. They knew that as long as they stayed out of our line of vision then there was nothing we could do, but the longer we waited, they might break out some heavy artillery from the arsenal, and that would be dangerous.
After a few minutes without seeing any of the men, I was growing frustrated.
Suddenly, one of the men jumped from behind the building out into the open. He had a grenade launcher on his shoulder, and I quickly took aim and fired a round at his head.
I landed the shot, but it was too late, he had managed to pull the trigger.
Fuck.
But then Bailey let off a round.
And an explosion happened right in front of the fucker’s face where his launcher’s barrel was, and parts of his body flew in ten different bloody directions.
“Woahhhh!” I felt my eyes grow wide with shock as I realized what had just happened. There was no way that Baily could make that shot. She was an excellent sniper, but there was just no way.
But she’d just done it. She’d somehow shot a grenade out of the air just as he fired it.
The men inside the fence took the opportunity to attack, though, and we were suddenly under siege.
There were five of them leaning around the building, and I lined up my shot and took out the bald headed tattooed guy on the right. The rest of the men went down around the same time, and the spray of bullets around us came to a screeching halt.
