Without Law, page 18
“Wonderful,” Bailey said. “Just the image I needed to help me sleep tonight.”
“Don’t worry, if you need I am sure Tav can keep you warm and safe at night,” Tara cooed as she licked her lips. “He totally helped me sleep peacefully.”
“Uhhh.” Bailey’s face turned red as she looked at me and Tara. “You wanna like… share Tav?”
“Before you start making plans, I should probably tell you that I am going to head out for a while,” I interjected.
“What do you mean?” Anna asked.
“I am going to grab the motorcycle and head towards Lanceton. I need to see how much damage was done by the fire and if it would be worth us making a trip there at a later point,” I explained.
“Are we sure that is a good idea?” Paige asked.
“Yeah, what if more of those motorcycle creeps are hanging out on the roads?” Bailey asked.
“Look, Lanceton is not far away, and we could make use of the resources an actual town might have in it,” I said. “I won’t risk taking everyone there until I know that it is safe enough for a group trip, and there is no one here better suited for a scouting mission than me.”
“It could be dangerous though,” Bailey said.
“I wouldn’t worry ‘bout him,” Rolly chimed in. “He’s a Ranger and can handle himself. Or did you all forget how easily be took care of those goons the day we arrived?”
“And the bear!” Bailey added.
“Right,” Anna said. “We should be more concerned about our own safety while he is away.”
“Well, I won’t be gone long, and I have a spare pistol that I will leave with Rolly,” I said. “Just stick to the buddy system and go about your day as normal. You have all the tools in place to stay safe without me for a while.”
“You think you’ll have enough gas for the trip?” Rolly asked. “Would hate for ya to have to walk back.”
“I’ll take the spare fuel can, and some hose in case I need to siphon some more,” I said. “Shouldn’t be an issue though. Ten miles is barely a trip.”
“Are you leaving soon?” Anna asked.
“Yeah, as soon as I gather what I need for the trip,” I said with a nod. “The sooner I leave the sooner I get back and I would prefer not to be out past dark.”
“Well you better get a move on then,” Paige said with a smirk. “You’re just wasting time by standing here and talking to us.”
I grinned, nodded, and excused myself before heading for the dorm. She was right, but man, was it ever hard to leave such lovely ladies.
Chapter 14
I spent some time in my room in preparation for the coming trip. I used my bed as a staging area and laid out the rifle with twenty bullets first. The weapon was an almost perfect survival gun despite the smaller size of the projectile. My only wish was that I had managed to find a scope for the top.
Next was the springfield with all four full magazines. That gave me seventy six rounds for the pistol. Barring full scale conflict that would be more than enough for almost any situation. Any scenario that saw me going through all the 9mm ammo in a short time was a situation I was not walking away from.
Beside that I had set out a small selection of medical supplies. I was taking a few Band-Aids, some alcohol wipes, and a clean bandage. Again, if I needed more, it meant I was probably in a position I was not getting out of.
Perhaps one of the strangest items sitting on my bed was the chunk of garden hose. I thought it would be invaluable for helping me siphon gas if the need should arise.
A single gallon of gas sat next to my full plastic water bottle, candy bar, and small cooked chunk of bear. If I wanted to be safe about this, I needed to move slowly, especially once I got closer to Lanceton. That meant I should prepare for a long night even though it was only a ten mile drive.
I packed the meal, the tube, and the medical supplies into my backpack and tucked a folded list of the parts needed for the jeep into a pocket in my vest. My knife, freshly cleaned and sharpened, sat in its sheath, and the pistol was stuck in its holster. I grabbed the gas, the rifle and headed out the door. Rolly waited for me by the stairs.
I handed him the 9mm glock taken from the biker, and all the spare magazines.
“Ready to go?” The old man asked as he checked the weapon before he tucked it into his pants.
“Yeah,” I said with a nod. “Can’t promise I will be back at a reasonable time, but I will make myself known so you don’t shoot me on my return.”
“Girls are worried that you won't come back at all,” Rolly confessed. “They didn’t want to say it to your face though. Thought you might take offense.”
“I’ll play it safe,” I said with a chuckle. “No needless heroics for me.”
“Unless there are some more ladies in need of rescue at least,” Rolly joked with a grin.
“Well we’ll see what waits for me in Lanceton,” I said. “Though I have a feeling that I won’t find anyone quite as lucky as you all.”
“No,” Rolly said as his smile faded. “Guessing you probably won’t.”
“I think it's best not to dwell on what the world outside might be like,” I advised.
“You’re right,” Rolly said. “Especially when we are doing so well here.”
I gave him a smile, nodded, and headed down the stairs. “See you soon old man.”
“I’m counting on it,” he called out.
I found the girls around the motorcycle. They talked among themselves and waved at me as I approached.
“Done with the dogs already?” I asked.
“We just wanted to say goodbye,” Bailey said.
“I’m not moving away,” I said as I swung a leg over the bike and took a seat.
“But this is like a big deal,” Tara said. “No one has left since all of this started.”
“Yeah but I haven't been here long,” I responded.
“You’re right, we shouldn’t even care what happens to you,” Paige said with obvious sarcasm.
“Right? He hasn’t even done much since he arrived,” Anna said before she stuck out her tongue.
“Alright, I get it,” I said with a chuckle. “Though I expect things to get done while I am gone.”
“Alright, dad,” Anna mocked with a grin.
“Ew, can we not call him that?” Bailey asked with a disgusted grimace.
“I dunno, I kinda like it,” Tara purred.
“Oh my god, please leave, Tav. Maybe then this conversation will end.” Paige groaned, and the rest of the girls laughed.
“That I can do,” I said as I stuck the keys in the ignition. The motorcycle rumbled to life beneath me, and I popped the kickstand up. I gave the girls a salute and rolled towards the hill.
It took me barely a minute to zip through town and make my way onto the mountain road. Even without a map the bright green road signs made my journey easy.
The first five miles flew by as the wind whipped my beard wildly around my face, and the desolate world passed me by. The abandoned cars that dotted the road in random intervals ensured that I never was able to get too fast, but I enjoyed the ride, nonetheless. The emptiness of the world was still strange. Especially since none of the cars held corpses or more than minor damage. The whole thing was uncanny, as if everyone had just up and disappeared, and I almost preferred the warzones that I had long left behind.
A couple miles later the motorcycle sputtered, and I noticed the tank was almost empty. I cursed myself for not checking the tank sooner and pulled off the road by a powder blue Subaru. There was a bridge up ahead that curved over a lazy river, and I used the gas can to fill up the tank of my motorcycle, while I listened to its soothing sound, and headed for the blue Subaru.
The car was unlocked, but a brief look inside came up with nothing of value, though for once it was not what was in the cab that I was interested in. I took out the hose and started to siphon gas from the now useless car, but, as I knelt there refilling my gas can, the roar of approaching engines ruined my casual mood. I carefully set down the gas, returned to my motorcycle, and wheeled it off the road and into the woods. Then I readied my rifle and headed deeper into the woods before I headed towards the noise.
The sounds of the engines stopped and were replaced by faint voices as I picked my way slowly through the forest. My every step was a calculated risk based on what was in front of me as I tried to make as little noise as humanly possible. My only guide had been the rumbling of motorcycle engines, and when they died, the faint voices of their riders. I picked my way up a ridge and found a good spot overlooking the bridge and the three men who now stood upon it. No matter how still I sat I could not make out what they were saying, but I at least had a good line of sight.
Each of the three men was dressed in jeans, various color shirts, and matching black leather vests. The patch emblazoned on the back of them matched the same one the two corpses back in town bore.
Nothing about this situation was good. Even if they were not headed for the school, they were still far closer than I wished them to be. Not even ten miles felt a safe distance when they had bikes but I would have to hope that they found all they wanted and more in Lanceton for a while.
I sat there, staring at them over the top of my gun, as they all stood around having a smoke and laughing about something I still could not hear. They finished their smoke, flicked the butt over the side of the bridge, and turned to head back to their rides. That’s when I noticed the gore crusted human skull hanging from the belt of a lanky biker.
Not just the dogs had started to go feral.
Things were worse than I had feared. I could guess anyone hanging out in Lanceton was either in a bad way or taking trophies with the animals these men had become. My finger slid onto the trigger as any reservations I may have held about killing these men vanished.
The three met at their bikes and one, a short broad-shouldered fellow with black hair, pulled out a piece of paper, looked at it, and threw a thumb behind him towards Lanceton. However, he turned to the man at his left, the tall lanky redhead with the skull trophy, and pointed up the road towards the campus.
Whatever was on that paper seemed like it was bad news for me and my team. It could be a map, or simply a list of orders. I needed to see what it was. There was a chance it would keep me one step ahead of the goons beneath me, and there was no way any of these guys was getting off this bridge alive anyway.
I had to work fast as my targets were already starting to mount their bikes. The black haired man was farthest from me as he swung onto his bike. I took aim and fired off a shot and was rewarded with a loud ping as my bullet tore a hole through his metal helmet and splattered his face across the pavement.
The tall guy froze with his hand at his hip as the other, the skull-taker, fired up his bike.
I swiftly downed the frozen biker with a shot to the heart as the third one started to pull away. I acquired my next target with practiced ease and squeezed the trigger. A spurt of red filled the air to confirm that I hit my target.
The man cried out, an action that none of the others had the luxury of taking, and lost control of the bike. He struggled to regain control but instead slammed into and through the guardrail, then fell and landed in the water below with a splash.
Things went quiet, but I waited. I worked the lever on the rifle and kept it trained on the far side of the bridge. It wasn’t until the sounds of the forest started to emerge around me once more that I decided it was safe, slung the rifle onto my shoulder, and headed down towards the bridge.
I pulled my pistol as I broke free of the trees and stepped onto the pavement. There was no such thing as being “too careful” in situations like this one. I kicked at the burly black haired man despite the fact that part of his lower jaw sat on the ground beside him. I wasn’t in the mood to take chances so I kicked at the second body too before I holstered my gun and started to search the bodies.
I pulled a .44 magnum from the pants of the first man, along with ten extra bullets from his front pocket. The second guy had a desert eagle, and two spare magazines in a holster strapped to his thigh. I couldn’t help but chuckle as I stripped these men of their weapons. To say that these pistols were impractical for defense would be an understatement. Sure, they could work for hunting, but I doubted that either of them knew how to handle the higher caliber handguns.
I flipped over the body of the first man and found the paper still clutched in his, now bloody, hands. I pulled it free and studied the badly crumpled hand-drawn map. The scale was undoubtedly off, and there was nothing save for simple road lines, a crude compass rose, and a series of written instructions on the side that detailed the plan. These guys had been sent to Lanceton and were then told to keep scouting north. If I had left them alone, they would have gotten to the school.
I folded the paper and tucked it into a vest pocket. Even though it was crude, I had a feeling Paige could help me figure out where these guys had come from using the maps and charts she had found in the library.
This was good, it gave us the upper hand. We might not know how many of them were out there, but we knew where they were coming from and would soon know how to get there.
I headed for their bikes and rummaged through the side bags as I started to roll them off the bridge and into the woods. Once I had hid them, I searched through their saddle compartments. The first bike had a bottle of water, a bag of chips, and half a bottle of whisky, and the second had nothing but pornography and cigarettes. I rolled my eyes and returned to the bodies.
It took me a few minutes, but I managed to drag the men to the side of the bridge and drop them into the water below. However, as I dropped the second corpse over the side I heard a groan and looked over to see the third biker trying to claw his way up towards the bridge.
He was covered in not only the blood from the shot but also from the fall, and he grunted softly with every movement. He looked up and noticed me above him. “You motherfucker. I’ll fucking kill you!”
Blood spewed from his mouth with every word he spoke, and I frowned as I pulled out my pistol. It took me only a moment to decide that talking with this man was pointless. He wouldn’t be able to tell me anything useful even if he wasn’t on the verge of death.
Besides, I didn’t really want to spend any more time on these assholes.
I aimed and pulled the trigger but this time the bullet found his face.
The biker slumped forward with a wet thud and began to slide down the muddy embankment towards the water once more.
I holstered my gun, let out a small sigh, and looked to the partially cloudy sky. It had been too much to hope that this would be a simple trip, but at least I’d taken care of three assholes. I bagged my new gear, headed back to my bike, and then fired up the engine.
My day wasn’t over, and there was a lot more to explore.
I continued on towards Lanceton, and the next few minutes of the trip zipped by. I stopped once I could make out the silhouette of the town in the distance. It looked quiet, but I didn’t want to take any chances. So I turned off the motorcycle, worried its noise might give me away, rolled it into the treeline, and continued in on foot. If anyone was there, I wanted to know about them before they knew about me.
There were far more businesses and cars here than where I had come from, and Lanceton, as a whole, looked more like what I had come to expect from post disaster towns. Broken glass littered the blacktop, some vehicles were torched or crunched, and there was even the occasional splash of dried blood. However, this place seemed to be as abandoned as where I had come from. I didn’t see anyone hiding in houses, and there was no sound except my boots thudding across the ground.
It was hard to believe that a place this large was completely devoid of life, and if they had some sort of evacuation, there would have been signs of that too. However, I concluded that if anyone had decided to stick around Lanceton, there was little reason to show themselves, especially when the last guys to roll through were probably those bikers.
I made my way past countless quiet houses as I trekked towards the center of town. While larger than the campus town, Lanceton was still not a big place, and I found myself in a small downtown area after only a few minutes.
There was a small park in the center of downtown with some trampled flower beds, lush green trees and a cobblestone walking path. It would be almost idyllic if not for the large burnt our husk of a police station looming behind it. It's still smoking stone walls were now black with soot that mostly obscured the words POLICE STATION that had been etched over the front door.
I could make out a single, headless, burned body lying in front of the building on the street. I approached slowly in case someone was lurking nearby and knelt next to the body. Even now I could still feel the heat radiate from the burned out station as I inspected the corpse.
The body was badly burned but I could make out a metal police badge, now melted, on the chest. At least someone had been left in this town.
I looked up at the police station and wondered if any other officers had been inside. The thought turned my stomach, and I looked away. I sighed but noticed the auto parts store tucked in between a hardware store and a post office just across the way. Like the rest of the town most of the windows here were broken too, but it didn’t look like many of the interiors had been ransacked. Wherever the people went, they did so in a hurry.
I stepped through the broken plate-glass window and into the interior of the auto parts store. I pushed past the front counter and into the aisles of categorized and boxed inventory. The ground was littered with empty boxes and miscellaneous parts. It looked like almost anything that could be used on a motorcycle had been stripped from the shelves.
The most difficult part of getting the parts of the jeep was figuring out the shop’s organizational system. Though once I did I was pleasantly surprised to find the parts I needed sitting in dusty boxes in a dark corner. I found a paper bag in the shop big enough to hold the parts and headed back to the square.
