Without Law 14, page 20
“No, I’ll do it,” Paige told the redhead with a smile. “You always take the second shift.”
“Thanks,” the redhead replied with a look of gratitude.
“Wake me up in a few hours,” Paige told me.
“I will,” I promised.
I stayed out with the fire for a few more minutes before I put it out and followed the girls into the warehouse where they’d set up our beds. Everyone had already laid down by the time I got there, and most of them were asleep.
I found a large box to sit on that had a good view through one of the windows, and I stared out into the darkness. The moon and stars were bright in the sky so I was able to see the pavement and the fence, but not much else.
I looked out into the darkness and thought about everything that had happened over the past few days. The world had changed a lot in the past year and a half, and we’d known about the Koreans for a long time, but part of me hadn’t thought it was true. There had only been small things to indicate their presence up to this point, but now we’d actually seen a fighter jet, and the Cadets and Mitchells had seen their army.
Even though we’d found the first note about the Koreans last year, it was still hard to wrap my mind around the fact that they were actually here.
I looked over to the sleeping forms of the girls and the Cadets and thought about them and my family back home. We had so many people now that relied on us, and we needed to keep them safe at all costs.
Those at the farm and the fort relied on the girls and I, but I knew that the girls relied just as much on me. We were a team, but I was their leader, their protector, and I would do whatever I could to make sure that we all made it through this alive.
I’d been in enough war zones to know that casualties were something that couldn’t be avoided in most cases, but that wasn’t an option for me now. Just the thought of one of the girls being taken away from me was enough to make my blood boil.
I wouldn’t allow it. I couldn’t.
The war was only beginning, but I’d make sure my people won. I didn’t have a choice.
Chapter 13
The next morning I woke up before the others and found Paige in the same spot I’d been the night before.
“Hey,” she whispered as I walked over. “I was going to wake everyone here soon. The sun should be up within the hour.”
“Why don’t we go make some coffee for everyone?” I suggested.
“Sure,” she said with a smile, and I reached out my hand to help her down from the crate.
We left the others spread out on the warehouse floor asleep, and made our way over to the fire pit we’d used the night before to make dinner. I started working on the fire while Paige ran to the jeep and got the coffee and cups.
We rinsed out the bowl Tara had used for dinner the night before, then once the fire was big enough we put the pot on to boil.
It was still dark out, but the light of the fire helped, and I could just barely see the dawn begin to make its appearance on the horizon.
“So, what are you going to do with the Cadets once we get back?” Paige asked with a sweet smile.
“What do you mean?” I chuckled.
“I just mean are they going to stay at the fort or come with us to campus?” she asked.
“Oh,” I said with a nod, and I thought for a moment. “We’ll give them the choice, of course, but I’d prefer if they came to campus. It’d be easier to train them there.”
“They seem really set on becoming soldiers,” the brunette remarked.
“They are from West Point,” I agreed. “You don’t go there unless it’s in your soul, but there are plenty of other things they could do, too. I’ll only train them past the basics if they want it. I don’t want to pressure anybody.”
“I don’t think you have to worry about that,” she laughed. “They seem like the ones who are putting on the pressure.”
“True,” I chuckled as I thought about Micheal’s incessant questions in the car the day before.
“They’re sweet, though,” Paige said with a smile. “They seem to be looking for a purpose.”
“Doesn’t everyone do that?” I countered softly.
“Well, sure,” the brunette said. “But they haven’t quite found theirs, yet. We all have our purpose.”
“And what purpose is that?” I asked.
“We’re here to protect our family and our community,” she said. “We’ve managed to build so much out of practically nothing. I don’t know if the world will ever go back to being the same as it was before the EMP hit us, but part of me hopes that it doesn’t. I like how simple everything is now. I mean, aside from the war we’re apparently in, at least.”
“I understand,” I said with a small nod. It was nice to live in a world without too much technology bogging everyone down. We worked to survive, and it gave us a sense of purpose and well being.
Before, people would get so bored since they didn’t have to do anything in order to live, that they’d end up barely living at all. There were so many options and everything was just a click or a drive away, so nothing was urgent. Now, though, we took time to live in the moment, to stop and enjoy the view or drink booze that others would have saved for a special occasion. Every day was a special occasion now.
I poured the grounds of coffee into the boiling water and watched as they swirled around. The water turned dark in color and the pungent aroma of coffee filled the air.
“Yum,” Bailey said with a yawn as she and the rest of the group walked over to us. “Is that coffee I smell?”
“It is,” I said with a smile. “We figured everyone could use a pick me up.”
“We were going to wake you up in just a few minutes,” Paige said. “It’s just now getting light out.”
“I think there’s some power bars in the jeep that Betty packed for us,” Anna said.
“That sounds like an easy breakfast,” I agreed. “And I want everyone to drink at least one bottle of water before we leave for the day.”
It would be easy to get heat stroke with how hot it had been recently, and I didn’t want to even risk that with my team. The Cadets were new to traveling with us, and I wanted to make sure they got enough to drink as well. I knew that they already felt like they hadn’t provided anything in order to tag along, so I wanted to make sure that they didn’t skimp on the water in an effort to save more for us. We’d packed plenty of supplies for all of us, and I didn’t want them to go thirsty or hungry when they didn’t need to.
Everyone nodded their agreement about the water, and Anna went to the jeep and came back with enough power bars and bottles of water for all of us.
“Thank you,” I told the redhead as she passed me my water and breakfast bar.
“Thank you for making coffee,” she chuckled.
“I miss coffee,” Missy sighed.
“Have you had any since the EMP hit?” Bailey asked.
“Yeah,” Micheal answered. “We had some for a while that had been left in the school cafeteria, but I think it was the first thing we ran out of.”
“We were drinking it like crazy trying to stay awake all the time,” Missy explained. “We were worried that we’d miss something if all of us went to sleep.”
“You all must have been terrified,” I said with a frown.
“After everyone left it was kind of scary being on campus alone,” Omar admitted. “It’s a big place, and we had to try and keep watch on it all.”
“So did you just survive off of the food that was in the cafeteria?” Paige asked.
“Pretty much,” Missy said. “We did head into town a couple of times to see what we could find, but it wasn’t much. The stores there had been hit pretty hard. The guard took some of our supplies when they left with the older students, but they left us some so we just rationed.”
“Did you do any hunting?” Bailey inquired. “There’s got to be some woods around the school, right?”
“There are,” Micheal answered. “The only thing we got was a couple of deer over the winter.”
“How’d you get deer if you didn’t have guns?” Bailey asked. “Did you somehow set a trap?”
“Or take it out with a knife?” Anna asked curiously. “That seems super hard.”
“Actually, Missy got them,” Omar said. “The school had bows and arrows for archery practice, and she used those.”
“Impressive,” I said with a nod.
“Like I said, my dad and I used to go hunting every year and sometimes we used bows,” the young girl replied with a shrug.
“That’s still an impressive shot,” Paige said with a smile. “I’m sure using a bow and arrow isn’t easy.”
“It’s definitely not,” I agreed. “Especially if it’s not an automated bow. That leaves a lot more room for error.”
“Not automated,” Missy said. “I think the archery instructor thought that was like cheating.”
“I don’t blame him,” I chuckled. “It’s like learning to drive. You might as well learn with a stick. If you can drive a stick, then you can drive anything.”
“That’s what my dad said, too,” Paige laughed. “He made me learn with his old truck. It was awful.”
“But now you can drive anything,” I pointed out with a smile.
“It’s true,” she said. “I’m glad he taught me that way.”
“Not me,” Tara said with a shake of her head. “Automatic all the way.”
“You can’t drive stick at all?” Bailey asked.
“You can?” the platinum blonde asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Well, yeah,” Bailey chuckled. “We had a big family, and the car that us kids got to drive was a stick shift. My dad made me learn with a stick, too.”
“My dad just bought me a Lexus,” Tara said with a shrug.
“Of course he did,” Anna said with a roll of her eyes.
“You’re just jealous,” Tara teased.
“Eh, I’d prefer an Audi,” the redhead replied with a grin.
“You know that there are stick shift Lexus cars, right?” Paige asked.
“Ewww,” Tara responded. “And like three of my friends had a Lexus.”
“They stopped making luxury vehicles with stick shifts a few years ago,” Anna explained. “But their lower models still had them, of course. And you could find older models that were standards.”
“Since when do you know so much about cars?” Tara asked curiously.
“I’ve always liked cars,” Anna said with a shrug. “My dad loved them, too. We’d go to car shows a lot in the summer.”
“Oh, car shows are fun,” Paige said with a smile. “I only went a couple of times, but the old cars are so cool.”
I had never been particularly interested in cars, but my father had a model that sat on the bookshelf in his office when I was a kid. It was of an old Chevelle. I remember playing with it as a boy, and it was always something that really represented my dad for me.
It was always my plan to get one of those cars when I got out of the service, but I hadn’t got around to it by the time the EMP hit. Granted, I’d only been out a year at that time, and I’d spent the majority of it living in the woods, but still. They were old enough vehicles that if I found one, I could possibly fix it and make it run, but it would be more impractical than anything. It would be sentimental, that was all. Still, part of me hoped that one day I might run into one.
After the coffee was done, I dished us all up cups and passed them out.
“Oh my gosh,” Missy breathed after she took her first drink. “This is so good.”
“Eh, it’s alright,” Tara said, and she winked at me. “Wait til you taste Rolly’s coffee.”
“Rolly is the man that you all called on the CB, right?” Omar asked.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “He was the caretaker of the college that we stay at.”
“You all have more coffee?” Micheal asked with wide eyes. “Where did you find it?”
“We’ve built quite the stockpile,” Paige said. “We’ve found some at random hotels, we raided a Starbucks or two, and we’ve taken any bag that we could find while out and about.”
“Wow,” Omar added. “That must be a lot of coffee.”
“It is,” the brunette chuckled. “But it’s bound to run out sometime.”
“Hopefully we can figure out a way to grow some by that point,” Tara chuckled.
“It’s normally something that’s easy to find,” Bailey pointed out. “I think most people focus on food and water rather than coffee.”
“That’s true,” Paige agreed.
“Can we even grow coffee up here?” Bailey asked curiously.
“We can,” the brunette said with a nod. “But coffee trees take three to four years before they’re able to be harvested. I already looked into it.”
“Well, shit,” Tara said. “We need to plant some beans now.”
“That’s not exactly how it works,” Paige chuckled.
“However it works, we need to get it going,” the platinum blonde said with a clap of her hands. “Chop, chop.”
“I think we have more pressing matters to attend to at the moment,” I laughed.
“Yeah, but you gotta think ahead,” Tara told me with a smile. “After we kick the Koreans’ asses, then we’ll still have coffee. I’m not waiting three to four years after we run out to have more.”
“I don’t think you’d have a choice,” Bailey laughed.
“I’ll plant the trees myself,” Tara said confidently.
“Says the girl who told the tomatoes she was going to eat them,” Anna snickered.
“They turned out fine!” the platinum blonde protested with a laugh.
While the girls chatted, I sipped on my coffee and ate my power bar. It was dark chocolate flavored, and it paired nicely with the warm java that I’d made. Granted, my coffee wasn’t as good as Rolly’s, and I wasn’t sure how the old man made it so good, but mine wasn’t too bad. It was military coffee, black and strong, and that was good enough for me.
The Cadets savored their coffee as well, and I watched as each of them tried to take small drinks when they really wanted to gulp it down. I didn’t blame them. Coffee was one of the things that I was incredibly glad that we had stocked up on. It made our mornings nice and pleasant, and it was a good way to start the day. Besides, with how little sleep we got sometimes, it was almost necessary.
The sun rose over the horizon, and the day was gray with the new dawn. We’d be able to head out soon, and if I hurried, then we could get to Boston before midday.
I wanted to have as much daylight as possible to scope out the area. The sooner we could find the Korean base, the longer we’d have to actually do some good reconnaissance. And now that the Cadets had clean weapons and knew what they were doing a bit more, I wasn’t as worried about them being there. Omar was from the area, so I hoped that his knowledge of it would come in handy. We’d check the Boston airport first, but if they’d truly taken over the city, then we might not have to look far before we ran into some troops.
It depended on how much of the city they were using, though. If anything, I figured they would have patrols out on the streets. It would be stupid to have all of your troops and equipment in one place and not have guards out twenty-four-seven. It would be nice for us, but stupid for them, and they’d already proven that they weren’t stupid. The Koreans had managed to invade the U.S., and that was a feat in and of itself, so I couldn’t underestimate them at all at this point. They clearly knew what they were doing to some degree, and I expected them to keep that up now that they were actually in the United States.
Hell, they’d managed to get troops through the Panama Canal and over to the east coast, so whoever was making their war plans obviously wasn’t an idiot.
I only hoped that at this point Boston was the only city that they’d taken. If they had managed to take over several cities along the eastern coast, then that wouldn’t bode well for us. Boston was one of the largest cities near us, so it would make sense that we’d somehow hear about that one first, but they could easily get to New York or Richmond, or even Jacksonville. All of those would be good spots to send troops that were going to be deployed further into the U.S..
Once we’d all finished our coffee and the sun was up far enough that we wouldn’t need our headlights, I put out the fire and everyone got ready to go.
“Omar,” I said. “I want you to ride with Paige and I today so you can give us some direction.”
“Okay,” the young man agreed. “I can do that.”
“Micheal, Missy,” I said. “You can ride with Anna and Bailey.”
“Sounds good,” Micheal agreed.
“I guess that leaves me with you,” Tara told me with a wink.
“Don’t you ever get tired of trying to be sexy?” Paige chuckled.
“Oh, sweety,” Tara said, and she put her hand on Paige’s shoulder. “It’s cute that you think I have to try.”
“Oh, my god!” Paige laughed. “You’re incorrigible.”
“Yup,” the platinum blonde agreed, and she hopped into the back of the jeep.
We had grabbed the Gustaf and the PHASR rifles, as well as the AA-12. It only had a single twenty-shell drum mag, but it also had two of the smaller eight-shell straight mags, and Paige stroked the weapon lovingly as soon as she’d adjusted the straps so that it was comfortable on her small frame. We left the grenade launchers since we already had some from raiding Brody’s father's house. We also had our regular stockpile of weapons and supplies, so the back of the jeeps were chock full of weapons and ammunition.
We’d need a plan to come back and get the supplies that we’d hidden in the woods, but we’d worry about that later. Right then we needed to get on the road and head toward Boston.
Once we were all in the jeeps, I pulled through the gate and onto the small highway just outside.
“Do you think we should close the gate?” Paige asked.
“No,” I said with a shake of my head. “Anybody who wanted in would find a way. Besides, it would make it seem like it hadn’t been gone through if the gate was closed.”
“That’s true,” Paige agreed. “This way anybody who comes by will probably think it’s already been picked clean.”
