Without Law, page 21
Thirty minutes later the eight bikers met back in the city center.
“Well that was fucking pointless,” the slim man said.
“Exactly,” blackbeard said. “It’s clear that our guys made it here but where are they now? Boss said he sent three.”
“You think they took off on their own?” The deep one asked.
“Why the hell would anyone do that?” The fat one asked. “We have a sweet fucking setup.”
There was a murmur of agreement from the others.
“Shut up,” Blackbeard said. “I think something happened. Their bikes aren't here and this Jeep obviously belongs to someone.”
“What do we do then?” the fat biker asked.
“Roy, Axel, Garth, you three stay here,” blackbeard said as he pointed to the bald, the fat, and the deep voiced bikers. “The rest of you get back on your fucking bikes, we’re headed home.”
“Wait a fucking minute, Chuck,” Roy said as he stepped forward and thrust a finger into Chuck’s chest. “What makes you think I wanna stay here?”
Chuck reached down, grabbed Roy’s finger, and snapped it backwards. “I wasn’t askin’.”
Roy screamed and staggered backwards as he clutched his finger.
“I gotta go tell the boss that three more of his guys have gone missin’,” Chuck said. “You’ll stay here in case they, or whoever owns that Jeep, comes back. In a few days, we’ll send a rider to fetch ya’.”
“Of course, we got this,” Axel said as he nodded furiously.
Chuck grinned to reveal a mouth of messed up yellow teeth. He pulled his helm onto his head and mounted his bike before he gave one last look to the three staying behind. “Whatever you do, don’t forget to enjoy yourselves.” He started the motorcycle and gunned the engine.
Four other riders did the same, and a moment later the roar of engines filled the air as they rode out of town.
“I hate that guy,” the huge biker said as soon as things were quiet enough to talk again. He shook his head and pulled a bottle of tequila from the side pouch of his motorcycle. “Well, we might as well get comfortable.”
The three bikers gathered together and headed over to the Jeep. They each grabbed a seat inside of it and started to pick through our loot as they got comfortable.
It seemed that hiding was no longer an option.
Chapter 17
It didn’t take the bikers long to make our Jeep their own. They went through our salvage and pulled out some food. Though they seemed to care little about the guns or the bow. They must have had enough hardware wherever they were staying. That could mean trouble if ever we had to face a full force of these goons.
“Wonder who left this stuff here,” Garth, the deep voiced one, said as he opened a can of beans.
“Whoever it is must have left in a hurry,” the blond, Axel said. “Engine was still warm when we got here.”
“Yeah, no shit. I was the one who told you that,” bald Roy said as he glared at his fat companion.
“Oh yeah, guess you did,” the fat man said with a shrug before he shoved a handful of crackers into his mouth. The noise as he chewed was so intense that I could hear it from the basement, and each new, open mouthed, chomp produced a spray of crumbs.
“Those fuckers are eating our food,” Tara hissed, and I raised my finger to my lips while the other women shushed her.
“Point, it’s still strange that someone would leave a whole Jeep of stuff here,” Garth continued without looking in our direction.
“Maybe we scared em off,’ Axel said between mouthfuls of food.
“Yeah but where did they go then?” the massive one asked.
“Who, the fuck, cares?” Roy said as he rolled his eyes. “No one is going to mess with us.”
“You’re right,” Garth agreed. “Everyone knows what happens to those who fuck with us.” He nodded towards the headless policeman. “We make sure of it.”
“Did anyone fight back when we first hit the area?” Axel asked.
“Hell yeah,” Roy said. “We fought for weeks to clear out the police and National Guard from our town.” He pulled out his keychain and tossed it to his tubby companion. Several rotting fingers were mixed in among the keys. “Took these from the ones I killed myself.”
“Damn, you guys are hard core,” the fat man said with a huge grin. “I love it.”
“We lost a bunch in the fighting though,” the massive biker said. “
“It’s a shame too. If we didn’t, we might not have been desperate enough to recruit someone like you,” the bald one said as he poked at his pudgy companion. “Now give me back my keys.”
“I’ll get my own trophies,” Axel said with a scowl as he tossed back the mess of metal and fingers. “You’ll see.”
“Guess we will,” Garth said.
With these guys sitting on our gear there was little chance for us to sneak out of town and back to campus. We could probably walk back if we wanted but leaving behind what we had worked so hard to gather today would suck.
But then I reached down to my knife and made the decision not to leave.
It was a good thing then I had decided to spend some time sharpening my blade the last few evenings. The razor-sharp edge might not have been necessary but it would make this whole thing easier. The trick now was getting close enough to use the thing, and I wished I hadn’t left my rifle in the Jeep.
I turned back to the girls and motioned for them to move back further into the basement so the bikers couldn’t just stumble by the windows and notice anyone down here. This hiding place was uncomfortably close to the enemy but moving them would be more dangerous than if I had them just stay put.
“I’m going out there,” I whispered. “No one is to follow me or move from this basement for any reason.”
“Got it,” I heard Anna whisper, but I couldn’t really see her nod in the darkness.
I checked to make sure the men outside were still distracted before I crouched down and slowly crept towards the basement stairs. There was a loud creak as I put my foot on the first stair, so I cringed and became as still as stone.
The bikers did not respond. Instead, I heard one of them yelp while the other two erupted into a fit of raucous laughter.
I let out a slow breath and continued the ascent. Each stair let out an audible creaking or groan but the men outside were apparently too wrapped up in their own conversation to notice. Once I reached the top, I opened the door just enough to slip through and entered the house before I pushed the basement door closed behind me.
A quick, but silent, search of the ground floor revealed the back door I had hoped to find, and I slipped outside and into a backyard full of wild green grass. Unfortunately a large, whitewashed, privacy fence penned me in, and the only gate opened in view of my enemy.
I looked up at the sky and guessed that it was mid-afternoon at this point. It would be several hours until I could take advantage of any form of darkness other than shadows. I grumbled quietly as I went to the fence and peered through a crack between the planks. The bikers were still there on top of our stuff. Even Roy, the thin one with the broken finger, seemed to be in a better mood than he had been when the others left. Though I guessed the mostly empty bottle of booze they passed around probably had something to do with that.
“I gotta take a piss,” the fat man said as he groaned and stood up.
I grinned and reached for my knife. This was the type of opening I had hoped would present itself. However, the smile faded as I watched the rotund biker wobble ten feet forward and drop his pants.
“Shit man, you really gotta do that here?” the slim one asked.
“Yeah, no one wants to see your nasty ass pecker,” Garth said.
The fat man, still pissing, grinned and turned around to flip them the bird.
“Dammit Axel, why the fuck I gotta be stuck here with you?” bald Roy asked as he shook his head.
The massive third biker pulled a Berreta from his pants and aimed it at the peeing blond. “Pull up your pants fatass.”
“Oh yeah, what are you gonna do if I don’t?” Axel teased as he finished his business but left his pants at his ankles.
“I’m gonna blow your dick off,” Garth stated.
The fat man went pale and scrambled to get his pants back on once more.
Roy started to laugh so hard that he fell backwards and out of the Jeep. The bald man let out a yelp of pain and stood back up holding his hand. “Fuck!”
“Much better,” Garth said with a grin before he holstered his gun. He took a big swig of tequila. “Drop your pants in my eyesight again, and I won’t give you a warning.”
I rolled my eyes from where I hid. These guys were clearly idiots, but experience had taught me that there was nothing worse than an idiot with a gun. I made my way around the yard until I found a crack that gave me sight to their bikes. They sat in the shade of a big tree in the middle of the square not too far from where the riders sat drinking.
I sighed and slumped onto the grass. My options, at least until they decided to scatter, were limited. The best choice seemed to be to wait. Darkness would give me the advantage and waiting for the sun to set also gave them more time to drink. So, I took up a spot in view of my targets and got comfortable.
The longer I sat there the less intelligent I felt. Listening to these neanderthals was the worst thing I had experienced since returning to society. The stories they told were crude, or maliciously violent, and they often had a laugh at the expense of the man next to them. Not a one of them seemed to care for anything in this world more than they did themselves.
“Man, you shoulda brought more tequila,” Roy said after I had listened to the idiots for an hour.
“It was already a waste sharing what I had with you,” Garth replied. “That was good stuff and you guzzled it down like it was beer.”
“Well excuse, fucking, me,” Roy sneered. “Didn’t realize we were dealing with some sorta alcohol know it all.”
“It’s called a connoisseur,” Axel pointed out.
“No one asked you, Tubby,” Garth barked.
“Hey, I was trying to help you,” he replied.
“Fuck this, I’m gonna find us more booze.” Roy said as he rolled his eyes and stood.
“Wait, we should probably go as a group,” Garth said with a heavy sigh. The Jeep groaned as he stepped out of it, and he threw the empty tequila bottle onto the pavement. It shattered and littered yet another portion of Lanceton with bits of broken glass. “That means you too, Axel.”
“Why, we worried about something?” the fat blond asked with one eye raised.
“Of course not,” Roy interjected. “Only a dumbass goes out alone though. Who knows what sorta inbred crazies might be out there?” He smiled wide at the other two and pulled a machete from where he had it hidden in his pants.
The bikers shared a laugh and started to wander off down the street in search of booze, and I couldn’t think of a moment in recent memory where I had been more thankful for silence.
As soon as the sound of their voices faded into the distance, I sprinted across the yard, through the gate, into the square, and skidded to a stop by the Jeep. The rifle was still wedged half under the passenger seat, and I had to toy with it for a moment and find the correct angel before the weapon slid free. I felt better properly armed, and I headed towards my real objective, their motorcycles.
Disabling the bikes was priority one. It would ensure that they could not get away once I started to hunt them. None of the bikes seemed to be built exactly stock anymore, and I was certain that some of these parts had been forced into place, so it took me a few extra moments to locate the fuel line of the first bike and cut it open. Gas started to drip out onto the bike and ground, but my work was done, so I moved onto the next bike.
That’s when I heard the laughter of the men once more.
I peeked over the second bike and saw two of the bikers saunter down the street towards the Jeep and my position. Each of them held their own full bottle of booze, and I ducked behind the motorcycle.
“Shit,” I whispered as I started to inspect the second bike. This one was not quite as heavily modified as the first, and the fuel line was more obvious. Though I still had to move slow enough to ensure that I didn’t cause a spark as I cut through the metal line. Being hasty here could get me killed before the bikers even knew I was there, but I got the angle of my blade correct, and the second bike started to hemorrhage gas.
I took a deep breath and crawled to the third bike. I could hear their voices grow louder as I located the final fuel line and started my cut. I wanted to look up and see how close the men had gotten, but I kept my eyes trained on my task and cut the line neatly.
I leaned around just enough to see the two bikers arrive at the old Jeep. They weren’t more than thirty feet away from me, but neither of them seemed to be aware of my presence, so I slipped around behind the nearby tree and hid in its shadow.
I waited but the third biker did not rejoin his buddies. The two got comfortable, kicked their feet up onto the dash and opened up the booze.
“You see the reason Axel stayed behind?” Roy asked as he took a swig of whiskey.
“Oh yeah, the guy is not half as sneaky as he thinks he is,” Garth chuckled. “I was there when he grabbed the fucking magazine from the shelf.”
“Yeah well, he’s never been a smart one,” the bald one said. “At least the dude decided to jack it in private.”
“Thank god for that,” his deep voiced friend replied. “How long you think he will be gone? I give him five minutes.”
“No way he makes it five minutes,” Roy said as he shook his head. “He’s a two pump chump for sure.”
“I agree, but I figure it will take him a few minutes to get it up,” Garth said before he grinned wide to reveal, once more, his mouth full of nasty teeth.
I rolled my eyes and took that moment to sneak away. The bikers were oblivious to my presence though, and I made it to the shelter of the nearby houses without any issue.
From there I slipped into an alley and made my way toward where I had seen them wander for alcohol. I moved quietly but worried a lot less once I broke away from their line of sight. These guys were clearly not on guard.
I moved from shadow to shadow as I picked my way through town until I found myself standing outside of a small convenience store. The sounds of someone chuckling and grunting made me think that I was in the right place, so I slid my knife free of my vest and pushed inside.
There, in the back of the store, stood the fat blond man with his pants around his ankles. Thankfully, he was faced away from me, but I didn’t need to see all of him to know what he was doing. Though, as gross as it was, the distraction made it easy for me to make my way through the store and around the broken glass so that I snuck up behind him silently.
I drove my knife into the side of his neck before he even knew I was there. Then I yanked the blade free as blood started to flow freely from the wound.
The biker didn’t even scream. He just dropped to the ground with a sickening thud. Both hands stopped what they were doing and grabbed at the hole in his neck, and then he gurgled and choked on his own blood as his eyes rolled back into his head.
“One down, two to go,” I whispered while I watched him go still as I cleaned the gore from my blade.
Then I pulled a Colt 1911 free from the dead man’s holster, along with one spare magazine that had fallen out of his pocket. As I stood I heard the sound of footsteps outside, and I let out a hiss of annoyance as I ducked down low again.
“Axel, you done jacking off yet?” I heard Roy call out. He entered the building a moment later as I stepped into the bathroom to stay out of sight.
“What the fuck?” Roy yelled.
It seemed he had found his buddy’s body.
“Who the fuck did this?” Roy screamed. “If you’re in here come out now, and I might not blow your brains out!”
I let out a quiet sigh as I realized that my moment for stealth had passed. It was time to switch to plan b. I ensured there was a bullet in the chamber before I kicked open the door, leveled the gun at the slim man’s face, and pulled the trigger.
“What the f--” the bald man jolted backward as part of his skull exploded outward from his face. He staggered backwards a step, dropped his gun, and slumped to the ground.
I adjusted into a more comfortable stance and kept the pistol trained on the door as I waited for the last man to come.
He didn’t though, and after a minute of waiting, I approached the door. I silently counted to thirty before I opened it and peeked outside.
The massive biker was nowhere to be seen. In fact the street looked completely empty.
“Where are you,” I muttered before I turned back to the second dead man. Then I knelt beside him and pried the 9mm Glock from his hand. It felt light, and neither of the two spare magazines I pulled from his jacket seemed to be full, but I didn’t have time to mess with it now, so I kept an eye on the door and stowed the weapon in my pack. Then, after giving the street another check, I slipped outside.
It was still quiet, but I had no reason to take risks, so I sprinted into the street and took cover behind a pale yellow sedan. I waited there a moment and checked regularly for movement on both ends of the street. Still there was nothing.
I moved up the street in the direction of the city center and took cover behind another car. I was just about to move again when a high-pitched scream cut through the silence.
My eyes went wide, and I looked in the direction I had left the girls. There was no more time for plans, so I readied the pistol and ran towards the sound.
That’s when I heard a gunshot coming from the direction of the Jeep.
Chapter 18
Two more gunshots followed in rapid succession.
I knew none of the girls were armed so it could only be the third biker, Garth, who pulled the trigger, and I could not help but think of a million different scenarios, each one worse than the last. My heart pounded wildly in my chest, but it wasn’t because of the exercise.
