Without Law 14, page 21
“Exactly,” I said. “It might not stop them from checking it out, but we took a lot of supplies and hid them. Unless someone has vehicles of their own, then they won’t be able to take much.”
“Oh, man, it would suck so bad to not have anything to drive,” Tara said.
“Yeah, it’s not great,” Omar laughed.
“Oh, shit, that’s right,” Tara said. “You guys walked all the way, didn’t you?”
“We did,” the shaggy blond haired young man said.
“I’m sorry,” Paige said. “It was probably pretty awful.”
“My feet hurt a lot,” he said. “But we just kept going, there wasn’t anything else we could do.”
“You probably haven’t even been in a car since the EMP hit, huh?” Tara asked.
“Not until yesterday,” he said. “It felt strange at first, but then it seemed so normal, just like how it used to be.”
“I assure you, it isn’t how it used to be,” I said with a smile. “But things that we used to do all the time still feel normal, even after we haven’t done them for a while.”
“Yeah,” Paige agreed. “It’s like your brain just remembers the feeling you used to get and puts that feeling back to work.”
“So, are we hitting up the airport first?” Tara asked.
“I was thinking so,” I said, then I looked at Omar in the rearview mirror. “Unless there was somewhere else that you think they might be.”
“Hm,” the young man said, and he thought for a moment. “I think the airport would probably be a good place for their planes and stuff, but if they wanted to set up a base, I’d probably set it up at the stadium.”
“Isn’t Boston something about red underwear or something?” Tara asked with narrowed eyes of confusion.
“The Red Sox,” Paige corrected with a laugh.
“Is that their mascot?” the platinum blonde asked.
“No,” Omar said. “That’s just the name of the team. Wally the green monster is our mascot.”
“I’m surprised she knew what a stadium was,” Paige snickered.
“Wally the green monster?” Tara asked with a raised eyebrow. She was clearly not impressed.
“Yeah,” Omar said.
“That seems kind of lame,” she replied. “Is he even scary? Shouldn’t mascots be scary? Like a shark or a cougar or something?”
“We don’t need to have a scary mascot if we’re scary on the field,” Omar said seriously, and I had to laugh.
“You know a lot of children go to baseball games, right?” Paige asked.
“Do they?” Tara replied. “I always thought it was just old chubby guys who drank a lot of beer and ate way too many hot dogs.”
“Have you ever been to a baseball game?” Omar inquired.
“I think it’s pretty clear that she hasn’t,” I chuckled.
“Oh, and you have?” she asked me with a smirk.
“Of course,” I said. “I wasn’t a super big sports guy, but going to the games is different. It’s fun to cheer and drink and relax.”
“Even I’ve been to a baseball game,” Paige chuckled.
“Ugh, you all are so lame sometimes,” Tara said. “You make me feel like I’ve done nothing. First the stick shift and now this.”
“It’s not our fault you didn’t do normal things growing up,” Paige teased with a smile and a shrug.
“I can’t believe you’ve never been to a game,” Omar said with wide eyes. “It was my favorite thing as a kid.”
“Apparently I didn’t have a normal childhood,” Tara said dryly.
“You had an expensive childhood,” Paige said. “Didn’t you take horse riding lessons?”
“Yeah,” the platinum blonde said.
“That’s it right there,” Omar agreed with a nod.
“What does that mean?” Tara scoffed.
“Anybody who takes horse riding lessons has money,” Omar said. “Did you have a pony?”
“Two, actually,” Tara laughed. “And three horses.”
“Yep,” the blond-haired boy replied with a grin. “Super rich.”
“Whatev,” Tara said with an eye roll.
“He’s right, though,” Paige laughed. “Anybody who takes horse riding lessons has money.”
“Even I knew that,” I teased as I caught Tara’s eye in the rearview mirror. The platinum blonde glared at me, but then she broke into a smile.
“Eh, I’ll take my childhood of caviar and horse riding lessons,” she said with a shrug. “And I haven’t needed to drive a stick shift yet, so you can all suck it.”
“Fair enough,” Paige chuckled, and the rest of us laughed.
We drove on in silence for a while after that, and I enjoyed the colors of the sunrise as it finished making its debut on the horizon. The sky was filled with bright oranges and pinks and fluffy white clouds. I could already feel the day grow warm, and I knew it was gearing up to be another hot one.
I was glad that I’d made everyone drink water before we left, but we’d all need at least three more bottles throughout the day, if not more. Especially if we couldn’t find a shady spot to do reconnaissance. I’d try my best to find somewhere where we were out of the direct sunlight, but sometimes there was no choice when it came to a stake out. All I could do was try and keep us out of the heat, but there was no guarantee that the best angle to get a view of the Koreans would be in the shade.
Once we found the army and their base, then we could split up and each take a section of the perimeter. If we could, then I’d like to keep watch all day and go over our observations at night. The more information we could get on how they operated, the better.
Also, if the Cadets were right, and they had strange weapons, then that might just give us an opportunity to see them and try to figure out how they worked. We could possibly even formulate a plan to get one for ourselves so we could see it up close. That would really be what we needed. It would also give us a leg up in the event that we ran into some of the troops when we were out and about. We had plenty of powerful weapons now, but if the rumors of the plasma guns were true, then I wasn’t sure that our bullets could stand up to them.
That remained to be seen, though. I didn’t think the Cadets would lie, and Jen and her family seemed very sure of what they saw, but they also were most likely not extremely knowledgeable of military equipment. They might have mistook a different weapon for something that it wasn’t. A gun with tracer rounds might look like a plasma rifle if you weren’t sure what you were seeing.
The whole situation was strange, but all I could do was wait until we got a good view of the army ourselves. Then I’d be able to ascertain what was really going on.
As it was, I didn’t fully trust anyone’s eyes but my own.
The drive seemed longer and longer the further we went, but I knew that a couple hours had passed already. We would still have at least one more to go, but probably more. It was already hot out, and I had the windows down as we cruised along the highway.
We were just outside of a small city named Auburn when I noticed some bodies on the side of the road. Unlike a lot of the ones that we saw that were rotting or already partially skeletonized, these appeared to be fresh. For a second I thought the man might be alive since his skin still had some color to it, but he didn’t move.
Still, I pulled over and stopped the jeep.
“What’s wrong?” Paige asked.
“There’s some bodies on the side of the road,” I said.
“We see bodies all the time,” Tara said, confused as to why I had stopped.
“But we’re getting closer to Boston,” I said. “This could have been done by the Koreans.”
“How can you tell?” she asked.
“I can’t, yet,” I said. “But I want to take a look around.”
“Alright,” Tara said. “What are we looking for exactly?”
“Anything that might indicate who did this,” I explained. “Look for tire marks or to see if anything was taken from the people. The North Koreans would most likely not waste the time going over the bodies and taking their belongings.”
“I guess that’s fair,” Paige said with a nod. “They probably have plenty of supplies. They’re not worried about a few cans of food or some small weapons.”
“Right,” I agreed.
“Hey,” Anna said as she and the others came up to my door.
I hopped out and looked around.
“What are we doing?” the redhead asked.
“You saw the bodies over there?” I asked, and I gestured to where the man’s legs poked out from behind a nice car that had been taken out by the EMP.
“Of course,” she said with a frown.
“I just want to take a look around,” I said.
“It could be the Koreans,” she agreed with a nod. This was why she was my second in command. Anna had a knack for leadership and strategy, and she was often able to tell where my plan was going before anyone else.
“Exactly,” I said.
“Let’s spread out,” the redhead suggested.
“You heard her,” I chuckled and addressed the rest of the group. “Spread out, if you find anything that might indicate who did this, call Anna or I over. Ammunition casings, tire marks, footsteps, anything. Nothing is too small.”
The group nodded, and they all dispersed around me.
If this was the North Koreans, then that meant they were traveling a good distance from Boston, and I wanted to know what they were doing. If they were scouting the area this far out, then that meant that they were probably planning to expand the area they overtook. Either that, or they were scouting the best way to get to where the U.S. troops were, or other troops of their own. They could be attempting to secure a larger area, or they could be taking out bridges or creating roadblocks so that it was more difficult for anyone else to reach Boston.
No matter why they were out scouting, there was no doubt in my mind that there were more troops headed to Boston or the other cities that they had either already taken over, or planned on taking over. We needed to learn as much about the situation as possible.
I looked at the angle at which the man laid on the ground, and I scanned the road to see if I could find any casings that came from the direction from which he was shot, but I didn’t have any luck.
“Uh, Tav,” Bailey said softly, almost to the point where I didn’t hear her.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, and I rushed over to the blonde who was only a few feet away from where I stood.
She stood a ways behind the man, and as I walked by I saw that there was also a woman near him.
“It’s…” the blonde hippie started to say, but her voice was cut off with emotion just as I reached her.
I looked down and couldn’t believe what I saw.
Chapter 14
A child laid on the ground. She was a young girl, maybe four or five years in age with dark blonde colored hair. She wore a pink shirt with a pony decal on it and a pair of blue jeans. Just a foot or so away from her lifeless body was a small, stuffed purple unicorn.
Her blue eyes were open wide as they stared up at the sky, and I felt my stomach drop as I took in the sight of her.
“I…” Bailey started, but her voice cut off, and she looked up at me with tears in her blue gray eyes.
“It’s okay,” I said, and I pulled her close to me to shield her from the terrible sight.
The blonde immediately collapsed into my arms and began to sob.
This wasn’t the first time that I’d seen a dead child, but that didn’t make it any easier. That was something I’d never wished to see again, and to see it on my own soil made it that much worse. Foreign invaders had come here and killed this young girl in cold blood. They weren’t concerned with civilian casualties, that much was clear by this point.
I closed my eyes as I held onto Bailey’s shaking form and let her cry against me. Her tears coated the front of my shirt, and after a minute I led her back to the jeep.
“What’s going on?” Anna asked. She and the rest of the group had seen that something had happened, and they were waiting near the vehicles for me to address them.
“There’s a child,” I said solemnly as I sat Bailey down into the back of one of the jeeps.
The poor girl was absolutely distraught. As much death and turmoil as she’d seen, this was the first time she’d really had to see such a young life get extinguished. It wasn’t something I’d wish on my worst enemy, let alone the most sensitive member of my team.
Part of me wished that Anna or Paige would have found the girl, since I felt they might have been able to handle it better, but I couldn’t blame Bailey for her reaction. The death of a child was never easy, and especially to see her taken out in such a ruthless way, well, that just made it that much worse.
“Are you okay?” Paige asked Bailey softly, and she wrapped her arms around her.
The blonde’s sobs lessened, but I could still hear her heavy breathing against Paige.
“Did you notice anything unusual?” Anna whispered.
“You guys go ahead,” Paige told us when she saw us whispering. “I’ll stay with her.”
“Thank you,” I told the brunette, and I squeezed her shoulder.
I led the group over to the car that the father laid by, then I closed my eyes for a second before I addressed everyone.
“Cadets,” I said. “I think you should sit this one out. You can keep surveying the area, but you don’t need to see this.”
“Okay,” Missy said in a low voice.
The two boys just nodded. They were barely older than children themselves, and I imagined that just the thought of seeing a dead child was enough to make them want to stay away.
Anna, Tara, and I would look over the bodies since I hadn’t done that quite yet, but I needed a minute to calm down first. I crouched down and covered my eyes for a second while the Cadets made their way further down the road to look for signs of who had committed such a heinous act.
“Tav,” Tara whispered, and she put her hand on my shoulder. “Are you okay?”
“No,” I said, and I looked up at the platinum blonde. “I’m pissed. I’m absolutely livid.”
She was just a little girl, there was no way that she was a threat to anybody, especially not an enemy troop. I understood that in war there were often civilian casualties, but that was something that should be avoided at all costs. This was just a family that had been traveling, why kill them? What had they done to deserve such a fate?
The young girl being behind the parents also told me that the mother and father had tried to protect her at all costs. They had probably told her to hide once they realized they were under attack. It hadn’t mattered, though, the enemy troops had taken her out anyways.
I recalled my time overseas and the young children that we would see on the streets. They played just like children back home, and we did our best to protect them at all costs. I couldn’t imagine pulling the trigger on one of them. I couldn’t imagine watching a member of my team do that, either. If anybody had tried that in front of me, I would have killed them on the spot and served my time, taken my dishonorable discharge, and known that I had done the right thing.
It didn’t matter what side of a war you were on, there was no reason to kill children and families. The idea that the young girl had watched her mother and father be killed only to wind up that way herself just tore me to pieces inside. I felt enough rage well up inside of me that I felt I could rip someone’s head off with my bare hands right then.
“Hey, Tav,” Anna said, and I looked up to see that she wasn’t by Tara and I any longer. “I think you should see this.”
“What is it?” I asked as I stood up and walked over to the redhead.
“There’s something strange about these bodies,” she answered as I approached.
“What do you mean?” Tara asked from right behind me.
“These aren’t normal bullet holes,” Anna said, and she looked at me with eyebrows pinched tightly together. “They look like they’ve been burned.”
I knelt down and inspected the father. I’d been focused on looking for casings before Bailey had called me over to see the little girl, and that had been such a shock that I hadn’t even noticed what their wounds looked like. As I examined them, though, I realized that Anna was right. It looked like these people had been burned in some way. It was almost as if someone had heated up a large metal rod and stabbed it through their chests. The burn was a perfect circle and incredibly deep, and I had no idea what could have made such a mark. It looked like something out of a science fiction movie, and the more I looked at it, the more confused I grew. Was it possible that the North Koreans did have some sort of plasma technology like the Cadets had said?
“Isn’t it odd?” Anna whispered as she knelt down next to the father and looked at me.
“I don’t understand these wounds,” I admitted. “They look incredibly strange. It’s like a mix between a burn and a bullet.”
“That’s what I was thinking, too,” Anna said with a nod. “You don’t think the Cadets were right, do you?”
“I don’t know if they were right about the plasma guns,” I said with pursed lips. “But this is some sort of technology that I haven’t seen before.”
“This is crazy,” Tara said with a shake of her head.
“Tara,” I said. “Can you take over for Paige? I want to see if she can tell me about how long ago these people were killed.”
“Of course,” the platinum blonde said, and she rushed back over to the jeep.
From the color of their skin it looked to me like they’d been dead maybe two or three hours at that point, but I wasn’t sure how these weapons worked, so that was a rough estimate.
“Hey,” Paige said as she knelt down beside us.
“How’s Bailey?” Anna asked with a frown.
“Shaken as hell,” Paige sighed. “But I think she’ll be okay.”
“I know it’s not a great thing to ask,” I told the brunette. “But can you help me figure out how long they’ve been dead?”
