Without Law 14, page 4
The girls and I had dealt with enough tweakers and put an end to one drug ring, we didn’t need another to worry about.
I caught Anna’s eye from where she was posted behind a large shrub and nodded to her. The redhead nodded back, and I gestured to Kimmy to follow me before I carefully made my way back to the country club.
It was hot as hell outside still, so I went into the building. It wasn’t much better, but at least there was shade and our voices wouldn’t carry as far.
“More druggies,” Tara said as she flopped herself onto the couch in the waiting room.
“More druggies,” I agreed.
“So, what’s the plan?” Paige asked.
“We’re going to take these guys out,” I informed them. “I did a headcount. There’s fifteen that I saw.”
“That’s how many I got, too,” Bailey agreed.
“Psh, that’s cake,” Tara said. “Let’s do this.”
“You all don’t want to do more reconnaissance first?” I asked.
“I don’t think we need to,” Anna said. “These guys clearly aren’t trained.”
“You picked up on that, eh?” I chuckled.
“Even I picked up on that,” Kimmy laughed.
“Alright,” I agreed. “You guys are right, they’re not well trained, so this shouldn’t take long.”
“I haven’t seen any signs of larger weapons,” Anna said.
“Neither have I,” I said with a nod. “But I overheard these assholes talking about trying to figure out how to make more drugs.”
“Ugh,” Tara groaned and rolled her eyes. “Can’t these guys just drink booze like normal people?”
“Apparently not,” Paige chuckled.
I knew that everyone had their vices, but drugs like the meth they were doing were dangerous. Not only did it make them more dangerous when it came to fighting with them, but druggies tended to get hooked in a way that other people didn’t. I’d never known someone to kill over a cigarette or a drink, but a drug addict killing over their next fix was common even before the EMP hit. Now that there weren’t any police around to keep things moderately civil between them, things only seemed to get worse.
And the last druggies we’d dealt with were major pieces of garbage. Not only were they supplying the area, but they were also keeping women as sex slaves and even drugging them from what I could gather. It was a slippery slope with these guys, and one that I wasn’t about to go down again. Not if I didn’t have to.
“These guys are pretty spread out,” Bailey said. “Where do you want us?”
“Kimmy and I will go to our usual spot,” I said. “We’ll have a good shot at the men by the garden. Tara and Paige, why don’t you go to the right?”
“On it,” the platinum blonde agreed.
“I guess that leaves you and me on the left,” Anna said, and she nudged Bailey playfully.
“I’m cool with that,” the blonde hippie said with a smile.
“I saw a couple of guys on the roof,” I said. “Bailey, I want you on them.”
The blonde nodded, and I glanced around the room at each of my girls. They all had determined looks on their faces. They knew what they were doing, but even still, any time that we went into a combat situation we had to be extremely careful. One wrong move and you could end up dead. As much knowledge as Paige had about stitching people up, she was a long ways from a trauma surgeon.
I’d trained them well, though, and I had to trust their instincts and that they’d have each other’s backs if they needed it. Kimmy worried me the most, but she would be right by me, so I wasn’t as concerned.
I knew my girls were badass, but just the thought of losing one of them was enough to make me go crazy.
I took a deep breath, smiled at my ladies, and stood up.
“Let’s do this,” I said with a grin.
“Fuck yeah,” Tara said, and she hopped up, ready to go.
I led the girls back out into the blistering heat, and we all slowly and carefully made our way to our positions.
Once Kimmy and I were in place on the ground, I glanced around to get eyes on everyone else. Paige and Tara were on our left hidden behind some bushes, but they made sure to signal to me when I looked their way. Anna and Bailey were more spread apart, but I could still see each of them clearly. Anna was closer to me, but behind a large shrub. Bailey was farther away, but she had a much better view of the roof where the two men were.
Once I knew that everyone was in place, I looked at Kimmy and gave her a nod. I lined up my sight on the man in front of me who was still smoking from the pipe. And once I knew that Kimmy had her shot as well, then I looked to her, nodded once more, and pulled the trigger.
Kimmy pulled the trigger at the same time.
I got mine with a dome shot right through the eye, and he went down with a loud thud and a small crashing sound as the glass pipe hit the ground and shattered. Kimmy’s guy went down with a shot to the throat, and he sputtered for a second on his knees before he fell forward as he grabbed at his own neck and tried to save himself.
One of the guys on the roof noticed what was happening, but Bailey was quicker, and he got taken out with a shot to the head before he had a chance to retaliate. The other guy on the roof was smarter than his companion, and he ducked down behind the concrete barrier so that Bailey no longer had a shot.
There were three other guys in the corner by Paige and Tara, but each of them was taken down quickly. I heard Paige’s shotgun go off, and she got the first of them with a blast to the torso. The other two tried to run, but a shot from the distance took one out, and from the angle I knew that it was Bailey who had done it. The other went down silently, which indicated that Tara had taken him out with her silenced Ruger. The three of them were a bloody mess in the corner, but my girls were on it.
I turned my attention back to my immediate surroundings. A couple of guys who were by the building tried to run around the corner, but I quickly lined up my shot and hit one in the back. He went down with a loud, guttural yell as his buddy turned around to check on him.
Kimmy’s rifle fired next to me, and she got the friend with a shot to the shoulder. It wasn’t a kill shot, but the guy stumbled back and screamed. He was angry, though, and he raised his other hand and aimed the pistol in our direction. There was no way he had a clear shot given where we were, but even a broken clock is right twice a day.
Before I could set my sights on the guy, though, Kimmy let off another round and this time she caught the man in the cheek. The bullet went through his skull, and he fell backward onto the pavement next to his buddy.
Anna and Bailey had taken out most of the men on their side, but there were still a couple who hid behind one of the buildings and jumped out every so often to let a few rounds off.
I couldn’t get a decent shot on them from where I was at, but when I glanced around I saw the last man on the roof setting his sights on Bailey. He must have figured out where she was posted, or he had a good view, but either way his rifle was pointed in her direction, and she was too busy with the men on the ground to notice.
I quickly lined up my shot and pulled the trigger. The man was leaning so far forward over the roof that when I hit him his dead weight sent him over the edge.
Bailey and Anna finished with the men on their side, and I scanned the area once more to make sure that nobody was left. A quick head count showed that there were twelve out in the open, and I knew that Bailey and Anna had just taken out the last three.
“Clear,” I called.
“Clear!” Anna yelled back.
“Clear!” Tara echoed.
“Head inside,” I hollered, and I led Kimmy around to the main gate.
Anna and Bailey had been closest to it, so they were already inside when we got there, and Paige and Tara showed up just a moment later.
“They really didn’t put up much of a fight, did they,” Tara observed as she looked over to the dead bodies in the courtyard.
“We knew they weren't well trained,” Anna said with a shrug.
“Do you think it’s because they’re from Canada?” Tara asked.
“Um, no,” the redhead said.
“Don’t they, like, not have guns up there?” the platinum blonde asked.
“They have guns,” Paige said. “They just have more stringent restrictions on them than we do in the U.S..”
“They were probably high, too,” Bailey pointed out.
“They were ill equipped to handle us,” I chuckled. “We’ll leave it at that.”
“I didn’t see any larger weapons still,” Anna sighed. “Do you think we’ll find anything?”
“It’s worth taking a look,” I said.
If there had been more weapons when we were here last time that we hadn’t seen, then there was no reason why they wouldn’t still be there, especially if they were that difficult to find.
Even if these Canadians had managed to find them, they may not have known how to use them. Either that, or they didn’t have them out regularly. We had ambushed them, so it would make sense that if they kept the larger guns put away that they wouldn’t have been out when we arrived.
“Okay, let’s split up,” I instructed. “We still need to check Brody’s dad’s house, too, so let’s make this quick.”
“On it,” Anna agreed.
“Whatever you see that’s useful, grab it,” I said. “If we need room in the jeep we can discard things later, but we don’t know what we’ll find so grab anything you can.”
The girls nodded and dispersed. Even if we didn’t find any weapons, we could at least be proud that we were able to take out another group of druggies that would have no doubt caused problems for us in the future.
I headed to the building nearest to me and went inside. It was the cafeteria, and the men appeared to be using it for its intended purpose. There were a couple small boxes of canned goods in the corner, but there were also some fresh potatoes and cabbages from the garden stacked on one of the tables.
I figured we could take these with us at least, so I found a couple more boxes and packed up the potatoes and cabbages. As I did, I heard what sounded like thunder, followed by a downpour. I ran to the door and opened it to see that the sky had become gray and fat water droplets fell onto the sidewalk.
I’d been so preoccupied with the men that I hadn’t looked up at the sky in quite a while. I loved a good summer storm, though, they often came out of nowhere and were over before you knew it.
Hopefully it would make its way down to the farm and campus. I knew that the crops would appreciate it, and so would everyone else. It hadn’t rained in months and the streams around us were drying out, so any little bit helped.
I held my hand out for a moment so I could feel the large drops splatter on my skin, then I stepped out into the rain and allowed it to drench my body. I could feel the sweat slide off of me as it was replaced with the water that nature provided.
I took a deep breath, then once I felt cool enough I headed inside and got back to work.
The rain was over by the time I had finished going through the entirety of the cafeteria. I hadn’t found much else aside from the canned goods and fresh vegetables from the garden, but I didn’t want to risk something being overlooked so I was careful to check everything.
I carried the boxes outside and set them by the gate.
“Hey!” Anna called as she and Kimmy made their way over to me.
“Hey,” I called back with a smile. Each of them had a box in front of them, and their smiles told me that they’d found something good.
“We didn’t find any weapons,” Anna sighed. “But we did find something kind of cool.”
“What’s that?” I asked as I tried to peer into the boxes.
“Walkie talkies,” Kimmy said as she set the box down and held up some military grade walkies. “I’m sure that I can fix them, too.”
“Really?” I asked, though I didn’t doubt her ability. “That would be incredible.”
“I can have them going in a few days, I think,” the dark skinned woman said with a grin.
“What did you find?” Tara hollered as she, Bailey, and Paige walked toward us.
“Walkie talkies,” I answered.
“We found drugs,” the platinum blonde laughed.
“Nothing else good,” Bailey said with a frown.
“What’s that?” I asked, and I gestured to the small box in her arms.
“Some flashlights and batteries and stuff,” the blonde said with a shrug. “No weapons, though.”
I looked up to the sky and checked the placement of the sun.
“It’s only about noon right now,” I said. “Let’s head over to Brody’s father’s house. Maybe we’ll have better luck there.”
“Have we been through everywhere here?” Paige asked.
I pointed to each of the buildings, and the girls agreed that they had been searched.
“Seems like it,” I said. “But we should grab the guns off of the men we took down.”
“Right,” Anna agreed.
“Anna,” I said. “Why don’t you go pull the jeep around? We’ll do one last look through to make sure that nothing got missed.”
“Alright,” the redhead said, and she caught the keys that I tossed to her.
“I’ll grab the guns,” Paige said. “You guys start the final sweep.”
“Thanks,” I told the brunette.
We spent another hour going over the place once more, checking every single room and closet of every building. I wanted to be sure that we left no stone unturned. Brody was a sneaky sonofabitch, and he could have come back for whatever good weapons had been left here. Or there could have not been larger weapons left in the first place. I couldn’t be sure of anything, not when the place had been so tainted by others coming through.
That part made sense, though. If you were traveling and you came across a place that was already fortified, then you’d be an idiot to not take advantage of it.
Once the final sweep was over we made sure to get our bags from the country club and load up everything that we’d found. It wasn’t a lot, but we had five or so boxes filled with goods or useful items.
The Canadians that were there had obviously not been well off considering their stockpile was so small, but we’d take whatever we could get. They didn’t need it now, anyways. They were probably counting on the fresh vegetables every week to keep themselves fed.
It was only an hour or so past noon when we got on the road to Brody’s father’s house. I remembered how to get there well, though I’d only been once. It had been under such strange circumstances, though, that it was hard to forget.
I wasn’t sure if somebody had taken over the place or not, though, so I decided it was better to park where we had the first time we’d visited and walk the rest of the way.
“You really think we might find something here?” Kimmy asked as we all hopped out of the jeep.
“It’s not a big place,” I said. “But it did belong to a drug lord, so I think it’s a fair bet.”
The ground was slightly wet when we stepped out, which told me that the storm we’d witnessed earlier had been here as well.
“We’re going to clear the place,” I said. “So stay close and wait for my signal.”
“Aye, aye, captain,” Tara told me with a playful grin, and I had to smile despite the seriousness of the situation.
I grabbed my pistol from my hip and led the girls up to the house. There was a gate at the back that led to the backyard which was still as lush and full of vegetation as it had been the last time I was there.
Once we were inside the yard I could see that the backdoor was closed. There was nobody around that I had seen, so I made my way to the door and slowly turned the handle, but the knob didn’t budge.
A million thoughts ran through my mind right then, but at the forefront was the thought that we had definitely not locked up last time we left the place.
That could mean only two things. Either somebody had been there before, or somebody was there now.
The house was extremely secluded, which would make it difficult to find. But that also meant that if somebody did happen to find it, then they’d be stupid to not milk it for all it was worth. I know that I would make the most out of a secluded house if I was traveling by myself, especially one that was right by the lake.
A nice supply of water was the first rule of survival, and they had it just a hundred yards or so away from the front door.
“It’s locked?” Paige whispered with wide eyes full of surprise.
“Yeah,” I nodded and pointed to Anna, Paige, and Bailey. “You three go that way and look through the windows.”
“On it,” Anna agreed, and she led her small team around the left side of the building.
Tara and Kimmy were with me, and we slowly made our way around the right side. It was eerily quiet as we stepped around all the vegetation to try and remain as silent as possible. The first window we came to was apparently some sort of bedroom. It looked dusty, though somewhat disheveled. The bed wasn’t made, and there were some papers sprawled out on the ground.
My eyebrows pinched together as I took in the scene. It seemed like somebody had been looking for something, but what could it have been? And did they leave the room this way because they’d found it, or were they still here?
Tara looked at me and shook her head, so I nodded in return and led the girls further down the house until we reached the next window. The house was fairly small, and there were only two on our side. This last one showed the living room where we’d killed Brody’s father. When I looked in, though, I realized that his body wasn’t there. I had definitely not moved it before we left, which meant that someone had been here recently. Otherwise, there would have been a corpse in the fancy chair by the fireplace. I figured the bodyguards could have been gotten by animals, but there was no explanation for the missing drug lord.
I moved around to the front of the building and saw Anna, Paige, and Bailey there waiting for us.
“Anything?” I asked in a low voice.
