Without Law 11 Read online

  “More druggies, then?” Tara asked.

  “It’s possible,” I agreed.

  The refinery we had taken out had been filled with meth heads, and before that we had taken out a couple of meth cookers that we assumed were their suppliers, though now that I saw these guys I thought it was possible that the cookers we took out were just small fish. There were probably more around if these assholes were still roaming the streets.

  “Maybe that’s what they’re looking for,” Paige suggested.

  “They’re patrolling the streets looking for drugs?” Anna asked with a raised eyebrow.

  “Well,” the brunette said, and she put her head down, “that’s how people used to get drugs, isn’t it?”

  “Yeah,” Anna laughed. “But dealers don’t hang around on corners like they used to.”

  “And how do you know so much about this?” Tara asked with an accusatory look. “You on the ‘roids? Is that how you won that ski championship?”

  “You know I love the drugs.” The redhead winked at Tara.

  “No ya don’t,” Tara chuckled.

  “You brought it up,” Anna laughed.

  “Yeah, but you are supposed to roll your eyes at me all cute and pissed off like you normally d—”

  “Oh shit,” Anna interrupted, and I turned to look at the road.

  “Shit,” I repeated.

  Another jeep brought up the rear for a total of three now, which meant twelve guys, all well armed. None of them looked military, their posture and the way they held their weapons told me that, but I could see that they all had M16s, and they probably had pistols on them as well. If they saw us before we got the jump on them, we were definitely dead. We had to think quickly and make sure we took them all out at nearly the same time, we couldn’t risk one group peeling off, we needed to take them all out.

  “Are we even sure that’s the last one?” Tara asked, her eyes wide with surprise.

  I waited a moment until I was sure that there were no more surprise jeeps, then I turned back to the girls.

  “Alright,” I said. “It’s time to take these guys out.”

  “What’s the plan?” Anna asked, all business as always when she got into Major mode.

  I looked out to the setting sun. It dipped further below the horizon with each passing second, and soon we would be out of daylight.

  “We need to take them out at the same time,” I instructed. “The men in the back of the jeeps first since they have their weapons at the ready.”

  “How are we going to take them out at the same time?” Tara asked. “There’s twelve of them and only five of us.”

  “We’ll have to split into teams,” I said. “Each team will be responsible for one jeep.”

  “We’re one person shy of two-man teams,” Paige pointed out. “Are you taking a jeep to yourself, then?”

  “Nope,” I said, and I turned to Bailey. “Crackshot is.”

  “Okay,” the blonde hippie replied, and a slight smile pulled at the corners of her lips.

  I knew she was more than capable, and if anybody could take out four guys single handedly in the time it took for two people to do the same job, it was Bailey.

  “Are we shooting from the roof?” Anna asked.

  I scanned our vantage point once more. There were quite a few buildings between us and the jeeps, and once we got a shot off, there was no turning back, so we needed to make sure we had these guys exactly where we wanted them.

  “I don’t think so,” I said after a moment. “There are too many buildings in our way. We need to get back down to ground level.”

  “There’s a park over there,” Paige pointed out. “What about there?”

  The park was overgrown, but it was a decent size, and we’d be able to see the jeeps as they made their way down the road toward it. If we waited for the right moment, then they would all line up in front of it.

  “That’ll work,” I said. “But we have to hurry, let’s go.”

  I crawled quickly back to the hatch, sent the girls down first, and shimmied my way through last.

  “There’s a back way out over here,” Bailey said as we headed out of the manager's office, and she led us further down the dark hallway and to a door that led to the back of the building.

  “This way,” I said, and I moved swiftly and quietly behind the buildings toward the park. Once we were in line with it we had to cross the street to get to the far side, so I checked both ways to be sure there weren’t any other men on patrol, then I led my team across.

  “Anna, you’re with me at the jungle gym,” I whispered once we were at the fence line. “We’ll take out the first jeep.”

  “Roger that,” the redhead replied.

  “Paige, Tara,” I said. “You’re at the seesaw’s, and you’re on the second jeep.”

  “Right,” Paige agreed.

  “Aye aye,” Tara said with a mock salute.

  “And Bailey,” I said. “You’re by the big slide, and you got the whole last jeep. You sure you’re okay with that?”

  “Consider them dead,” the blonde replied with a determined nod.

  “Damnmmmnnn, girl,” Tara moaned. “You sound super hot being all badass like that.”

  “Thank you,” Bailey giggled.

  “Let’s go,” I said with a grin.

  I headed toward the jungle gym with Anna on my tail. The park was set up for small children, and it was obviously old before the EMP hit, but now it was downright eerie. The steel was nothing but rust, and all the equipment had foliage growing through the cracks. The jungle gym we made it to was steel and wood, but the wood was barely holding on any longer, and I was almost afraid to touch it since it looked like it would crumble to pieces in your hand.

  Once we were under the jungle gym we laid down with our rifles at the ready. As soon as the jeeps came into view, we would take them out.

  “Bailey will be fine,” Anna assured me after a moment.

  “What?” I asked, then I shook my head as I realized what she had said. “Oh, I know.”

  “Okay,” she said with a small shrug. “You just seemed a bit worried.”

  “Not worried, per se,” I sighed. “I just don’t ever want to put too much pressure on any of you girls. It’s not your responsibility to protect everyone.”

  “Right,” Anna replied with an eye roll. “That’s just your job.”

  “Damn right,” I said with a grin.

  “Whatever,” the redhead chuckled. “We’re a team, remember?”

  “I know,” I said softly. “But I still feel the need to protect you all.”

  “And we appreciate it,” she said. “But Bailey is a badass, having her do what she’s best at isn’t putting pressure on her. She likes to help, just like we all do.”

  “Thanks,” I said with a small smile.

  I heard the engines rev on the jeeps, and I looked out ahead of me toward the road. The sun had dipped further behind the horizon, and the dusk cast long, strange shadows of all the buildings and trees. It would be dark within minutes, which meant we needed to hurry this thing up.

  Anna adjusted herself next to me and put her eye up to her scope.

  The engine of the jeeps revved once more, and a second later the first one came into view.

  Bingo.

  Now all we had to do was wait for all three of them to line up. They moved at such a slow pace that it was excruciating to watch them as they drove on, but soon enough the second jeep came into view, then the third.

  Just a few more seconds…

  The three vehicles lined up perfectly, and it was time. I quickly aimed my rifle at one of the men in the back seat.

  “I got the one furthest away,” I told Anna.

  “Figured you would,” she replied.

  “Ready?” I asked.

  “Go,” she said, and I pulled the trigger at the same time she did.

  My target on the far side fell forward and out of the jeep at the same time that I heard several more shots fire from the girls. I didn’t have time to check their work quite yet, since the men in the front were still armed, and if the driver was quick enough, then there was a chance they would get away.

  I adjusted my rifle to the driver who had just spun his head around to check on his buddies in the backseat. I took a deep breath, let it out, and pulled the trigger once more.

  Anna’s rifle cracked beside me, and I saw blood splatter on the driver as my shot hit him in the eye socket and his body went limp. Since his foot was on the gas when he died the jeep lurched forward and ran into a blue mailbox on the sidewalk before it came to a halt.

  “Fuck yeah,” Anna said with a grin, but I couldn’t celebrate yet, I had to make sure the other girls had eliminated their targets as well.

  The second jeep idled in the road, and one of the men laid just outside the passenger’s seat as blood pooled around him. The other three were limp in the jeep with shots to the head or neck.

  The third jeep was quite the sight. All four men had taken one shot to the temple which would be highly impressive for a typical shooter, but was pretty typical for Bailey. The driver had fallen against the wheel, the passenger slumped down next to him, and the two in the back leaned against each other with their M16s still in their hands.

  “Good job,” I told Anna, then I stood up and called out to the other girls.

  Everyone came out of their hiding spots and met Anna and I by the jungle gym.

  “Impressive,” I told them all with a smile.

  “We know,” Tara teased.

  “Bailey was the most impressive as always,” Paige said, and she nudged the blonde.

  “Nah,” Bailey said with a shake of her head. “We all did our job.”

  “Well, yeah,” Anna said. “But you got a hea
d shot on each of them. I don’t think I could do that four times in a row. I was lucky to get two this time, and I’m pretty sure I shot one of them in the nose. Definitely not as clean as your shots.”

  “They just lined up perfectly,”Bailey said with a small shrug. “Those two in the back were easy. I got lucky.”

  “Wait,” Tara said with narrowed eyes, “are you saying that you only used three bullets to take out those four guys?”

  “Well, yeah,” Bailey said, but she bit her lip in embarrassment. “But like I said, they just lined up, it was easy.”

  “Uh uh,” Tara said with a glare at the small hippie girl. “I don’t wanna hear anything else from you. I’m done. You win. Now let’s go scavenge through these assholes’ shit.”

  The blonde walked off, her hips swinging angrily with each step.

  “What did I do?” Bailey whispered with a frown.

  “You’re too damn good,” Anna laughed. “Now, come on.”

  We headed over to the jeeps and started to gather up the weapons, ammo, and whatever other supplies we found. It was getting dark, and I didn’t have a flashlight on me, so I had to make due with the light that we had.

  “Hey, hey,” Anna said, and she held up a small baggie with white crystally stuff in it. “Look what I found.”

  “Damn,” I said as I grabbed the bag and looked it over.

  It was definitely the same type of meth that the guys at the refinery had been using, which meant that either there was another supplier in the area, or these guys had a large stockpile somewhere. Either way, these assholes obviously weren’t the men in charge. They were somebody’s goons, and I imagined that somebody might get a bit upset when they didn’t return soon with their drugs.

  “Hurry up and grab what you can,” I hollered to the other girls. “We’re heading back to the truck in five!”

  They nodded and moved a bit faster, but didn’t question me.

  There had to be some link between these guys and the ones at the refinery. I couldn’t be sure what exactly, but I knew that we didn’t want to be in the area for long, not after we took out a whole caravan of these guys.

  I picked through the jeeps and the men’s pockets quickly, but there wasn’t a lot that was useful besides the ammo and weapons. I did find a couple lighters, but that was it, so I gathered up my scores and headed around the jeep.

  “Everyone ready?” I asked.

  “Yeah,” Anna said, “but should we leave these drugs here, or…?”

  “Leave them,” I said, and my face crinkled in disgust. “I don’t want that stuff anywhere near our people.”

  “But if we leave it, then somebody else could find it,” Paige said. “Shouldn’t we at least dispose of it?”

  “I don’t think so,” I said. “Somebody is going to come looking for these assholes, and I bet they’ll be a lot less pissed if their drugs are still there when they find them.”

  “That seems accurate,” Tara agreed with a nod.

  “We might as well take the fuel, though,” I said.

  “Siphon it?” Anna asked.

  “Yeah,” I agreed. “If we put it all in one of the jeeps can you drive it back? We can always use another Jeep, especially when it comes with a full tank of gas.”

  “Sure,” the redhead agreed.

  “I’ll ride with you,” Bailey said.

  “Thanks, Bail,” Anna replied with a smile.

  The girls put the bags back into the glove compartments, and I checked the jeeps to see which had the most gas in it. They were each at about a quarter of a tank, so I went into the supply store and found a hose and a bucket to siphon it. Once we had all the fuel combined into the jeep with the least amount of blood in it, I tossed the drugs from that glove compartment out on the street and handed the keys over to Anna.

  “We’ll follow you,” she said.

  “Stay close,” I told her as I headed back to the truck. We quickly loaded the overhaul kit and the seeds from the tractor supply store, then hopped into the truck.

  I sat in the driver’s seat with Tara next to me, and Paige on the passenger’s side. I never minded squeezing in the truck, but right then I needed some fresh air so I let down the window, turned the truck on, and headed back toward home.

  “Alright,” Tara said after a few minutes. “You’re going to freeze us out, Tav.”

  “Sorry,” I chuckled and rolled the window up.

  “So those guys back there,” Paige said. “They’re linked to the refinery somehow, right?”

  “I believe so, yes,” I said. “But I’m not sure how exactly.”

  “Do you think they’re the real drug dealers?” Tara asked. “And they were supplying the refinery guys in exchange for fuel?”

  “That’s actually brilliant,” Paige said, and she looked to the platinum blonde with surprise.

  “Thanks,” Tara said proudly. “I used to watch a lot of detective shows.”

  “I don’t think LAW&ORDER counts as a real detective show,” Paige said.

  “Um, obviously it does,” Tara scoffed. “It just helped us solve this mystery, didn’t it?”

  “I guess it did,” Paige laughed. “But we don’t know for sure that’s right yet.”

  “She’s right,” I agreed. “It did seem like the captain at the refinery was pissed about the two drug dealers we took out in Lake George.”

  “Hm,” Paige said, “not to make it weird, but if I had a drug habit I wouldn’t rely on just one supplier. What if they’re out?”

  “Right,” Tara agreed, “or, like, not home when you try to go over there.”

  “Yeaaaah,” the brunette agreed warily. “But I think it’s possible that they had more than one dealer.”

  “That’s possible,” I said. “Actually, that’s the smart thing to do. If you want to catch a rabbit, you don’t set one trap, you set several. The same concept applies with just about anything.”

  That could also explain why there was so much excess fuel at the refinery. They had way too much stockpiled for the four jeeps that were there, well, three after Bailey had annihilated that one with her new Barrett. There was no way they would be able to use that much fuel before it went bad, especially not since they were still making more. They’d have to be going on cross-country trips every week in order to use it at the rate they were making it. Even then I wasn’t sure that was enough fuel consumption.

  “You said someone would be looking for them,” Tara said after a moment.

  “Yeah,” I agreed. “Those were henchmen.”

  “Right,” Paige said. “They definitely weren’t in charge of anything.”

  “But why would they patrol Montpelier?” Tara asked. “That’s pretty far away from the refinery if they are connected.”

  “You’re right,” I said. “Which means this thing might be bigger than we thought.”

  “What do you mean?” Tara asked.

  “He means there’s a lot more people involved,” Paige said solemnly.

  “Exactly,” I agreed.

  We drove on in the dark as I thought about the hell that had been our day. Not only had we looked through five towns before we found the part that we needed, but then we ran into those cronies. I was confused, though. If they were patrolling Montpelier, then why weren’t they patrolling any of the other towns we hit? They were all in the same vicinity.

  They could have patrolled them, and we just happened to miss them, but still, I had to wonder if there was something special about the capital city. I hadn’t seen anything that looked particularly out of place, but then again I hadn’t been looking for drug houses.

  “Do you think there are more guys roaming around?” Paige asked, her voice wary.

  “Probably,” Tara answered with a shrug. “If there’s more people involved, then that would only make sense.”

  “We’ll need to be extra careful on any runs we go on from here on out,” I said. “If we run into more of these assholes, then we’ll need to start figuring out where they’re coming from.”

  “Well let’s hope we don’t run into any more then,” Tara said. “I don’t wanna deal with more meth houses. Those guys were crazy.”

  “Right,” Paige said. “They almost blew themselves up.”

  We could hope all we wanted, but somehow I felt that this wasn’t the last time we’d see those bastards.

  Chapter 3

  I turned onto our new road that led to the campus and drove up the rocky landscape. Since the bridge had been blown, we had to dig out a new road up to the campus that was well hidden. It wasn’t perfect, but we had chopped a few trees out of the way, and at least we had a way up to the campus.