Without Law 2
Date: 2019-04-24T18:00:00+00:00
Description: When the EMP hit, the small world around a liberal arts college in the Vermont mountains changed drastically. But Tav had trained his whole life for this. Now this ex-Army Ranger has to serve again, but this time it’s a group of four beautiful women and one gentle old man who need his help to survive this lawless world. And Tav isn’t going to let them down. He’ll fight wild dogs, hungry mountain lions, and worst of all, men, to help protect his new family. Disclaimer: Without Law has adult scenes where the male protagonist makes love to multiple women. **

ERIC VALL

Chapter 1

Birds chirped happily, and the warm spring air was full of bugs as Paige and I stalked through the shadowed forest. In her hands, Paige clutched a primitive spear made from a big kitchen knife attached to the end of a long, fairly straight, stick.

I carried a recurve bow. It had a solid wood core with two black, fiberglass limbs attached to it. Both of us were clothed in a woodland camouflage hunting jacket, matching pants, and heavy boots, but Paige, the woman behind me, wore it much better than I did, and it was nice to see her in something other than her usual collage t-shirts and baggy jeans.

Paige wore her brown hair up with a pencil pushed through the bun, and she nodded to me when I motioned for her to crouch beside the animal trail we were following.

I pointed to the fresh tracks in the earth and the broken branch on a nearby tree. Our quarry, a rather sizable doe, looked to have passed this way. I didn’t speak, but Paige nodded in understanding. That’s why I had brought her along for the first hunt, she had shown a certain aptitude and appreciation for the task that none of the others possessed.

I stood and motioned her forward. Our pace was slow as we picked our way around bushes and tried to avoid anything that might make extra noise. We had been out here for an hour but, if I had to guess, I would say we were no more than twenty minutes’ walk away from the campus. However, our attempts to move quietly had slowed us down greatly.

Paige tapped on my shoulder, and I turned to see her point off to the right. She nodded in that direction and waved for me to follow. I nodded and fell in step behind her. She had sharp instincts and must have seen something.

A moment later the forest in front of us opened into a small idyllic clearing. We stood just inside the tree line and watched as two deer, a large doe, and a young fawn, pranced about. They chased each other in a circle for several minutes. It was a beautiful, almost serene, moment. It almost felt as if we had stumbled upon some entrance to another, less chaotic, world. I smiled and watched for a moment longer. Nature had always had a way of making me smile.

I looked at Paige and put a finger to my lips. She nodded and crouched down a little as I pulled an arrow from the quiver at my hip and nocked it. My eyes never left the clearing or the animals within it. While I was grateful that they were unaware of the danger that Paige and I represented, I did wish they would move. Neither of them were a good target from my angle as they were faced towards me. I was more likely to hit a rib than anything vital. I wouldn’t take any shot unless I knew I could drop it, since it wasn’t right to just wound the poor beasts. So I stood there, arrow ready, and waited.

The deer were in no hurry to do anything except graze, and they never changed facing even as they moved about to pick up fresh acorns from the ground.

I was patient but as I glanced over to my companion, I noticed her fingers drum slowly against the shaft of the spear, so I reached out and placed my hand over hers to still the motion.

Paige went red and looked to the forest floor.

I smirked and withdrew my hand. Then I looked around, picked the closest, sturdiest tree, and leaned against it. If we had to wait I figured I might as well get comfortable.

The canopy of trees blocked the sky just enough to throw off my sense of time and made the entire thing feel like it was taking longer than it probably was. Though as I looked to my companion, who had also found a place to lean quietly, she looked as alert and attentive as ever. That was another reason I had chosen to bring her first. I knew that some others, especially Tara and Bailey, would not be as patient.

A branch snapped in the trees across from us, and the deer who still grazed looked in that direction and froze.

I stood upright scanned the other side of the treeline but saw nothing. A minute passed, and the deer began to move again, but this time they gave me what I wanted as they started to move towards the treeline to my left, so I raised the bow and pulled back the arrow with a gloved hand. I kept both eyes open and aimed at the doe. Without a sight on the recurve I had to rely on my experience and my recent practice to put the arrow where I wanted.

I heard Paige suck in and hold a breath to contain her excitement as she waited for me to take the shot.

I tracked the animal with my weapon until I had the perfect broadside shot lined up a little behind its front leg. There was a THWAP as I let the string slide out of my fingers. The arrow was buried in the side of the deer before it even had time to react to the sound.

The doe jumped, ducked, and took off into the trees.

“Come on,” I said as I burst into the clearing.

“What happened, did we miss the shot?” Paige asked as she followed close behind me.

I stopped near where we had seen the deer last and scanned the area. There was a nice crimson path that led into the trees. I grinned wide. “No, we hit it good.”

“Then why did it run?” She asked.

“Broadheads kill by slicing up tissue and organs,” I explained. “Sometimes that means the kill is not instant and your quarry has a chance to run.” I pointed to the blood. “We can follow this though. It is important that we find the deer and make sure we finish what we started.”

“Of course,” Paige said with a nod. “Lead the way.”

I nodded and started to follow the trail back into the forest.

Twenty yards in I found the arrow, bent, unusable, and soaked with blood, laying on the forest floor.

“That doesn’t seem good,” the bookish brunette said.

“It’s actually very good,” I said before I pulled out a small rag and used it to remove the broadhead from the useless shaft. “It was stuck in there pretty good which means this thing worked itself out. That’s gonna mean more blood and a faster kill.”

I left the broadhead wrapped in the gore soaked rag and put it and the ruined shaft into my quiver. It took me only a moment to pick out the next splash of red on the forest floor, and it was larger than the spots of blood that came before it.

“Well they certainly don’t show this part in the movies,” Paige said with a smirk.

“No they do not, but at least our path is clear,” I said with a small laugh. “The broadhead has certainly done its job. Come on, let’s find it before something else does.” I got up and started to give chase.

Unlike the first part of our trip, I now crashed and stomped my way through the woods. I knew that the faster the quarry ran the more it would bleed. Twigs and branches stung my face as they smacked against bare flesh, but I looked back once and found Paige moving with the same intensity and speed as me. A large toothy grin was plastered across her beautiful face. I let out a laugh and kept running.

Our path was clearly marked in fresh blood for two hundred yards. It was not only on the ground, but spread across bushes and even splashed on some nearby trees.

At the end of the path, our prize waited.

The doe sat in the dirt and panted heavily. Its left side was a mess of blood and matted fur, and as I stepped from the bushes, the beast tried to stand but only got two feet under itself before it fell back to the dirt. It let out desperate bleating cries as I knelt beside it.

“Hey, don’t worry,” I cooed as I set down my bow and pulled my knife. “It will be over soon.” I reached out and gently ran a hand over the doe’s head. It trembled under my touch and screamed louder as Paige stepped into view as well.

“What now?” She asked.

“We finish the job,” I said before I leaned in and, while holding the head up with my free hand, cut its throat.

The deer slumped forward immediately as a rush of hot blood poured out of the new wound.

“Never leave a wounded animal to suffer,” I said as I stood and cleaned my knife on my, already bloodstained, pants.

“Never,” she agreed as she approached. She took a seat next to the dead animal and stroked its fur. The brunette smiled, adjusted her glasses, and looked up at me. “It’s cute.”

“Not too cute to eat I hope,” I said.

“Hey, I probably would have eaten the dogs,” she replied.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” I said before I retrieved the bow. I clipped it to my backpack and crouched beside Paige. “Lets each grab a side and hoof it back to the stream. We can clean it there and use the guts for our trotline.”

“I haven't cleaned anything this big before,” she said as she stood and grabbed both the front legs.

“I know, but we can fix that,” I said and then I grabbed the back legs. Together we hefted the thing into the air, and my bookish companion groaned.

“How far is the stream again?” She asked.

“Maybe ten minutes from here,” I said with a chuckle. “Why, is it a little heavy?”

“Just move before I drop this thing,”

I nodded and started to lead us through the forest. My arms started to burn even before I could hear the rush of water in the distance. It was large, for a doe. I stopped at one point and dropped my end.

“What, tired already?” Paige teased as she dropped her own end. She raised an arm above her head and stretched.

“What can I say, I’m still trying to get in shape,” I replied with a grin. “Got any workout tips?”

“Yeah, workout with me,” she said as she gave me a wink.

“You are a great source of cardio,” I said as I pulled out a coil of rope from my pack.

“Yeah, do I get your heart beating a little faster?” she asked as she eyed the rope and raised a brow.

“You have been known to in the past,” I said with a smirk as I stood there, rope in hand. “Don’t worry, this isn’t for you.” I knelt next to the doe and started to create a small harness.

“Shame,” Paige said as she bit her bottom lip in faux innocence.

I chuckled but continued what I was doing. I wrapped the rope first around the creature’s chest a couple times before I looped it around the front legs where they met the body. I tied it specifically so that both ends of the rope were free, and once done, I handed an end to Paige.

“That was kinda hot,” she said. “You really know your way around a rope.”

“What can I say, I am a man of many skills.” I winked. “Now come on, let’s get this thing to the stream and clean it out. Maybe afterwards we can take a bath and wash off some of this blood.”

We each pulled one end of the rope up over our shoulder until the front half of the beast was off the ground and dragged it along behind us as we continued on.

Once we reached the stream, I quickly busied myself with untying the harness.

“You want me to gut it?” Paige asked as she shed her backpack and pulled out a small skinning knife we had retrieved from the sporting goods store in Lanceton a few days before.

“If you wouldn’t mind,” I said as I pulled the rope free and began to coil it again. “I’m gonna go find some good sticks so we can hang this lady up and skin her afterwards.”

“Sounds fun, haven't skinned much yet,” she said.

“Not properly anyway,” I said.

Paige nodded, and I watched as she unzipped her jacket to reveal the powder blue crop top she was wearing beneath. It exposed most of her smooth toned midriff, and the nipples that poked against her top made it clear she wasn’t wearing a bra.

“You know, it’s usually rude to stare at a woman’s chest,” Paige said as she noticed where my eyes were fixed.

“Right, sorry,” I said as I shook my gaze free of her body.

“I said usually,” she said with a grin. “Unlike Bailey, I only go without a bra on special occasions or when I want to get noticed.” She knelt by the animal and started to make the incision in the belly.

“Well you certainly have mine,” I said and as I watched her deliberate and careful movements, it was obvious that she would have made a great surgeon. She would still make a wonderful doctor for our group. I just hoped that if something serious happened, we had a book with detailed enough instructions for her to at least try to help us.

I left her to work knowing she would call for me to help if she needed it and went in search of some sturdy sticks with which to help hang the deer when she was done.

When I returned Paige was covered in blood up to her elbows and some was smeared across her face. As she smiled her bright white teeth stuck out against the dark rapidly drying blood around them.

“How’s it going?” I asked as I took a seat on one of the stones by the stream.

“Good, I think I’m done,” she said with a nod. “Got a nice pile of entrails over here and one empty chest cavity.”

“Perfect,” I said as I worked to sharpen both ends of a roughly two foot, slightly curved, branch.

“What are you working on now?” She asked as she came over and sat down beside me.

“We’re gonna hang the beast to skin it,” I said. “We’ll punch this through a spot in the back legs and attach the rope to it.”

“Oh okay, so it’s kinda like a clothes hanger,” She said

“Yeah, I suppose it is,” I replied with a chuckle. I held the wood up to inspect it as I finished the second end. “Good enough. Come on, let’s get this thing up.”

We made our way back to the deer. My companion had indeed done a marvelous job of clearing out the insides.

“You messed up several of this thing’s organs,” she said. “Cut the heart, punctured a lung, stuff like that.”

“I’m just happy that I didn’t hit the guts or the belly,” I admitted.

“Me too,” she said. “I can only imagine how awful it would smell to puncture one of those.” She nudged the pile of entrails and turned her attention back to me. “So, you gonna show me how to do this?”

I nodded, knelt at the back of the animal, and pushed the sharped wood through the leg in a meaty spot right above the knee. Once I did that on both sides, I tied the rope around the middle of my makeshift gambrel and dragged the doe to a nearby tree. The rope was tossed up and over a branch, and I pulled until the entire creature was off the ground before I tied it around the tree to keep it all in place.

“Looks good, in an eerie sorta way,” Paige said as she pushed some loose hair out of her face and stared at the doe who now swayed gently about a foot in the air. “Now what?”

“Well, best thing to do, usually, is to let them hang for a couple days, weather permitting.”

“So what, we just leave it here then?” She asked.

“No, that would be a bad idea,” I said as I shook my head. “Too many predators and scavengers in these woods. There would be nothing left.”

“Oh, well can’t we hang it at campus?”

“We can get picky later,” I began, “for today we are just gonna let this drain a bit, skin it, and haul it back.”

“So what you’re saying is, we have time to kill?” she asked.

“Yeah, I think it’s time for a bath,” I said with a nod as I turned to look at the stream beside us. I pulled off my jacket and striped off the shirt after it.

“It’s a good plan, but you know you didn’t need an excuse to get me naked, right?” Paige asked as her perky breasts bounced as they were freed from her tight blue shirt. She strutted over to me and pressed them against my exposed chest.

“I just thought you might need help to reach some places,” I said with a grin.

“You’re right. There are some places that haven't been reached since the last time we were together,” she cooed as she unbuttoned my pants and tugged at my boxers.

“Well I better take care of that then,” I said as I rubbed a hand between her thighs.

Paige moaned, and her knees buckled. She stood a step back, kicked off her shoes and frantically worked to remove her pants. “Damn these things for being so tight.”

I walked over, grabbed the waist and janked them down around her ankles in one swift motion. She had on a small purple thong that was drenched in far more than just sweat.

“Been waiting a while?” I asked as I raised an eyebrow.

“Oh shut up and finish what you started,” she pleaded.

“As you wish,” I said with a smirk before I finished pulling off her pants. I sat her down on a streamside stone and removed my own camo pants.

Paige breathed heavy as she watched, and a devilish grin split her face as I freed my swollen self from my boxers.

“Looks like I wasn’t the only excited one,” she said as she pulled her thong to the side to reveal her smooth, wet mound. She was practically panting as she stared at my cock and licked her lips.

“Did you remember the condoms?” I asked as I stared at her revealed glory.

“I skipped them,” the petite brunette said as she shook her head. “I want to feel you inside me, like really feel you. Just be sure to pull out.”

I nodded and strode forward. If that was what the lady wanted I would be happy to oblige. Though as I stepped up she moaned, leaned forward, and took me in her mouth.

“You were holding out on me last time,” I said before I groaned.

She didn’t stop but instead worked harder and took it deeper.

“Oh god, keep going like that and this will be the only place you feel me today,” I grunted.

She stopped, pulled back and wiped her mouth as she sucked in air. “Fair point.” She stood up and kissed my neck before she turned around and bent over. She placed her hands on the rock, spread her legs, and kept her ass in the air. She dripped in anticipation as I stepped up behind her and let out a loud moan as I pushed myself slowly inside.

Paige’s tight pussy gripped my cock as I slid slowly in and out of her.

“Fuck, I forgot how tight you were,” I muttered.

“Good thing you get me so wet,” she sighed. “I am not sure you could fit inside me otherwise.”

“Well we can’t have that,” I said as I reached around and grabbed her nipples. I gently pinched them between my fingers as I increased the speed of my thrusts.

She moaned loudly and pushed her hips into me to drive myself deeper into her.

The rock under her grew wet as I fucked her harder, and the forest filled with the animalistic sounds of our activity.

Pressure quickly built as my cock worked inside her. I knew I wasn’t going to last much longer without changing positions, so I pulled out and turned her around.

“We done already?” she teased.

“Not quite,” I said with a grin as I pushed her to her knees. “We just need to mix it up a little.”

“Oh my,” Paige said as she took my shaft in one hand and licked her lips. “It’s so big and swollen.”

“Not to mention covered in your juices,” I said.

“I guess I should clean that up,” she said while she stroked it. “Should I be worried that I was really hoping I could taste myself on your cock again?”

“I think you should stop talking and put it in your mouth already,” I groaned.

The bookish brunette grinned, leaned forward, and locked her lips around my cock. Then she stroked it with one hand while sucking on it with her mouth.

Paige teased me with her tongue before slowly taking my dick deeper in her mouth. I pushed it a bit deeper, and my lover didn’t even gag as it pushed into her throat.

I groaned, put a hand on top of her head, and started to thrust.

The pressure built again as she moved up and down on my cock and continued to use her tongue to tease what was in reach.

“Let me pull out,” I ordered.

She nodded and moved back to allow my dick to slip free of her lips.

As the cool air hit it I grunted and spasmed, shooting my load all over her face, neck and chest.

Paige giggled and leaned in to catch it all on her smooth, sweaty skin.

I stroked it a couple last times and managed to shoot a little more out onto the panting brunette.

“Tav, that was amazing,” Paige said once she was able to catch her breath. She stood up on her still-shaking legs and approached the stream as my load ran between her breasts and down her stomach.

“I was quite impressed myself,” I said as I joined her in the water. Surprisingly it didn’t feel quite as cold after our intense activity.

It seemed that Paige did not feel the same way since she shivered anyway as the cold water lapped at her bare flesh.

I grabbed a bar of soap from my pack and tossed it to her.

“What, did you expect this to happen?” She asked as she caught it.

“Not that, no,” I said. “I just knew the hunting would be messy.”

“I hope every hunting trip is this messy from here on out,” the brunette said as she scrubbed the blood from her arms, face, and neck.

“Is that an invitation?” I asked as I lowered myself into the water until only my head remained dry.

“Well, yeah, I didn’t think I was being coy,” she said with a shrug.

“Just wanted to make sure,” I replied. “This is fun but I never want to overstep your boundaries.”

“Tav, I’m quickly thinking that, when it comes to you, I might not have any,” she said after she let out a happy sigh.

“Duly noted,” I said.

Paige tossed the soap my way and inspected herself as she walked towards the edge of the stream. She ran a hand along her breasts, grinned, and shivered again. That time I felt confident that it wasn’t the water that made her shake. Then she stepped free of the stream and found a patch of sunlight to stretch out in as she waited for me.

“Don’t get too comfortable,” I called out. “We still have some work to do.”

“I know,” she said. “I’ll be good to go when you are.”

I grinned, shook my head, and started to scrub. Just in the couple of weeks I had been in the area, the stream had becoming notably warmer. I still wouldn’t call it comfortable but I no longer shivered uncontrollably while bathing. I guessed a month from now taking a bath would be a pleasant thing for more reasons than just hygiene.

“Hey, it looks like your leg is healing up nicely,” Paige said as she watched me climb out of the water.

“Thanks in no small part to you,” I said as I inspected the tender pink area on my upper thigh. A few weeks back I had gotten into a fight with a black bear and managed to win it while taking only a graze to my thigh. It might not have healed so well if Paige had not cleaned it and stitched it up.

“What can I saw, I like to play doctor,” Paige said with a shrug before she started to get dressed once more. She picked up her thong and chuckled. It was still noticeably damp.

“Forget to bring a spare?” I asked as I pointed to the skimpy undergarment.

“Didn’t think I would mess these up so much,” she admitted. Though a moment later she shrugged and slipped them on and pulled them back into place. “I dunno, I kinda like it. It’s like some weird dirty keepsake.”

“You’re just now finding out that you’re a little freaky aren’t you?” I asked with a smirk.

“Maybe,” Paige replied as she turned red and looked away. She pulled on her pants without looking at me. “Like I said, I don’t know what my boundaries are.”

“Hey, no need to be embarrassed,” I said as I pulled a fresh green t-shirt from my backpack. “I’m glad I could help you figure it out.” I gave her a wink and smacked her ass.

Paige yelped but giggled and pulled back on her shirt. She retrieved her knife and walked over to where the doe still hung. A small pool of blood had collected on the ground underneath the animal and occasionally another drop would roll off the head and add to it.

“Should be a little less messy now,” I said after I finished getting dressed and joined her by my kill.

“Yeah, so where do I start?” She asked.

“Start by cutting around the legs the deer is handing from,” I instructed. “You want to cut all the way around the bend of each leg.” I stepped up and did the first leg to show her what I was talking about. I cut a line around the bend almost like the top of a sock. Once I had the initial cut, I went in again to ensure that I cut through the hide completely.

Paige nodded and followed my lead. Again she worked with precision, and I was fairly certain her cut was cleaner than mine despite my many, many previous hunts.

“What now?” She asked as she turned to me with a smile on her face. I had never met someone so happy to be doing the dirty work. Even the buddies I hunted with growing up didn’t want to do much besides shoot it and eat it.

“You want to make a cut along the interior of both legs that connects the cut you just made with the gash in the belly,” I said as I stepped back. There was nothing complicated about this cut, and there was nothing she could puncture that would ruin the meat anymore.

Paige’s sharp knife glided along the creature’s hairy hide and created a nice Y shape with both her new cuts leading perfectly into the belly. This whole thing was much easier with a sharp blade, and I was glad the one Paige had picked out came with a razor’s edge.

“Well done,” I said. “Now you want to get your fingers in there and start to peel the skin back starting from the top.

“That’s it?” She asked as she eyed me.

“Yeah, it’s really that simple,” I said “The hide should come off as basically one piece from here. You can use your knife to help you if the hide gets too stuck, and once you get to the front shoulders, you will need to cut around the various joints, but that’s it.

“What about the head?” She asked as she sheathed her knife and started to pull the hide free of the body.

“We will just cut it off and toss it into the forest,” I said with a shrug. Most hunters disposed of the head if it wasn’t a buck. Though even if we had bagged a buck, taxidermy was not a skill I had ever picked up, and now didn’t seem like the right time to start. “There is not much we need it for right now. Not unless you want it for some reason.”

“Nah, I have enough random crap,” Paige said as she rolled the hide up to get a better grip. She had successfully separated all the skin from the rear legs and was starting to pull it from the torso. There was a wet peeling noise as she yanked hard and pulled back the skin.

“You think you got it from here?” I asked.

“Yeah,” she said after she grunted and pulled off yet more hide. “Just cut around joints in front and don’t worry when I get to the head since we are just cutting that off.”

“Good,” I said with a nod. “There is a hack saw I borrowed from Rolly in my pack. If you get that far before I get back feel free to remove the head.”

“Where are you going?” She asked as she pulled out her knife and cut through some connecting tissue to help her along.

“Just down the stream,” I said as I pointed. “I won’t be more than a minute away. I just figure now is a good time to throw some bait on the trotlines.”

“Oh, yeah, good call,” the brunette said as she paused to take a breath. “I don’t exactly need a refresher on how to poke meat onto a hook.”

“I’d hope not,” I said. “It would be a shame if my star pupil couldn’t master such a simple skill.” I gave her a wink, picked up a handful of guts and organs, and tossed the stomach off into the forest as a gift for whatever scavengers wanted it. “Be back soon, keep your spear close just in case.”

Paige nodded and waved at me before going back to work on the deer.

I headed off down the stream to where one of our trot lines waited. Though as I reached the spot it was supposed to be I didn’t see it, at least not at first. The wire that crossed the stream, the one that held the lines themselves, was broken and dragging in the water. I set down the bait and fished one side out of the water. Of the three lines attached to the wire only one still had a hook.

I frowned and pulled out the .9mm Springfield pistol I usually carried. We had seen no fish in the stream that were big enough to bring down the whole line. I crossed the stream and went to fish out the other side when I noticed large cat prints pressed into the embankment. It was a big central pad with four toe divots in an asymmetrical pattern in front of it.

These were mountain lion tracks.

“Fuck,” I swore as I pressed my fingers into the soft earth. These were fresh, possibly not more than a few hours old.

I stood up, looked around, and shook my head. It might not be an issue, but we would need to be vigilant. I holstered the gun and headed back to where I had left Paige. Suddenly I felt that maybe I was too far away.

“Welcome back,” Paige greeted as I approached and looked up from where she crouched. The hacksaw was half way through the doe’s thick neck but other than that the creature was naked.

“How’d it go?” She asked as she went back to her task.

“Oh, well it seems we aren't alone in these woods,” I said.

“What?” Page snapped as she looked at me.

“Sorry, just an animal,” I said as I walked up and grabbed the doe. I tried to hold it steady so that she could cut through it easier.

“It’s a dangerous one isn’t it?” She asked as she shook her head and continued cutting.

“They can all be dangerous,” I said. “Though yeah, mountain lion.”

“What do we do about it?” she wondered as she gave the one last pull that severed the neck. The head hit the ground with a wet thud and rolled once.

“We just be careful while in the forest and stay out of its way,” I said. “If we don’t mess with it then it shouldn’t mess with us. It should have more than enough food to keep it in the forest.” I walked over, grabbed the head, and tossed it off into the brush. Maybe that would keep it happy for a while.

“Simple,” Paige said as she washed her hands in the stream.

“Usually is,” I replied as I untied the rope and lowered the animal to the ground.

“Now let’s grab this thing and head back to campus,” I ordered. “I’m thinking we will eat well tonight.”

We packed our bags, grabbed our gear, and picked up the meat.

“This was fun,” Paige said with a smile as she started to march off towards home.

“Good, I hope the others feel the same way when they get their turn,” I said.

“Me too,” Paige said. “Next time though I think you should use the rope on me.”

I looked back over my shoulder and raised an eyebrow.

The bookish little brunette grinned devilishly and went a little red.

Chapter 2

Twenty minutes later, we could make out through the trees the three large buildings that made up our home on the campus of Piper College, and there, sitting on a wooden bench by a small fire, sat a stunningly gorgeous platinum-blonde woman. She had on a low cut black tank top that barely held in her breasts, a pair of, tight, designer jeans that had pre ripped holes, and plain black hiking boots.

“The mighty hunters have returned!” Tara, the platinum-blonde model yelled as Paige and I emerged from the trees. She jumped up and raced towards us. Despite several months without a proper styling, her hair seemed to still perfectly frame her face, even as she ran.

“We bring food,” I called out triumphantly as I raised a fist into the air, and then I looked back at Paige. “We can drop it here.”

“Thank god,” she said before she set down her end of the deer. Then she pulled off her glasses and cleaned them on her shirt.

“So, how was it?” Tara asked as she got close. “Looks like things went well.”

“Tav was the one who shot it, but I cleaned and skinned the thing myself,” Paige said proudly as she tried to clean her grimy hands on the grass.

“It looks like you did a good job though,” Tara said with a shrug.

“She did extremely well,” I said. “I know seasoned hunters who can’t clean a deer that nice.”

“Aw, thanks, it was pretty fun,” Paige said

Then, a third woman came around from one of the buildings to join us. She was thinner than the other women and sported a head of natural blond hair. She wore a purple tank top with a peace symbol on it, and her hands were stuffed into the pockets of a pair of faded skinny jeans. With every step the untied laces of her black canvas high tops bounced along behind her.

“Welcome back,” Bailey, the blond hippie, said as she stared at the pile of meat that rested on the grass. “What... was that?”

“Deer,” I said “Don’t worry, they taste better than they look.”

“I’ll have to take your word on that one,” Bailey replied.

I chuckled and shook my head. “We’ll fix that later. How’d the morning go?”

“We found two rabbits in the traps,” Tara said.

“Yeah, but something had torn apart one of our traps,” Bailey added.

“Same thing happened to the trotline I tried to check today,” I said.

“Yeah, Tav said that it looks like there might be a mountain lion in the area,”

“Oh shit,” Bailey said. “That’s not good is it?”

“Nothing to freak out about,” I said. “We just have to be careful when out in the woods. It is also probably about time we setup a place to store all the meat we have been gathering.”

“That would be nice,” Paige said. “We are starting to get quite a supply.”

“See, it’s reasons like this mountain lion thing that kept me out of the forests before all of this,” Tara said as she crossed her arms and scanned the trees behind us.

“Wait, I thought you liked being eaten,” Paige joked.

“Not by wild animals!” she replied.

“Well don’t worry,” I said. “I won’t let anything else eat you.” I winked at her, looked back at Paige, and nodded to the carcass. “Let’s get this lady to the fire.”

“It’s a lady?” Bailey asked as she watched us pick up the meat.

“It was,” Paige said. “Now it’s just meat. There’s nothing left but muscle and bone.”

“Well isn’t that just, like, super morbid,” Tara said as she followed us towards the fire.

“Yeah, if that's supposed to help me get over the fact that this was a living thing a few hours ago, it didn’t work,” Bailey said. She had been a vegan only a couple weeks before, and she was really just starting to adjust to her new, survival mandated, lifestyle.

“I tried,” Paige said with a shrug.

I dropped the deer onto one of your handmade benches and popped open the small smoker beside it. Two rabbits and a fish hung inside and already took up the majority of the space.

“Looks like we are salting the deer,” I said.

“Sounds fun,” Anna said from behind me.

I turned to see the last of my girls standing behind the others with a rabbit in her bloody hands. She had on a tight black sports top and matching black leggings that showed off her well-toned legs. A pair of dirty white sneakers covered her feet and her long red hair was pulled back into a tight, well-practiced braid. She carried herself with an air of authority that came from being my second in command. Before I showed up she had been the one trying to keep the rest of them alive.

“Don’t suppose there is any room in that smoker for one more rabbit?” the athletic redhead asked.

“Doesn’t look like it,” Bailey said as she inspected the smoker’s interior.

“Man, remember when this little box was enough to cure our food?” Paige asked.

“Well duh,” Tara said. “That was only a couple weeks ago.”

“Yeah, good times,” Anna added. “I really liked that part right before Tav showed up, when we didn’t know how much longer we would be alive.”

“Ah, to be young and dumb again,” Paige added sarcastically.

“Well, it seems we have a new afternoon project then,” I said.

“Building a bigger smoker?” Anna asked.

“No, we will build a nice secure shed to lock our meat in after it has been salted or cured.”

“Can’t we just keep it inside?” Bailey asked. “There is a whole building full of classrooms. Couldn’t we convert one of those into storage or something?”

“The only problem with that is we wouldn’t be able to regulate the temperature as easily,” I explained. “When you salt meat, you need to be able to control the environment it sits in to ensure it actually cures and doesn’t just rot.”

“Oh, I always thought you just had to rub a shit ton of salt onto the meat and call it good,” Paige said.

“Things would be a lot simpler if that were the case,” I replied. “Let’s drop our meat in the dining hall and grab some tools.”

“Can't we just leave the meat here until we finish this hut?” Anna asked.

“Probably not the best idea with a mountain lion in the area,” Paige said.

“A what now?” Anna asked as her eyes went wide.

“Oh yeah, guess you weren’t there when Tav told us about it,” Bailey said.

“It’s nothing to worry about,” I assured her. “Just be on guard and don’t go anywhere unarmed. It shouldn’t have any reason to mess with us. We even left it plenty of food this morning.”

“Is that a good idea?” Anna asked. “Won’t it want to come find you guys to get more or something?”

“We didn’t feed it like that,” Paige replied. “But we left all the deer’s entrails, and its head behind.”

“That should keep it full for a while,” I said before I looked to Paige.

“You and Anna go wash your hands and meet us back here,” I ordered.

“There’s some hand sanitizer in our sleeping area if you want to use that,” Bailey offered.

“Perfect,” Anna said with a nod. “I’ll drop the rabbit off on my way.” Then she headed for the dorm.

“Wait for me,” Paige called out as she ran after the athlete.

“Anyone seen Rolly today?” I asked as I shouldered the skinned deer.

“He was out in the parking lot changing the oil on the Jeep a little while ago,” Bailey said. “Apparently it should have been done before we went to Lanceton.”

“Go check on him for me, and grab the keys to the shed,” I said.

Bailey nodded and took off in that direction as I headed for the dorm building.

“So uh, you are Paige were out there for a while this morning,” Tara said as she walked along beside me. “Do anything fun?”

“Hunting is pretty fun, yeah,” I said coyly.

“I meant, like, really fun,” the blonde said as she repositioned her hand on her hip.

“A gentleman doesn’t kiss and tell,” I replied with a smirk.

“So something did happen then?” the platinum blonde asked as her smile curled into a grin.

“I guess you’ll have to ask Paige if you want to know for sure,” I said.

“I’m a little jealous now,” Tara said as she licked her lips. “Plus, seeing you hunt would be totally hot.”

“You’ll get your turn,” I said. “When you do though, I expect you to get your hands dirty.”

“I’ll get dirty for you anytime,” she purred before she winked at me.

“So I've noticed,” I said with a grin, and then I pushed open the door and stepped into the dorm building. The first floor was made up mostly of the dining hall and a now unused kitchen space. I flopped the deer onto one of the many, empty cafeteria tables where it landed with a wet slap.

The door to the building swung open and Bailey jogged in with a large ring of keys.

“How’s Rolly?” I asked.

“He’s good,” Bailey said. “Says he will keep an eye out for the mountain lion and told me there is a pile of usable wood out behind the shed.” She tossed the keys at me.

“Good, that saves us from having to break up some desks or furniture,” I said with a nod as I caught the keyring. “Time to do some building.”

I led the two women back out of the building, and towards the long shed adorned with a metal roof. I unlocked the large padlock used to keep the heavy wooden door closed and stepped inside. I looked over the racks of neatly organized tools and grabbed enough hammers for all of us. Then I grabbed a few tape measures, ring shank, nails, and a couple hand saws. I handed the tools off to Tara, and Bailey, before I grabbed a level, and some hinges for a door.

“Is that everything?” Bailey asked as I made my way outside.

“Should be,” I said with a nod. “Not like we have to go far for more if it isn’t.”

“True,” she replied. “So where are we going to build this thing?”

“Probably in the shadow of one of the campus buildings,” I said, “We need to make sure it stays cool, and keeping it out of the sun will help with that.”

As we began to work, Paige and Bailey rejoined us. They were clean of the blood that had stained their hands and arms, and I was anxious to have them give us a hand.

“You two look refreshed,” Tara said as she walked over and handed them each a hammer.

“Just in time too,” Bailey said.

We all hauled a bunch of wood over to a spot behind the dorm building where the sun never quite reached, and I started to pick out a few good 2x4 boards to construct a frame.

“So first we need to create a base, and some walls out of 2x4,” I explained. “These will form a sort of skeleton for us to attach our plywood too.”

“Okay, yeah,” Anna said. “Part of my parents place got remodeled when I was younger, and I sorta remember that. It’s what they attached the drywall to.”

“Exactly,” I said with a nod. “We can also pack the areas between the 2x4 with insulation to help regulate temperature.”

“Where would we get insulation?” Bailey asked.

“We could probably pull it out of almost any house down the hill,” Paige replied with a shrug.

“Oh yeah, it’s the fluffy pink stuff you, like, find in the attic or whatev’, right?” Tara asked.

“It can come in a couple different colors, but yeah I think it is most well known as the itchy pink stuff,” I said.

“So how do we build these skeleton sections?” Anna asked.

“Well, we need to decide on dimensions,” I said as I tossed her a tape measure. “Check what size 2x4s we have there, and we will go from there.”

The athletic redhead nodded, crouched next to the lumber, and started to measure the pieces. She muttered to herself as she measured the wood that I had set aside.

“Do we have a common size?” I asked.

“Yeah, looks like mostly eight foot pieces,” she said after she finished measuring about a dozen.

“Then we will build a nice eight foot box of a building,” I stated. “We will start with the floor. Start by making a square frame. Then take your tape and make a mark every sixteen inches. That is where we will place our studs.”

“I thought studs were used on walls,” Paige said. “Don’t you use a joist on a floor?”

“Is there any topic you don’t have at least some knowledge of?” Tara asked.

The brunette shrugged and went a little red.

“You’re right,” I said as I chuckled and gave her a smile. “Well… normally you’d be right. Though if they were actual joists they would use something bigger than a 2x4.”

“Do we have to do any cutting?” Bailey asked as she knelt and helped Anna lineup the first piece.

“Not yet,” I said. “Since we have so many pieces that are the same size we can just knock out some wall frames.”

I started on a frame by myself as the girls all worked together on one of their own. I looked up as the sound of hammering filled the air and watched them work. It wasn’t hard to tell that they had not spent much time swinging a hammer before today, but there wasn’t much I could do to help them along except to let them practice.

“Fuck!” Anna exclaimed as she dropped her hammer and grabbed at her thumb. “God-damnit, why does it hurt so fucking much?”

“Are you okay?” Bailey asked.

“Yeah, is there any blood?” Paige asked.

“I’m fine, there’s no blood,” Anna seethed. “I’m just a fucking idiot.”

“Catch your thumb?” I asked despite knowing the answer.

“Yes,” She replied as her cheeks turned red.

“Is she going to be okay?” Tara asked.

“She’ll be fine,” I assured her. “And, Anna, you’re not an idiot. Even I have smashed my thumb more times than I care to count. You’ll get better the more you do it.”

“Well it feels like a stupid thing to do anyway,” Anna said as she stretched out her fingers and looked at her thumb. It was red but not swollen, and she grumbled but retrieved her fallen hammer. “The pain is already fading, we should probably get back to work.”

“Probably a good idea,” I said with a chuckle before I went back to it.

It didn’t take long for me to finish the eight by eight segment. I put it where I wanted the shack to sit and looked over at the girls. They positioned the inner studs on their marks, and Tara worked to nail them in place.

“Careful Tara, keep this up and you might develop some calluses on those soft hands of yours,” Paige said sarcastically.

“You know what, that doesn’t, like, scare me anymore.”

“Oh my gosh, are you feeling okay?” Anna asked with a smile.

“Hey, I’m as shocked as you are,” Tara replied. “This fresh mountain air must be getting to my head or something.”

“People always told me spending so much time in the woods was not normal,” Bailey said. “Maybe they were on to something.”

“Next thing you know our diva here will spend less time shaving,” Paige joked.

“Ew, that one goes too far, even for the new me,” Tara said with a grimace. “The only place on my body that needs hair is my head thank you.”

“What happens if we run out of razors?” I asked as I looked at her and raised an eyebrow.

“Then I guess you will have to show me how to shave with a knife,” the platinum blond replied with a shrug.

“Wow, I’m impressed at how quickly you came up with that solution,” Anna said.

“I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t thought about this before,” Tara said. “Though before Tav came along I just thought I would have to teach myself.”

“Yikes, I can’t imagine that would have ended real well,” Paige said.

“Yeah, at least now I know I won’t find you bleeding out in a bathroom with a knife stuck in your leg,” Anna said.

“I think, just to be safe, we should try to find razors for as long as possible,” I said. “My only experience is with shaving faces.”

“Huh, I pegged you as the type to shave his legs for speed,” Bailey said with a grin.

“Nah, I wax,” I joked, and everyone giggled.

The girls got the last nail in place and stood up the eight foot segment.

“Look at that, we built a wall,” Paige said as she brushed some stray brunette hair from her face.

I walked over and tested each stud with the level and was happy to find that it was all very straight.

“So, how’d we do?” Bailey asked.

“It looks good,” I said. “Now we just need to attach this to our base there and make two more. The one that holds the door will be a little different, but not by much. Especially since our door will just be a simple swinging piece of reinforced plywood.”

The girls picked up the wall and moved it onto the base and, once in place, I nailed it down and used a piece of scrap wood to ensure that it stayed upright until we could support it with the other walls.

“I like it,” Anna said. “This is actually pretty fun.”

“Yeah, I think so too,” Tara agreed. “You know, before this whole EMP business I had never built anything.”

“I’m shocked,” Paige said with the driest sarcasm she could muster.

“Alright fine, maybe that was, like, totally obvious or whatever, but still this is a nice change,” Tara replied with a shrug.

“It is really nice to know that you are good for more than just looking pretty sometimes,” Bailey said.

“Exactly,” Tara agreed.

I grinned as I watched the four women admire their handiwork. They had been far from helpless when I first arrived, but they had really started to come into their own with only a bit of training and encouragement.

I let them stand for a moment longer as I started on another wall segment, and when they were done with their little moment they joined in.

As the sun started to set, we had a mostly completed shack built out behind the dorm building. All the exterior walls were nailed together, sheeted in plywood, and in place. Even the front had been built and attached to the simple base I had created for the structure.

For the front of the shack we had built two walls that were only two-and-a-half feet. Then, in the three-foot gap we left between them, I built a header out of some scrap two by ten to create the opening for our front door. Since I had cut the wood to create the header, I quickly realized how much I missed corded tools.

I worked to put the header in place while the girls worked on the door. It was a three foot by seven foot chunk of plywood that we reinforced with 2x4 so that it could not be as easily destroyed.

“I can’t believe this is almost done,” Bailey said as she worked to tighten the bolts that we used to hold on the heavy duty metal hinges.

“This is nothing,” I said as I pounded the final nail into the header. “We could have done this in an hour if we had a circular saw and a nail gun.”

“This still didn’t take nearly as long as I thought it would,” Paige confressed. “Especially since the four of us are new to construction.”

“Let’s not gloat yet,” I said. “We still need to put on the door and find a roof.”

“Oh yeah, I forgot it needs a top,” Anna said.

“Door’s ready though,” Bailey said as she stood and wiped her hands on her pants.

Together we managed to hold the door in place and get it nailed into our wall segments so that it was solid. It swung open and closed nicely, and the frame even worked as a seal to help the door stay closed.

“Use some bolts to get that latch in place while I go find us a top,” I said.

“Try not to take too long,” Anna teased. “We want to get this done by sundown.”

“Of course, boss,” I said as I gave her a mock salute. Then I grinned, waved, and headed off.

An hour later, Bailey put the final nail into the chunk of aluminum I had found to use as a roof, and it was finished. It wasn’t much but there were four walls, a slanted metal roof, and a locking door.

“Well, what do you think?” I asked as I stepped back and inspected my work.

“It isn’t very pretty,” Tara said.

“We can paint it later,” I replied.

“Will it get the job done?” Anna asked.

“Oh yeah,” I said.

“Does this mean we get to salt the meat now?” Paige asked

“Yes it does,” I confirmed. “Let’s go grab the deer, rabbit, and a shitload of salt.” I led them towards the dining hall.

“So, this was cool and all, but I can’t help feeling like we could have built something more practical,” Tara said.

“I don’t know, a place to store our food seems pretty practical to me,” Anna said.

“I mean, yeah it is, but what about a shower?” Tara asked. “Taking a bath in the stream is great and all but nothing, like, beats a hot shower.”

“I don’t think that’s a bad idea,” I said. “But we need to get our water pump up and running before we will even have the necessary amounts of water needed to create a shower.”

“He’s right,” Paige agreed. “As it is now, we would probably need another water run every day to get us enough water for showering.”

“Ugh, man, life is so much work sometimes,” Bailey complained.

“It will get easier,” I said as we stepped into the dining hall. “In fact, tomorrow we will be working on getting that line ran to the stream so we can use those water pumps.”

“Thank god for that,” Tara said. “I won’t miss lugging water.”

I grabbed the deer and some rope, while the girls grabbed the rabbit and salt. Then we made our way back to the shack where I hung the carcass after cutting off a rump for dinner.

“So the actual salting part of this is easy,” I explained before I took a canister full of salt and started to pour it generously over the meat. “You want to cover the entire animal in salt, inside and out.”

“Someone else can do the inside part,” Bailey said. She took a handful of salt and pressed it to the meat. She grimaced but didn’t complain.

“I’m all over it,” the bookish brunette said as she took her own box of salt and stuck her head into the chest cavity.

“You know, sometimes I think you are a little too eager to do the gross things,” Tara said while she spread salt over the neck stump.

“I’m sorry, would you rather come over here and stick your head in this thing?” Paige asked, her voice muffled by the meat around her.

“Ohmigod, no,” the platinum blond replied.

“She’s got a point,” Anna said. “Her willingness to get in there just saves the rest of us from having to do it.”

“It’s always nice to have someone on the team who wants to do what you don’t,” I said.

“I guess so,” Tara conceded.

It took us less than ten minutes with five pairs of hands to coat the deer, and the rabbit, in salt completely. By the time we were done with the process my hands felt like sandpaper devoid of all moisture.

“Well now what?” Anna asked.

“Now we let it sit,” I said with a shrug. “We keep the meat in here and try to keep it cool. We’ll find a thermometer in the kitchen that we can use to check the temperature a couple times a day.”

“The spring weather might work to our advantage there,” Paige said.

“Yeah, nights still get pretty chilly,” Anna agreed.

“This is all way easier than I thought it would be,” Bailey said.

“I know right?” Paige added. “I feel like all of these skills we have learned should have been more widely taught. Not like it would have taken much to teach them.”

“Up until a few months ago, we lived in a different world,” I said with a shrug. “Things like salting meat and hunting were not as important when you could buy meat almost anywhere and just throw it in the fridge or freezer.”

“I guess, but then you are left in the situation we were when things went wrong,” Anna said.

“I’m not arguing against your point, but I can understand why people did not see this stuff as necessary to know or teach,” I said before I grabbed the chunk of deer and began making my way outside. “I think we will have to throw a lantern and a table in there. It will give us a place to carve up our meals.”

“Well there are plenty around,” Bailey said as she joined me under the bright orange sky.

“Yeah, but we can deal with it later,” I said. “Let’s go meet Rolly and make some food.”

As we approached the fire pit Rolly, the elderly handyman, was already waiting. He had on an old pair of grease stained jeans, a denim work shirt, and a grey wool newsboy cap. The flickering light of the fire cast deep shadows on his wrinkled fast, but reflected off the bald patch nestled between his remaining grey hair. He chewed on an already misshapen toothpick and looked up as we got close.

“How you doing old timer?” I asked as I took a seat beside him.

“Oh you know, just enjoying life,” he replied. “Haven't seen much of you today.”

“I was busy,” I explained.

“So I heard,” he said. “The shack you were building was coming along nicely when I looked earlier. Many hands make light work though, and I bet it’s done now.”

“It is,” Paige said as she sat down. “We even got the meat all salted.”

“Things are looking better every day,” the old man said.

“They really are,” Anna agreed. “Who’s turn is it to cook?”

“I’ll do it,” I said before I set the large cast-iron skillet over the fire. “I want to make sure this deer is cooked up nice so you can all enjoy it.”

“Good call,” Bailey said. She had only recently started to eat meat with the rest of us. So far though she hadn’t found any of it that she didn’t enjoy.

“Anyone care for a drink?” Rolly asked as he pulled out a bottle of Bulliet bourbon whiskey. It was his favorite drink, and the girls had been nice enough to pick him up a bottle a few days before.

“I’ll take a sip,” I said with a nod. I guessed that his willingness to share it with us said a lot about how he felt. I tossed the meat into the skillet along with a handful of morel mushrooms that looked like they had been picked fresh today. Then I accepted the bottle of whiskey and took a sip. The alcohol warmth was a nice way to end the day. I passed it back to the old man. “We should grab a bottle of soda. We worked hard today and can use the calories.”

“Plus, I noticed that some of it started to go flat,” Bailey said. “I don’t know about you guys but I would rather drink it while it still has the bubbles.”

“At least it still makes a decent mixer when it’s flat,” Tara said with a shrug.

“I’ll go grab some kitchenware and soda,” Anna volunteered with a chuckle. “Just don’t eat all of that meat without me. It is starting to smell really good.”

The meat sizzled in the pan as one side of it started to sear, and the smell of fresh cooked meat mixed with the wild mushrooms started to fill the air.

“Don’t worry, Tav has enough meat for all of us,” Tara teased.

“He most certainly does,” Paige agreed as she stared at me with a hungry look in her eyes.

“I just want some of that venison,” Rolly said as he shook his head. “You guys have to wait until I go to bed to eat anything else.”

“Of course, we aren't animals,” Bailey said.

“Speak for yourself,” Paige growled as she shot her friend a wicked grin.

“Oh, fiery, I like that,” Tara said. “And here I thought I was the sex crazed one.”

“Ladies, please, you can all be sex crazed,” I said as I flipped the meat. “But all of your comments might make Rolly here nauseous. At least be courteous of those around you.”

“I guess I can hold off on making any more comments about your meat until after dinner,” Tara said as she rolled her eyes in sarcastic annoyance.

“I can’t promise I'll do the same, but I’ll try,” Paige said.

“That's all I ask,” Rolly said.

Anna returned with our drinks, plates, and cutlery, and soon enough I was cutting off hot slabs of cooked deer served with mushrooms.

We ate, drank, and laughed as the sky turned blue, then black around us. Then, when the fire burned low, we all gathered our things and headed in for the night.

Chapter 3

The first rays of morning sunlight slipped through the cracks of my boarded-up window to illuminate the small dorm room that I called my own. A couple things remained of whoever the room’s former occupant was, such as the floral bedspread and bedazzled mirror.

I was a little surprised to find myself waking up alone. Tara and Paige had been taking turns sharing my bed pretty much every night for the past week. Anna and Bailey had not yet decided to join me in a night of rowdy pleasure, but there was no hurry. It was not like I was going anywhere, and Tara and Paige kept me plenty busy as it was.

I got up and pulled on a pair of brown work pants with a large cargo pocket on one side, a loose red flannel, heavy black hiking boots, and tactical vest. Then I holstered my 9mm Springfield XD, sheathed my knife where it belonged on my vest, and slipped through the door and into the hallway.

I walked past the common area where the girls all slept. It had been a comfort thing that they started before I arrived, but now I suspected they kept doing it more out of habit. They all started to stir as I stepped around them and made my way down the stairs.

It only took a couple of minutes to walk across campus to the large library building where we generally started every morning. It had a nice large conference table and, more importantly, a white board where I could lay out our immediate and future plans, all of which were built around one of our four pillars of survival: Food, Water, Defense, and Comfort. Many of our immediate concerns had been addressed shortly after my arrival, but we had a long way to go before we were truly set up for long term survival.

I turned on the propane stove, started to heat up some water for coffee, and then wrote out a list of long-term plans on the whiteboard. The water line was obviously the most important goal, but I also added a sun warmed shower, vegetable garden, and smoker expansion to the list.

Rolly entered a few minutes later dressed in almost the same outfit as the day before except he had changed to clean work pants. He had a plate full of foraged nuts and some cans of fruit with him.

“Mornin’,” I greeted.

“Morning,” he replied as he took a seat. “Looks like a full day ahead of us.” He pointed to the board as he spoke and then grabbed a can of fruit for breakfast.

“Isn’t it always?” I asked with a grin.

Rolly chuckled and nodded, and I moved to the table and pulled the lid from the tub of pre-ground. I added several scoops to a metal filter and dropped it into the now hot water.

“I was kinda hoping the coffee would be ready when I arrived,” Rolly said.

“Maybe you should have slept in a couple minutes then,” I joked. “It’ll be done soon though.”

That’s when the doors opened, and all four of the girls walked in. Anna was dressed in her typical athletic wear and hiking boots. Tara had on a low cut tank top, skin-tight running shorts, and boots. Paige wore a dull blue t-shirt, jeans, and her same pair of brown hiking boots. At this point most of the girls had realized they were simply the best choice of footwear given the tasks we undertook daily. Though Bailey still wore her chuck taylors with her skinny jeans and an orange tank top.

“Coffee ready yet?” Bailey asked as she sat down. “I’m dragging today.”

“It’s almost ready,” I said with a nod to the pot. “Though until then grab some food, and I’ll go over what I added to the board.”

The plate of food started to make its way around the table as I turned back to the whiteboard.

“Our immediate needs have been met for the time being so I have written up a list of more long-term plans,” I said as I pointed to where I had written the list on the whiteboard. “

“The big project for today will be getting our water pump running,” I said. “Rolly and I are going to go into the town and gather up hoses that we can string together to reach the stream.”

“Is it really going to be that easy?” Anna asked.

“As long as the hoses we grab aren't full of holes then yeah, it should be,” I said.

“Man, I should stop assuming these things are going to be hard,” the athletic redhead replied as she shook her head.

“Probably,” Tara said. “But I still worry every time we need to do something new.”

“Well, this morning none of you need to worry about learning anything new,” I said. “Paige and Bailey will hopefully be doing our final water run and grabbing a bath. Tara, you and Anna are on trap and trotline detail. Take some of the bigger traps Paige put together and set them up too. Maybe we can bag a fox or something.” I poured a cup of coffee for everyone and started to hand them out.

“Should we worry about the mountain lion while we are out there?” Bailey asked.

“Just stay alert,” I said. “It has no reason to pick on you as long as you don’t mess with it.”

“What if we come across it while trying to check the traps?” Anna asked.

“If you see the cat messing with your traps, leave,” I said with a shrug. “You back away slowly and make no attempt to fight it. If you grab a rabbit and notice it sniffing you out, then you leave the creature and get back to campus.”

“I’m pretty sure the big cat has been around since before the EMP,” Rolly said after he downed a large gulp of coffee. “I reckon I saw it a couple times on my hikes. It never bothered anyone back then so I don’t see why it would bother anyone now.”

“Alright,” Bailey said with a shrug.

“This afternoon we will gather up and string the hoses from here to the stream,” I said.

“What about those other projects?” Tara asked.

“Those are things for another day,” I explained. “Though don’t worry, we will get to all of them.”

“Can the shower one be next?” the platinum blonde asked as she winked.

“I think it can,” I said with a nod. “Then we will only need to visit the stream to check our trotlines.”

“I would be okay with that,” Bailey said.

“I dunno,” Anna started. “I liked the exercise.”

“Ugh, of course you did,” Tara said as she rolled her eyes.

“No one is saying you can’t hike it for fun,” I said. “Though you would still need to find someone to do it with you.”

“That’s all you Tav,” Paige said.

“Sounds good, I want to get back in shape anyway,” I said.

“Whoa now, this is you not in shape?” Anna asked.

“I am usually a little more filled out, yeah,” I replied with a nod.

“Careful there, hot stuff,” Tara said. “It’s already hard enough to stay away from you. Get any more handsome, and we might never leave your room.”

“You can have fun outside of the bedroom--” Paige said with a grin.

“Alright,” I interrupted. “We really should finish up breakfast and get to work. The sooner we can get the hose ran for the water pump the better.”

“Aw, I was just starting to really get into that convo,” Tara grinned.

I chuckled as I shook my head and rolled my eyes. “Worry about it later.”

“I’m ready to go now if you are,” Rolly said as she stood up, stretched, and grabbed his coffee. “Figure I’ll have plenty of time to finish my brew on our trip down the hill.”

“Good call,” I said as I grabbed my own cup of coffee. “Good luck and stay sharp out there.”

“Try not to have too much fun without us, boys,” Anna called out as we started to leave the building.

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” I replied, and then Rolly and I exited the building into the fresh morning air.

“It’s beautiful,” Rolly said as he looked up at the sky. “Reminds me why I came here in the first place.”

“It’s so peaceful,” I agreed with a nod. “Almost makes you forget what shit shape the world is in right now.”

“It might be a little rough,” Rolly said. “But at least where we are things are still good.” He took a large drink of coffee and stood there a moment taking in the sight of the sun as it rose just over the treeline and shed its light onto our home. “Damn fine day.”

“I’m gonna go pull the Jeep around,” I said before I clapped the old man on the back and smiled.

Rolly nodded, sipped his coffee, and kept his eyes to the sky.

I headed over to the parking lot where our small collection of working vehicles sat. We had two, a beat up black and chrome Triumph Motorcycle, and an old, olive green military jeep.

The vehicles had proven to be invaluable, but the Jeep was, by far, our luckiest find. It allowed us to not only travel greater distances as a group, but the trailer attached to the back meant we always had enough space to bring back whatever we found.

I hopped in and turned the key. The engine rumbled to life with little issue despite its age, and I headed back towards Rolly. “Ready to go?”

“Yup,” The greying handyman said as he jumped into the passenger seat.

I turned the vehicle around and headed back through the parking lot and down the hill into the town beyond.

“You think we’ll have any trouble finding enough hose?” I asked as we sped forward.

“Every house down here probably has at least one hose,” Rolly said with a chuckle. “I don’t think it will be an issue at all. I just hope we don’t run into any surprises.”

“Haven't seen anything down here since we took care of those dogs,” I said.

“Let's hope nothing else decided to move in then,” Rolly said.

“I think we’ll be okay,” I said before I pulled to a stop in front of the now-empty convenience store and turned off the Jeep. “Though things have been a little more exciting lately than I would like them to be.” I got out and headed for the nearest house. We had picked through most of the building interiors but, until now, we had not really had a reason to raid them for things like garden hoses.

“You’re talking about the bikers, right?” Rolly asked as he followed along behind.

“Yeah, every time we leave the campus we seem to find more of the bastards,” I replied.

“At least you always get the chance to take them out,” he said with a shrug.

“What happens when we run into these guys, and I'm not around?” I asked as I knelt and started to uncouple the first, of many, garden hoses. “The world is growing more dangerous and the girls are not ready for it. Not yet.” I coiled the hose once it was free and handed it off to Rolly.

“Well what are you gonna do about it?” The old man asked.

“I'm going to train them,” I said before I checked around the yard and, after finding no more hoses, headed for the next house. “They are doing well with the spears and the blades but that will only do so much against a group of guys with guns.”

“Well, you know I am more than willing to help you teach them to shoot,” Rolly said.

“I know, and I appreciate it,” I said as I gave the old man a smile. “We have the guns and ammo now, but we don’t have a great place to shoot.”

“We could build a small range up on campus,” Rolly said with a shrug. “Not like we are exactly short on space.”

“True,” I said as I handed him another hose. “Would you be willing to help me with that tomorrow?”

“Of course,” he replied with a nod. “I will do whatever I have to do so that those girls stay safe.”

“I know,” I said as I placed a hand on his shoulder. “You are a good man.”

“Don’t get sappy on me now, boy,” Rolly said with a grin.

“Yes, Sir,” I said after I laughed. Then I shook my head and continued on to another house.

We collected a few more hoses before we made our first trip back to the Jeep. We tossed the various styles and colors of hose into the trailer and headed back out for more. It would probably take all of the hose this town had to offer to reach the stream.

“I think I want to go over a defense plan in case we get unexpected visitors,” I said as I worked to unhook another hose.

“Good idea,” Rolly stated. “Stuff like that keeps us all on the same page.”

“Yeah,” I said with a nod. “Plus we have some great advantages like a dark and maze like basement that is perfect to hide in.”

“Never took you for much of a hider,” Rolly said as he took the green hose I just finished releasing.

“Fighting is not always the best option,” I explained as we moved to another house. “Especially when most of your team is not trained for combat. If we can avoid a fight, it means we use fewer resources and minimize risk.”

“See, this is why you’re the one in charge,” the handyman said with a chuckle. “You are much better at the whole big picture thing. I would have assumed that just standing and fighting was always the best option.”

“I’ve had a lot of training that helps me out in situations like this,” I said. “Though I never would have guessed it would serve me quite this well outside of the military.”

“Life’s funny that way,” he commented.

The morning went by without any issues. Almost every house had a hose, and the extra ones we found in sheds or garden boxes made up for the ones that didn’t. We even managed to find a dozen hose couplings that would come in handy if we ran into any hose without both a male and female end. It was a little before noon when Rolly and I dumped the last load of hoses into the trailer.

“Need to look for anything while we’re here?” I asked.

“Not really,” the old man said. “I have clothes, food, and booze. What more can a man need?”

“Good point,” I said as I leaned against the trailer and looked out at the empty town. It was still strange to me how peacefully abandoned the whole place was. “I think we’re done here. Let’s get back up the hill and see how things went for the girls.”

We loaded up and drove the short route back up the hill to the campus.

The girls were already back and sitting around the firepit. A large pot of water sat heating on top of a freshly started blaze.

Rolly and I parked the Jeep and then headed over to join them.

“How went the hunt for hoses?” Bailey asked.

“Well,” I said with a smirk as I took a seat. “It got pretty hairy there for a while but Rolly and I managed to fill the trailer with everything we needed. How were the woods?”

“We got two rabbits,” Tara said. She held up the two skinless bodies as proof.

“Yeah, but we found one of our traps trashed,” Anna said. “The wire looked to have been snapped, and the sticks were broken.”

“Yeah, it was gross,” the platinum blond added with a nod. “There was blood and fur everywhere.”

“Sounds like one of our meals was snagged by a predator,” I commented.

“Do you think it might be the mountain lion?” Paige asked.

“Could be,” I said. “Though there are plenty of things in the woods that would love to snack on a trapped rabbit.”

“Like a bear!” Bailey added.

“Well we put some of the bigger traps up while we were out,” Anna said. “If it’s a fox or something maybe we will catch it.”

“Oh hey, speaking of food,” Bailey said. “I found a thermometer and stuck it in our salt shack. It was about forty degrees in there when I put it in there. Is that good?”

“It’s a little warm, but it shouldn’t be a problem,” I said.

“Can we salt the rabbits and throw them in there?” Paige asked.

“Yeah, but I would leave one out for dinner,” I replied.

“Cool, I’ll get that done,” she said before she stood, took the rabbits from Tara, and headed for the shack.

“So when are we gonna run these hoses out to the stream?” Anna asked.

“As soon as Paige gets back,” I said. “If you want to grab some food now would be the time. This could take us a while.”

“I can get the pump put in place here,” Rolly said.

“After you do start hooking hoses to it,” I said. “We will start at the stream and meet you halfway.”

“Should one of us stay here with Rolly?” Tara asked.

“Not unless he wants the help,” I asked as I looked to the old man.

“Nah, many hands make light work, and you can use the extra bodies to help carry hoses,” he said.

“That’s a good point,” I said.

“Would it be worth it to load up the wheelbarrow and the stretcher?” Bailey asked.

“Probably,” Anna said. “I bet it would let us get more of the hoses out there with us.”

I smiled. They were getting better both coming up with their own solutions and taking the initiative on carrying them out. It was how things should be. I wanted us to support each other but work well on our own if need be.

“I’ll go grab the stretcher,” Tara said.

“Wait up, I’ll come help you load it up,” the blonde hippie called out as her friend started to leave.

“I guess that leaves the wheelbarrow to me,” Anna said with a grin.

“Looks like,” I replied. “Make sure you guys all grab some water before we go out there. It won’t be back breaking work but we still don’t want to get dehydrated.”

She nodded and headed off after the others.

“They almost don’t even need me anymore,” I said to Rolly.

“They certainly have grown a lot since your arrival,” he agreed. “Though I think they’ll need you for a while longer.”

“Good thing too, because I don’t plan on going anywhere, and I would hate for them to grow tired of me,” I said with a grin.

“Oh, I seriously doubt that’s going to happen,” he said with a chuckle. “Don’t know if you’ve noticed but they seem pretty fond of you.”

“I couldn’t tell,” I joked. “Maybe they should be a little more obvious about it.”

Paige rejoined us by the fire and took a seat. “Where did everyone go?”

“They’re gathering hoses to take with us to the stream,” I said.

“Oh, okay,” she said. “Should I go help them?”

“They probably have it handled,” I said. “They might even be about ready to go.”

“I actually had a thought about this whole thing,” Paige said. “Pumping water that far will probably put quite a bit of pressure on our hoses, and any breeches would make pulling the water this far impossible.”

“You think the hoses will break?” I asked.

“Not the hoses themselves, but I think any place we join two hoses together will be a possible weakness,” she explained. “I think if we bring some duct tape and wrap all our joints it will help maintain the lines integrity.”

“That’s a solid idea, I like it,” I said with a nod. “Go gather up some duct tape then.”

Paige grinned wide, jumped up, and headed off towards where all our gear was stashed.

“Well, I better get started with that pump,” Rolly said as he stood. “You have a specific place you want it?”

“Let’s get it setup at the edge of the treeline,” I said, pointing towards the area.

Rolly nodded and gave me a thumbs up before he headed off in the direction of his shed to retrieve the pump.

I stood, stretched, and pulled the water off the fire before heading off to find the girls.

By the time we reached the stream a heavy bank of clouds had rolled in and turned the whole sky grey. A light wind had started to blow through the trees, and it smelled like coming rain.

“I now totally regret not bringing a jacket,” Tara groaned as the wind pulled at her perfect platinum blond hair.

“It’s just more incentive to get this done quick,” Anna said. “Looks like we could be in for some serious weather.”

“Hey at least it’ll help feed the stream,” Paige said.

“She’s right, rain is a good thing for us,” I said. “It will be even better once we have a garden.

“Still doesn’t mean I want to be out in it,” Tara groaned.

All the while I knelt at the edge of the stream and used some rocks to keep the first hose in place and under the water. I wanted to set up a more permanent solution, but would need some materials and tools to do that.

“Can we start hooking hoses together?” Anna asked.

“Yeah, two of you do that while the other two reinforce the joints with duct tape,” I instructed.

“Easy,” Bailey said with a grin.

They got to work and, once I finished setting the end in place, I joined them. It was not a difficult job, but it was a tedious one. Every hose needed to be double checked for leaks or holes, and they had to be perfectly screwed together to ensure proper pressure could be maintained.

“Oh man, I just realized that it’s going to take a lot of pumping to fill this line,” Paige said as she duct taped a joint.

“Wait, I thought this was supposed to, like, make things easier,” Tara said.

“It will,” I said. “But before we have water on tap, we have to spend a while just working the pump until the line is full.”

“How long will that take?” Anna asked.

“I don’t know, but it will be a team effort,” I said.

“Man, what an exciting conclusion to an already riveting day,” Bailey said with a dry sarcasm.

“Hey, if you guys want to keep lugging water we can just stop here,” I offered.

“Oh no, we aren't leaving a job half done,” Paige said.

The temperature dropped, and thunder rumbled in the distance as the wind picked up and caused the surrounding trees to rustle loudly. Not long after, it started to rain.

“Ugh, now I really regret not bringing a jacket,” Tara complained.

“I might actually be with you on this one,” Anna said with a small shiver.

“Let’s pick up the pace then,” I called out over the wind. “Just don’t get sloppy.”

The girls quieted down as the light rain started to come down harder, and another rumble of thunder filled the air.

The water continued to fall faster until it fell in steady sheets of hard rain.

Our pace slowed as the ground beneath us went from soft earth to slick mud, and we quickly found ourselves soaked to the bone despite the cover from the trees.

“This would be the perfect day to be stuck inside with a mug of tea and a good book,” Paige grumbled as she tried to connect two of the hoses. The colored rubber was slick in her shaking hands, and she fumbled as she tried to create a proper seal.

“Yeah, but isn’t that your preferred way to spend any day?” Anna asked as she wiped clean a joint and tried to keep it dry long enough for Tara to wrap some tape around it.

“There is something special about books on rainy days,” Paige explained.

“I get it,” Bailey said. “Days like these were my favorite to sit back and just veg out while listening to music.”

“So what sort of exercise did you do in the rain then, Anna?” Tara teased.

“Hey, I didn’t always exercise or practice athletics,” Anna replied.

“So then what did you do on rainy days?” Bailey asked.

“I liked to run laps in the gym,” Anna muttered reluctantly.

“What was that about not always exercising?” Tara asked.

“Hey, the gym was not usually as busy on days like these, and I liked to listen to the sound of the rain on the roof,” The redhead replied.

“You know you can hear the rain from other places too right?” Paige asked with a laugh.

“Hey, nothing wrong with getting in a little extra exercise,” I said.

The rain fell even harder, making conversation in anything less than a yell impossible due to the sound of the rain pelting the leaves. All the girls had started to shiver as the temperature dropped even farther, and the air was filled with a fine mist that limited visibility to around twenty feet.

I tried to connect two of the hoses but the wet rubber rolled and slipped from my hands. I grunted and grabbed the hose again. I held it firm while it tried to slip free and connected it to the next one.

“How much farther?” Anna yelled over the mounting storm.

I stood up, looked up the path, but couldn’t make out anything through the rainy haze

“Well?” Paige asked.

“I don’t know,” I replied. “I can’t see far enough ahead of us. Bailey, run ahead and scout it out.”

The blonde stood, her hair matted to her face, nodded, and moved ahead. Every step was a battle as she slipped and slid on the soupy mud beneath her. She stumbled and splashed to the ground a couple times before she disappeared into the mist.

“How’s it going back there?” I yelled to the others who were trying to seal up another joint.

“I think you could have chosen a better day to do this,” Anna replied with a grin.

“Yeah Tav, didn’t you check the weather reports this morning?” Paige teased.

“Hey, everything looked good when I woke up,” I said. “You can’t blame sudden changes in weather on me.”

“Well at least we don’t have any things to do after this whole thing do we?” Anna yelled.

“Not today,” I replied.

“That’s good, because I think it might rain today and I would rather be inside when it did.” Anna said sarcastically, then she grinned and moved on ahead as she unrolled a new hose.

“Yeah, would hate to get caught out in bad weather,” Paige said with a laugh.

“Ah come on,” I started, “a little rain never hurt anyone.”

Lightning ripped through the sky above us followed by a boom of thunder. The rain might have been harmless but lightning was nothing to mess with.

We might have to wait for the storm to roll over before we filled the line.

“Last hose!” Bailey shouted as she emerged from the haze ahead of us. “Rolly is heading this way, and we should have more than enough hose to connect.”

“Get these joints taped up and head back for the campus,” I ordered. “I’ll help Bailey and Rolly with our final joint.”

“I’ll get ready by the pump,” Anna said.

“No,” I said as I shook my head. “Just go change clothes and wait out the rain in the dorm building.”

“Don’t we need to get the water pulled up to the campus though?” the redhead asked.

“Not while there is lightning,” I said. “One of us working a metal pump connected to a long line of water would be the perfect place for lightning to strike. The pump isn’t even in the trees so there would be a much more direct path for the strike to follow to reach the ground. We have enough water to wait for a safer moment. No need to take the risk of getting fried.”

“Got it,” Tara said. “No playing human lightning rod.”

“Hey, if you get struck by lightning at least you would be smokin’ hot,” Paige joked.

The other girls groaned and shot her a hard stare.

“Well, on that note, I think I’m going to go help the others,” I chuckled as I shook my head.

“Look at that, your pun was so bad that you made Tav run away,” I heard Tara joke as I left them.

I jogged up the way to where our hippie, and our handyman were busy joining the line.

“This storm blew in outta nowhere,” Rolly shouted.

“At least you were able to grab a coat,” Bailey said.

“I was just closer to my stuff was all,” he said with a shrug. “Expected the rest of you to come grab something once it started to rain.”

“You can blame that one on me,” I said as I pulled out a roll of duct tape. “I wanted to get this done. It wasn’t a problem until we got more than just rain though.”

“Well these storms often roll out just as suddenly as they come on,” Rolly said as he finished tightening the hose ends. “That’ll do it.”

I wiped the rain from my eyes and wrapped the last joint in tape as Tara, Paige, and Anna joined us.

“We’re, like, all done back there,” Tara said.

All the girls stood around me shivering a little as their drenched hair clung to their faces.

“Nice job,” I said. “Now go get dry and warm yourselves up.”

Anna helped Bailey up, and they all started back. Rolly stayed with me, still kneeling in what was quickly becoming mud.

“You head back too,” I said. “I won’t be far behind you.”

The grey haired man didn’t argue. He just nodded, groaned as he got up, and followed after the women.

I finished the last wrap and did one last check of the line before I too, headed back to campus.

By the time I made it to the dorms the girls had already managed to strip off their wet clothes and change into something dry. All four of them were snuggled under blankets on a black couch in the common room with their hair up in towels.

“You ladies look cozy,” I said.

“You told us to get warm,” Anna said with a shrug.

“Yeah, get out of your wet clothes, and we might be able to find a place for you in here too,” Bailey said.

“Tempting offer,” I said as I walked over and peered out one of the buildings boarded windows. “Looks like I might have time to take you up on that.”

“Still raining huh?” Tara said. “I guess it’s back to cold dinner for us.”

I looked at her and raised an eyebrow. “Did you forget about our propane stove?”

“Can we cook meat on that though?” she asked.

“Of course,” I replied. “Though some soup might go over better on such a gloomy day.”

“Hmmm, warm soup sounds good,” Paige said.

“We have some crackers we can eat with soup too,” Anna added.

“Man, that makes me miss bread,” Bailey said.

Rolly stepped from the dorm room he had chosen as his own and joined us in the common area. “What are we talking about?” He settled into a plush chair that sat next to a piano that had been pressed into the corner.

“Dinner,” Tara said. “Tav is making soup.”

“Oh?” I asked with a raised eyebrow. “I don’t remember saying that.”

“I mean, you brought it up, so I thought you were, like volunteering,” she said.

“Soup sounds good,” Rolly said. “If you want, I can cook.”

“Nah, it’s okay,” I said. “I was just giving Tara a hard time.”

“It’s weird thinking we won’t be eating around a fire,” Anna said.

“Yeah, what will entertain us now?” Bailey joked.

“I guess we'll just have to listen to Tara play the piano,” I suggested.

“Hey, that’s a good idea!” the mousy brunette exclaimed.

“Okay but, like, I haven't really practiced in a while,” Tara sighed.

“That’s alright, we haven't heard music in a while,” Anna said. “Just no chopsticks please.”

“It's settled then,” I said. “Tonight we have dinner and a show. Just let me get changed, and I’ll see that we are all well fed.”

An hour later, we all sat together in the common area, each with a bowl of hot soup and a handful of crackers. A few candles provided enough light for us to see and eat by and a lantern sat atop the piano for when Tara was ready to play.

“Hey, nice job today,” I said. “I know it was cold and wet at the end there, but you got through it with minimal complaints.”

“Well not having to go on water runs was a powerful motivator,” Bailey said as she sipped at the soup.

“We will need to test the pump in the morning, but yeah it should free up some time,” I said.

“Man, I don’t think I would know what to do with free time,” Paige said.

“That’s okay, because you still won’t have any,” I added quickly. “I want whoever would normally be on water duty to practice their knife and fighting skills.”

“Oh sweet,” Anna remarked. “I have been dying to get in some more training.”

“I figured you might,” I said with a grin. “Also, if the weather clears up, Rolly and I are going to start work on a shooting range tomorrow. I think it’s about time you ladies learned how to shoot.”

“Hell yeah!” Tara exclaimed.

“Sounds like fun,” Paige agreed.

“Once we learn do we get a gun of our own?” Tara asked excitedly.

“Of course,” I said with a chuckle and a nod. “But only once I am sure you won't accidentally hurt yourselves with them.”

“Then we will be a real bunch of badasses,” Anna said.

“I thought we already were,” Bailey replied.

“What do you think, Rolly?” I asked the old handyman. “These girls badass?”

“I’d say so,” he said with a nod. “They’ve done better than I think most people would have. That makes them pretty badass in my book.”

“Well there you go,” I said.

“Huh, so we don’t even need the guns to be badasses,” Anna said.

“No, but I would feel better having one anyway,” Paige said.

“Soon enough,” I said.

We all fell silent for a few minutes as our soup cooled enough to eat, and then, once the last of us set down our bowl, Tara stood and stretched. She pulled the towel off her head, and her platinum locks fell back into place perfectly around her face. Then she made her way over to the piano and took a seat. She looked over the keys for a moment, pressed a couple, and listened. After the notes died down she nodded, smiled, and started to play.

The rest of us settled in and enjoyed our reward for a day of work well done.

The roomed filled with lovely music as Tara began to play. She started simple, but quickly went into complicated and beautiful melodies and songs. Her slender fingers danced around the keys

“Wow, she is really fucking good,” Anna whispered to us while we watched the blond play.

“You sound surprised,” I said.

“Well, yeah. I mean I know she said she could play, but I didn’t expect this.”

Tara finished her current song and stopped a moment to stand up and stretch her fingers.

“That was awesome,” Paige cheered.

“Yeah, encore,” Rolly added.

“You guys really like it?” Tara asked as she turned a bright red and looked away. “I know I am kinda rusty.”

“Wait, that’s you when you’re rusty?” Bailey scoffed. “Man, I can’t wait to hear how good you are once you’ve practiced a bit.”

“Where did you learn to play like that?” Paige asked. “You sound classically trained.”

“My parents made me take lessons when I was younger,” the platinum blond musician explained. “They hired some juilliard pianist to give me private lessons. I really hated it when I was younger, but I guess it is sorta paying off now.”

“She says as if she did not just pull off some kick ass piano music after not practicing for who knows how long,” Anna said.

“It’s been a few years,” Tara admitted. “Maybe five. I dunno, I used to be better though.”

“I wish I could go five years without practicing something and still be that good,” Paige groaned. “I’m also a little jealous of who trained you, and I am not even really a musician.”

“Yeah, don’t sell yourself short,” I said. “That’s some skilled playing.”

“Should I play some more then?” Tara asked.

“If you are feeling up to it, I would like to hear some more,” Rolly said with a large warm smile.

“Yeah, I had been kind of missing music lately,” Paige said.

“Same here, out of all the things I lost with the EMP my Ipod full of music is the one I miss the most,” Bailey said.

Tara nodded, and sat back down in front of the piano, but as she went to play Paige stood up and joined her.

The brunette cleared her throat and, as the music started to fill the room, she began to sing.

Tara adapted her playing around the vocal range of her musical partner, and together they filled the dorm with beautiful music.

The sounds of the storm outside faded away as we all got lost in the melodious sounds that we had not even realized we needed to hear.

They continued to play and sing until the lights burned low, and the room grew too dark for Tara to see.

“Paige, I thought you said you weren’t really musical,” Bailey said.

“I have always liked singing,” Paige said. “I was just never good enough to make a career out of it.”

“I don’t believe that,” Rolly said. “That was some damn fine singing. Anyone who ever told you otherwise clearly couldn’t hear right.”

“Thanks,” Paige said. “My parents were always a bit overly critical of my pursuits.”

“Screw parents,” Anna said. “They don’t know anything anyway.”

“Whoa, did we stumble onto some unresolved issues,?” Bailey asked

“No, sorry,” Anna sighed. “It’s really not important.”

“Are you sure?” Bailey asked. “I think this is a pretty safe place if you want to talk about anything.”

“Yeah, we sorta have to help each other out with this stuff,” Paige said.

“I promise I won’t even make a snarky comment,” Tara added.

“Let’s not pressure her,” I said. “I agree that we have to help each other out with this stuff, but none of you should feel forced to discuss your issues.”

“I would rather talk about the awesome show Tara and Paige just put on,” Anna muttered.

“You two work really well together,” Bailey said as she turned her attention from Anna to Tara.

I stared at Anna for a moment. It was clear that there was still something bothering her, but, as I said, forcing the issue seemed like a bad idea. If she felt like talking about it, she would seek out one of us when the time was right. So I sat back, got comfortable, and smiled as the girls, having forgotten the wet and cold of the storm, discussed music.

“This was wonderful,” Rolly said. Then he groaned and pushed himself to his feet. “I think I am gonna head to bed though. Thank you again for the music. See you all in the morning.”

“Night old timer,” I said with a grin.

“See ya, Rolly,” Anna said.

“Sleep well,” Bailey said.

The other two gave him a wave, and he headed down the hall and into his room.

“I think he had the right idea,” Anna said with a yawn.

“Aw, did sitting there and watching us entertain you make you tired?” Tara teased.

“Yeah, because there is no other reason I might be tired right now,” Anna joked as she rolled her eyes.

“I can’t think of anything,” Bailey said with a laugh.

“Well I am more than happy to help wear down anyone not ready for bed,” I said with a wink.

“What did you have in mind?” Paige asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Well I was thinking we could head to my room, count our ammo and organize the guns,” I said with mock enthusiasm.

All the girls, but Bailey, groaned and rolled their eyes.

“Tempting,” Tara said. “But I think that I am going to stay here for tonight.”

“Are you sure?” I asked. “You don’t know what you’re missing.”

“Weirdly, that kinda sounds like fun,” Bailey said.

“Well you can help me with it sometimes,” I said. “But not tonight. I don’t want to ruin my good feeling with such a tedious chore right before bed.”

Chapter 4

I woke up early the next morning and peeked through my boarded window. The sky was skill grey with clouds, but it wasn’t raining, so I got dressed quickly, grabbed my gun, and headed outside.

Rolly had taken the pump and bolted it to a wooden base with concrete blocks on it to keep the thing steady and on the ground, and as I gave it a pump, the construct barely shifted.

I had intended to have the girls help me get the water up from the stream, but it wouldn’t hurt if I got it done before they woke up. So I knelt down and started to pump as the grey sky above me grew progressively lighter.

When Rolly came out of the dorms, I was still working to draw the water from the stream. Both my arms burned from the work, and I had really started to doubt my decision to do this alone.

“You know any of us would have helped if you asked us to right?” Rolly asked as he walked up and tucked his hands into his pocket.

“I thought I would be nice,” I grunted. “Remind me not to do that next time.”

“I’ll try,” The old timer said before he chuckled. Rolly then crouched down next to me and rolled up his sleeves. “Want me to take a turn?”

“I think you better,” I said with a nod. “My arms are really starting to get tired of this.”

“Can’t imagine why,” Rolly said as he took over. “You’ve only been at this for a good half an hour.”

“Is that all?” I snickered. “Strange how time stretches when you are doing such tedious tasks.”

“You know what would make it better?” Rolly asked as he looked up at me and grinned.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“Coffee,” he said.

“Alright, alright. I’ll go make sure it’s ready when you come in,” I said with a chuckle.

“It’s the least you can do really,” he joked.

“I guess I better get busy then,” I said as I shook my head. Then I gave the old man a wave goodbye and disappeared into the library.

By the time everyone started to trickle in for the day the coffee was ready, my arms had all but recovered from my morning activity, and an updated project list was written on the board. It now included the shooting range and the need for some sort of reservoir or cistern to store what we pumped and purified.

“Glad to see you were able to finish at least one task this morning,” Rolly joked as he sat down and pulled one of the steaming cups of coffee over to him.

“I take it you finished what I stated?” I asked.

“Yep,” he said with a nod. “Pressure seems good and everything,”

“I don’t know why you didn’t either wake us up or wait for us to get up before doing that,” Anna said as she took a seat. “We were all willing to help.”

“Yeah,” Bailey said as she joined us.

“Maybe he thought we couldn’t handle it,” Tara said with a smirk as she sauntered over to the table.

“Or maybe he just wanted to impress us,” Paige added as she took the last seat.

“Yeah, because he hasn’t done that several times already,” Anna joked as she shook her head.

“I honestly just thought I might be able to get it done real quick before anyone woke up,” I said with a shrug,

“Oh, well that’s a little less exciting than anything any of us said,” Paige said.

“Yeah, next time just let us girls dream,” Bailey added with a laugh.

“Well, can we see it?” Paige asked.

“I don’t see why not,” I said with a shrug before I led them all outside to the pump.

“It doesn’t look like much does it?” Anna said.

“No, but it will be infinitely useful,” I assured her. “Go on, try it out.”

Anna knelt down and worked the pump until water came rushing out.

“Okay, that’s pretty cool,” Tara said.

“Right?” Bailey added. “Alright, let me try.” She worked the pump next and let out a little triumphant shout when the water once again came rushing out.

“You know, it’s sorta funny how excited I am for something that was normal just a few months back,” Paige said.

“I was kind of thinking the same thing,” Tara said.

“We still have to boil it before we drink it,” I pointed out.

“Yeah, but this is a good start,” Paige said as she tried out the pump.

“Agreed,” Rolly said. “At least we don’t need to worry about how much water we use for stuff like cleaning anymore.”

“Well I think congratulations are officially in order then,” Anna said with a smile. “We kicked ass, nice job everyone.”

“Hell yeah,” Tara said before she gave Anna a high five. “My turn now.” She gently pushed Paige out of the way and manned the pump herself for a moment.

“I can tell we haven’t had electricity for a while because that dumb pump is way too entertaining,” Paige said with a smile. “It’s cool though.”

“Yeah, it makes all that time we spent in the mud worth it,” Bailey said.

“What, you mean you didn’t have fun yesterday?” Anna said with mock surprise. “

“Not everyone enjoys being as dirty as Tara,” Paige joked.

“No, but you enjoy getting a little dirt on your knees,” I said with a smirk.

“Not the point,” Paige said with a smile before she went red, and shook her head.

“Don’t be ashamed of that,” Tara said before she laughed, stood up, and gave Paige a playful smack on the ass. “Nothing wrong with having a little fun.”

“Not everyone is as shameless as you are,” Bailey said.

“Well they should try it once in a while,” Tara replied. “It’s actually, like, quite a freeing experience.”

“We had better get back to the library and get this morning day started,” I said as I shook my head. “Today isn’t going to be much lighter than yesterday. We may have a running water pump but there is still a lot to do.”

“Will there ever come a point where that is not just, like a given?” Tara asked.

“If we put in the time now, then yes,” I said. “Already we are setup so that if we need a day to rest, we can do so without worrying about our water or food supplies.”

“Um, I don’t mean to be rude, but what the heck is a ‘hide plan?’” Anna asked with a raised eyebrow. Her attention was fixed on the whiteboard behind me to where I had written, underlined, and circled that phrase.

“Must be important,” Paige said with a shrug.

“How can we be sure?” Bailey joked. “I mean there aren't any exclamation points.”

“Well it seems I made it stand out enough without them,” I said. “That is what I think should be one of our primary defensive tactics.”

“You want us to hide?” Anna asked. “That seems weird. Why teach us to fight if we are just going to hide when there is trouble.”

“You’re not fully trained yet, and even if you were fighting is not always the best option,” I explained. “The best option will almost always be whichever one is least dangerous.”

“I suppose that makes sense,” Paige said. “What’s the plan then?”

“The main building has a large, dark, and confusing basement,” I said. “It is full of tangled pipes to hide behind and there are no windows, so it will never be anything but totally dark. It’s the perfect place to hold out if someone shows up and starts looking around.”

“What about all our stuff?” Bailey asked.

“You let them do what they want with it,” I said. “Not only will a fight put you in danger but it will also ensure that whoever you started it with knows this place is occupied.”

“So, then is that it?” Tara asked. “Is the plan really, like, that simple?”

“It really is,” I assured her with a nod. “I just wanted to let you know that it should be priority one if at all possible. Until we are more properly setup, we want to keep ourselves a secret from the outside world.”

“Well that’s not what I was expecting after seeing how urgently you wrote the words hide plan,” Anna said.

“I just didn’t want myself to forget,” I said with a shrug. “Though now that we have it out of the way, we should go over the daily workload. Rolly and I are going to find a spot and start building a shooting range while Paige and Bailey check the traps. That means Anna and Tara get a bath. Though, afterwards, I want you two to practice your knife fighting until lunch.

“We get to practice with the foam knives right?” Tara asked.

“Yeah, I don’t want any accidents so just stick with the foam while I’m not around to fight against,” I replied.

“We’ll let you know if there are any more mountain lion related issues while we are out,” Paige said.

“Thank you,” I said. “I would appreciate it. This afternoon, assuming Rolly and I finish up a simple shooting range, we are all going to meet up again so that we can teach you how to shoot. We have plenty of guns after our run to Lanceton, and it’s about time that you all learned how to use them.”

“Hell yeah,” Tara said. “I’ve been looking forward to blowing something up since you grabbed those extra guns from the bikers you took out at the bridge.”

“You know that guns don’t actually blow stuff up right?” Paige asked.

“I mean, I know they aren't bombs,” The platinum blond said with a shrug. “Though they can still tear stuff apart, can’t they?”

“Sort of,” Anna replied. “Though probably not in the way you are thinking.”

“I guess I shouldn’t have watched so many movies,” Tara muttered.

“Don’t worry,” Rolly said. “You’ll see firsthand what they can do soon enough.”

“Well I look forward to it,” Bailey said.

“Really?” I asked. “What happened to ‘make love, not war?’”

“That would be ideal,” the hippie girl replied with a shrug, “but given the circumstances we don’t have much choice but war, so I’m down with both.”

“The more time we spend preparin’ for war, the more time you can have for love,” the handyman added.

“We better get to work then,” I said as I looked at the handyman. “Wouldn’t want to keep them waiting.” I gave the group a smile and headed for the door. I trusted they all knew what they needed to do and wanted to get to work.

Rolly joined me in the courtyard, and the girls all spilled out of the library building and headed to grab what they needed before they made their way into the woods.

“So did you have an idea of where we should build this shooting range?” Rolly asked.

“Not yet,” I said as I walked. “Figured we would walk the grounds and see if any place looked like what we want.”

“Lead the way,” Rolly said.

The campus grounds were not massive, but the space was well used, and we found several places that would be large enough to build into a fifty yard range. Though in the end we decided on a nice empty patch of grass on the left side of campus that led into the trees. It wasn’t near any of our other buildings, and there was nothing important in the forest behind it.

After we grabbed a couple shovels from the shed, Rolly and I went to work. The most important part of our little shooting range was going to be a backstop. It would not only help us judge range but ensure a safer shooting environment overall. We wouldn’t want be firing off blindly into the forest, because that would help scare off more animals than the noise already would, and may even wound a creature or two.

Digging was tedious and heavy work, and it quickly felt far too warm out despite the cool breeze and cloud cover. An hour in, I took off my vest as I felt the sweat build up under it. The black t-shirt I wore was already drenched where the vest had been sitting.

I stopped for a moment and stuck the blade of my shovel into the soft earth.

“How you doing?” I asked Rolly.

The grey haired man threw another shovel full of dirt onto the backstop before he turned to me and gave a thumbs up, but he looked pretty worse for the wear to me.

“We should pace ourselves,” I said. “We’ve been working hard, and I would hate to burn us out so early in the day.”

“Sounds good to me,” Rolly wheezed before he buried his shovel into the ground and leaned heavily on it. The old man was practically panting as he stood there.

I frowned and wondered if I should have done this alone. I hadn’t thought that he might not be fit for a day of digging. So far he had been more than capable of all that I had asked, so I hadn’t really thought about that.

“I think I'm gonna keep going,” Rolly said once his breathing slowed to something a little more steady.

“You sure?” I asked.

He nodded, pulled up another shovel of dirt, and got back to work.

I shook my head. That old man was more determined than some of the soldiers I served with. Every day I felt a little more grateful to have him around, he made all of our lives easier and didn’t once complain about the long days or hard work.

I picked up my shovel and followed Rolly’s example. It wasn’t long after I started to work again that I decided the shirt had to go. It was drenched with sweat and was good for little except making me uncomfortable, so I stripped it off and tossed it aside.

“Careful, one of the girls might see you,” Rolly said with a chuckle.

“You let me know if you see one of them coming,” I joked. “I would hate for them to get too distracted.”

We worked for a while longer and the mound had started to take shape when I noticed Rolly stumble, drop his shovel, and take a step back. He hunched over and sucked in rapid breaths for a moment before he groaned and clutched at his chest.

“Hey, you need to take a break,” I ordered him.

“I’m alright,” he said once he could breathe enough to speak again. “Just need a bit of water.”

“You sure?” I asked. “I’ve asked you to do a lot, so if you need to slow down then let me know.”

“I said I'm fine,” the handyman snapped.

“Sorry,” I said. “Just trying to look out for ya.”

“I didn’t mean to snap like that,” he muttered. “I just don’t like repeating myself.”

“Noted,” I said as I walked over to him and tossed him a water bottle. “At least we’re almost done.”

“Yep,” he said after he took a drink. “It’s looking good.”

I chuckled and looked to the mound of dirt we had just moved. It was roughly twelve feet long and we had managed to build it up about three feet. It wasn’t perfect, and I knew as it settled it would shrink but for today it would function as desired.

“You still feel up to shooting this afternoon?” I asked.

“Oh, hell yeah,” Rolly replied. “I love letting off a few rounds. It’ll be a nice treat.”

“Good, I wouldn't mind having an extra range officer to keep things safe as they learn.”

“I can do that,” he said with a smile. “Kinda nice to use some of my other skills for a change.”

“Hey, we’re almost done here,” I said. “How ‘bout you go grab the guns, the girls, and about a dozen old soda bottles for us to set up as targets.”

He looked at the backstop, and then to his shovel and nodded. “Yeah, if you’re sure you can finish up, I’ll do it.”

“Of course,” I said. “By the time you have everything gathered up we will be ready to shoot.”

“Alright, sounds good,” he said. Rolly then threw the water back to me, picked up his shovel, tossed it over one shoulder, and headed out.

“One more thing,” I called out before he got too far away. “Bring me back some food and find some of us all some ear protection. Don’t want you all going deaf.”

He gave me a thumbs up and kept on walking.

I grinned and went back to work. My arms would be so sore by the end of the day, but it was worth it to have the range set up, and maybe I could convince one of the girls to give me a massage.

By the time the group joined me at our little shooting range, the backstop was done, and I waited on top of it with a half full bottle of water. I had put my shirt back on in a hope to keep distractions this afternoon to a minimum. Every one of my companions, Rolly included, had an excited energy about them, and each one of them wore a big smile, but the girls did look nervously at the guns.

“Anything I should know about the morning?” I asked.

“No, it was pretty quiet out there today,” Paige said. “No rabbits, but we got a couple fish.”

“No sign of the mountain lion?” I asked.

“Nothing new anyway,” Bailey said.

“Good,” I said as I walked over to them.

Rolly handed me the duffle bag of guns and a small lunch wrapped in tin foil.

I pulled open the tinfoil and pulled apart some of the meat that sat inside. I shoved it into my mouth before I set the duffle bag on the ground and started to pull out the guns. The Ruger 10-22 would be my primary teaching gun for the rifles. It was simple to use, lacked the recoil of our other guns, and came with plenty of ammo.

“Load this up,” I said as I handed the gun to Rolly.

He nodded and started to fill the detachable magazine as I pulled out the shotgun. The Mossberg 500 was a solid pump-action shotgun known for its reliability and ease of use. I set down the all-black gun and pulled out the Remington Model 783 rifle.

“So who gets what?” Anna asked.

“Everyone will shoot every gun at least once,” I said. “I want you to get used to how they feel, how they sound, and how they are different from one another. Having a favorite is fine, but you will each know how to fire everything we own.”

“Sounds daunting,” Paige said as she watched me set down the rifle, and pull the first of many pistols from the bag.

“It’s not,” Rolly said as he finished filling the twenty-round magazine. He put it in place on the rifle and set it down by the others. “They all shoot the same, more or less. Some just kick harder than others.”

“Wait, these things kick?” Tara gasped as she raised an eyebrow.

“Well, yeah,” Anna said. “All that force has to go somewhere.”

“Right,” Tara groaned. “I kinda thought the force all went to the bad guy.”

I chuckled and looked at our arsenal. It was fairly sizable at this point, and our ammo would let us train for at least a couple days.

“First, we need to go over the basic rules of gun safety,” I said as grabbed a handful of soda bottles. I waved for everyone to follow as I headed down range.

“Do we really need rules still?” Bailey asked. “I mean, it is sorta the end of the world.”

“Safety is our first priority when handling a firearm,” I stated. “Even I abide by these rules. Nothing will ruin your day more than shooting yourself or your friend because you failed to follow a couple simple rules.”

“Wow, that sounded a bit harsh,” Anna said.

“Sorry,” I replied as I turned to face them. “I wasn’t trying to be mean, but this is important. Guns are dangerous, and they demand your respect. If you are going to carry a firearm, you need to not just know this stuff but follow it.” I turned back to the backstop and started to set the bottles in the dirt.

“Alright,” Bailey said. “What are the rules then?”

“There are four rules to gun safety,” I started. “Number one, all guns are always loaded.”

“Wait, how is that possible?” Paige said. “I mean a gun can only hold so many bullets right?”

“It’s more of a way of thinking,” Rolly said. “If ever you find a gun, or take a gun from our stash, you always treat it as if there is a bullet in there and ready to fire. If you treat every gun as if it is always loaded then you lower the risk of doing something dumb.”

“Make sense?” I asked as I placed the last bottle and headed back towards the guns.

“Yeah, you can continue,” Tara said.

“Second rule is to always keep the gun pointed in a safe direction, and to never point the gun at anything you are not willing to shoot,” I explained. “If you point the gun at something and pull the trigger you will destroy what you are aiming at.”

“Right, because the gun is always loaded,” Bailey said with a nod. “Alright, I am starting to get why this stuff might be so important.”

“Good,” I said as I returned her grin. Then I pulled out my Springfield XD, and raised it, muzzle pointing at the sky, so the girls could see it in my hands. Most of my hands were wrapped around the grip but my trigger finger rested against the gun above the trigger well. “Third Rule: Do not put your finger on the trigger until you are ready to shoot.”

“Oh yeah, I’ve heard of this one,” Tara said. “Trigger disciple right?”

“Correct,” I said. “Guns don’t go off on their own. The gun cannot fire if you are not pulling the trigger, and you cannot pull the trigger if your finger isn’t on it.”

“What about misfires?” Anna asked. “Couldn’t the gun go off without a person’s help then?”

“Yes, a mechanical failure could cause an unexpected discharge,” I said with a nod. “But if you are already following the other rules that doesn’t matter. It won't be pointed at anything that wasn’t already going to get a bullet anyway.”

“I’m ready to bust caps, how many more of these rules do we have?” Tara asked as she eyed the guns.

“Just one,” I replied. “Identify your target and know what is behind it before you pull the trigger. The first part seems obvious, but a lot of people don’t think about the second part of that rule.”

“Got shot at by some hunting buddies once because the dumbasses didn’t think to look which direction they were shooting,” Rolly said. “If they had followed rule four, they might have known that me and the truck were off a little way behind the deer they wanted.”

“Holy shit,” Bailey muttered.

“They missed you though, right?” Paige asked.

“Oh yeah,” Rolly said with a nod. “Still scared the shit outta me.”

“Perfect example of why it is important to know what you are shooting at and what is behind it,” I said. “If we get in a fight and things get hectic, this rule becomes especially important. Always make sure you are not shooting towards your team, or something important like your vehicle.”

“Wow, this is a lot more involved than I thought it would be,” Anna said. “The last people who taught me to shoot did not go over safety like this. They were more concerned with my accuracy than my safety.”

“That’s a shame,” Rolly said.

“It really is,” I agreed with a nod.

“Well I was training for a nordic biathlon,” she explained. “My coaches were very good but very singularly focused on getting me the gold.”

“Still not a good reason to skip away from basic safety,” I said. “This will do it for now, but there is still more to discuss. Once you have the basics of handling the guns, I will teach you about the different types of rounds and what sort of penetration they have. Then you will all have a general idea of what gun will go through what sort of object.”

“I’ll listen to you talk about penetration any day,” Tara sighed as she licked her lips. “Though I prefer a more hands on learning method.”

“Then I will have to give you a private lesson some time,” I said before I gave her a wink.

“Well if you’re offering, I feel I could probably use a private lesson,” Bailey said as she went bright red.

We all laughed, and I shook my head. This was the sort of distraction I had been trying to avoid when I put my shirt back on, but I should have expected at least some of this.

“Alright, we need to get serious now,” I said as I dropped my smile. “I want you to have fun, but I also want to get through this with you guys without any issues. At least until we get you comfortable with the weapons let’s stay focused.”

“Now would probably be a good time to put your ear plugs in,” Rolly said as he walked over and handed me a pair. They were the squishy orange kind that you rolled up and set in your ear before they expanded.

“Thanks,” I said as I started to put them in place after I holstered my pistol.

Then, after the girls all had their ear protection, I picked up the Ruger 10-22. I walked over and handed it to Anna.

“Why am I first?” She asked as she took it.

“I thought I would start easy on myself and go with someone who has a little experience,” I explained.

She nodded and I had her step forward so that she was ahead of the others.

“Alright,” I yelled. “So here is what you are going to want to do. First make sure you are gripping the gun tightly. You don’t want to pull the trigger and have it jump out of your hands. Next, with long guns, you want to shoulder them properly.”

I raised my right arm and started to poke around my shoulder with my left hand. “There is a little pocket kinda where you shoulder meets your torso. If you poke around, you can feel it. That is where you want to position the gun.”

Anna checked herself with her one free hand and then, once sure she found it, she set the rifle into place. “How’s this?”

“Perfect,” I said after I walked over and double checked her placement.

She grinned at me and rested her cheek on the stock. It was clear that she was already a few steps ahead of the program.

“Alright, now that we have the rifle in place we need to know how to aim,” I said. “You glue your cheek to the stock and look down the top of the gun. Everything we have except for the hunting rifle has simple open sights, and that means to aim you want to line up the front stick between the two posts at the rear of the gun, and then you line up the top of that front post on your target.”

“Sounds easy enough,” Paige said.

“Yeah, I don’t know why, but I was expecting it to be harder than that,” Bailey agreed.

There was a sharp snap as Anna pulled the trigger. Tara and Bailey jumped as a soda bottle at the end of the range toppled over.

“Holy shit,” Tara said. “Warn us next time!”

“Hold your fire,” I said as I chuckled.

Anna nodded, removed her finger from the trigger, and pointed it towards the sky.

I jogged downrange, grabbed the bottle, and returned to the group. I set the green plastic bottle down where everyone could see the small holes in one side. Just like that all of their nervousness seemed to fade.

“That’s awesome!” Bailey said as she picked up the bottle. “I want a turn!”

“Rolly can get you set up for your first shot,” I said with a smile before I took the rifle from Anna and passed it off to Rolly.

I then grabbed the shotgun and asked for a volunteer.

An hour later all four of the girls stood on the firing line and chatted excitedly. At the other end of the range was a mess of clear and green plastic. They had all learned quick and Bailey seemed to be quite accurate.

“So then, do we just get to keep shooting?” Tara asked as she gave me a hopeful smile. The shotgun was nestled in her arms and a pile of spent shells littered the grass under her feet.

“Not quite,” I said as I picked up the Colt 1911, and one of the 9mm glocks. “Now we learn to shoot these.”

“I’m kinda okay with that,” Tara said. “This shotgun is starting to, like, kill my shoulder.”

Teaching them to shoot the long guns had not been hard, but Rolly and I barely had to do anything once they were all given a pistol. They were excited by the feeling of the gun and spent a little more time shooting and a little less time aiming than I would have liked. However, not once did I have to yell at anyone for pointing the gun in the wrong place or keeping their finger on the trigger when it didn’t belong there.

“This is amazing,” Tara said after she finished unloading another magazine of 9mm ammo from her glock.

“Yeah, just shooting these things makes you feel powerful,” Paige added with a nod.

“I actually thought I was going to hate this,” Bailey admitted, “but, this is totally amazing. I kinda don’t want to stop.”

“Well there was a turn I didn’t see coming,” Anna said.

“Right?” the blonde hippie sighed. “I spent years hating guns and everyone who liked them. Now that I’ve shot them, they are really cool. I can see why people like them so much.”

“I didn’t exactly hate guns, but I wasn’t really sold on them being so easy to come by,” Paige said. “Now I just wish that I had learned to shoot sooner.”

“Yeah, this stuff is awesome,” Tara said with a large grin.

“I guess maybe I learned that I should try something before I judge it,” Bailey said with a shrug.

“Seems a pretty good way to go about life,” I said.

“It only took a world-changing event to make me realize that,” the hippie said with a laugh.

“At least you were willing to change,” Anna said with a shrug.

“It helps that so much of what I was missing out on is freaking awesome,” Bailey replied.

“Agreed,” Paige said. “My heart is pounding in the best of ways right now.”

“This might be almost as much fun as sex,” Tara said.

“Holy shit, are you serious?” Anna asked.

“I think I agree with that,” Bailey said. “I would do this every day if I could.”

“If we can find more ammo, I think that is a good plan,” I said. “The more you shoot the better you will get. And guns are the great equalizer. It doesn’t matter how big and strong the man attacking you is, a well-trained woman with a gun can protect herself.”

“Well we should do that then,” Paige said.

“Don’t worry, we are working on it,” I assured her.

“Man, they even just look cool,” Bailey said before she smiled and looked at the boxy black pistol in her hands. “Guns are so awesome.”

“Yeah, can we keep shooting?” Tara asked

“Well, I should call it for today, but I would say this was a successful first session,” I said as I stood there, hands on my hips, with a grin on my face.

“Damn fine work,” Rolly said with a nod. “They took to it well.”

“Agreed,” I said. “I think it’s time to give each of you your own pistol.”

“Wait, we get our own guns?” Bailey asked with a large grin. “Today is awesome.”

“What did you expect?” Anna asked. “He wants us to be prepared.”

“Sorry, it’s just very exciting,” Bailey said.

“It’s almost like Christmas,” Paige agreed

“Maybe later Santa will fill my stockings then,” Tara said as she eyed me and bit her bottom lip.

“Does everyone get a visit from santa?” Bailey asked as she looked away and went bright red.

I raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

“I’m sure if you’re real nice he’ll visit you too,” Tara said. “It’s a good time.”

“Not sure if it can be better than shooting,” Anna said as she looked at the Colt 1911 in her hands and smiled.

“Wow, you clearly need to get laid,” the bookish brunette said with a laugh.

“Maybe, but for today I am content,” the athletic redhead replied.

It seemed that my second in command had found the pistol she favored. Though for the others I handed out the remaining 9mm pistols. I have the Beretta to Paige, and both Tara and Bailey got a Glock. Rolly got the .44 magnum. I would have rather given him a more reasonably sized pistol, but it was what we had for now, and he assured me that he didn’t mind playing Dirty Harry.

“Alright, I expect you to be armed at all times from this point on,” I said as they inspected their firearms.

“Do we get holsters or anything?” Anna asked.

“No, not yet anyway,” I said as I shook my head. “Though that is something we should keep an eye out for in the future. Until then maybe we can find a way to make a harness out of rope or something.”

“Where do we keep them?” Bailey asked as she looked down at her very tight pants.

“Yeah, it’s not like I have pockets,” Tara chimed in.

“Tara, you and Bailey keep it in your backpack for now,” I ordered. “Your glocks don’t have safeties so that is probably your best options.  Anna, Paige, if you can manage it try to tuck it into your waistband or a pocket. We want to make these things as accessible as possible while remaining safe.”

“So, is that it then?” Bailey asked as she took off her backpack and loaded her gun into it. “We done for the day?”

“I think so,” I said with a nod as I looked to the darkening sky. “Let’s get some food in us and head to bed.”

So, we all made our way to the firepit, got a fire going, and made dinner. As we ate, we laughed and joked as usual, and I was happy knowing that from this day forward everyone was better prepared for the dangers that might come our way. It would be a while before they could handle them like operators, but they would learn quickly. I just hoped that they learned quickly enough, because when trouble came our way they would need to be ready.

Chapter 5

The next morning came too soon, and my arms were majorly sore from the day before. This was the first day in a while where I had felt so groggy, and I groaned and pushed myself out of bed.

I got dressed and headed out towards the library, but the sound of coughing stopped me in front of Rolly’s room. The man wheezed hard for a solid few seconds, stopped to take a breath, and coughed some more.

I frowned and raised a hand to knock but thought better of it. I had to trust that he would come to me if there was something actually wrong, though in the meantime I might have Paige keep an eye on him. While she didn’t have a lot of medical training, she was still the closest thing to a doctor that we had.

I continued down the hall and through the common room. Two of the girls, Anna and Bailey, were already awake and getting ready for the day.

“Good morning,” Anna whispered as she laced up her running shoes.

“You guys are up early,” I replied.

Tara groaned and rolled away from us.

“I’m going to go for a small run with Anna,” Bailey said.

“Have fun,” I said with a smile. “Don’t forget your guns and stick to the campus grounds.”

“Don’t worry, it won't be a very long run,” Bailey replied. “I am not great at cardio, but that’s why Anna agreed to help.”

“Yeah, we are really just gonna get the blood pumping,” Anna said as she stood and slung her backpack onto her shoulders.

“Well I’ll go make sure you have some hot water and breakfast ready in the library when you get back,” I whispered.

The three of us slipped out of the common, and down the stairs before we woke the others. We stepped outside to find the orange glow of a mostly cloudless sky.

“We will see you in a bit, Tav,” Anna said as she started to stretch.

“Yeah don’t have too much fun without us,” Bailey added as she tried to copy the movements of her redheaded companion.

“I’ll try,” I said sarcastically before I gave them a wave and left them to their exercise. That was probably another thing all of us should start doing soon as we were pulling in enough nutrition and protein that we could spend a bit of time getting in shape. I stopped by our salting shack and grabbed the leftover rabbit meat we shoved in there from the night before. There was enough there for all of us and would be a good first meal.

I stepped into the library and was greeted by the smell of leather and paper. The sun filtered in through a large side window and gave the whole place a warm glow. I made my way to the whiteboard and our conference table.

I set down breakfast, picked up a green dry erase marker, and crossed out shooting range. It could use some improvement still but it was functional. The water line was finished, so I crossed that off as well.

All of our work had whittled the list of projects down to three things. There was a garden, the shower stalls, and an expansion of our smoker. Because we had the shack to keep our meat in the garden looked to be the most important of our remaining projects. I knew the girls really wanted one of those sun heated showers done but we needed to take advantage of the season, since spring was one of the best times to get seeds in the ground.

The library doors creaked open, and Rolly stepped inside, and he moved noticeably slower than he had the day before.

“What, didn’t feel like joining Anna and Bailey for a run?” I asked.

“You kidding me, I barely wanted to get out of bed this morning,” he replied before he sat down at the table with a groan.

“I woke up a little tired and sore myself,” I said.

“How about we do something less exciting than shoveling dirt this morning then?” he chuckled.

“I think that sounds like a good idea,” I agreed with a nod. “Don’t want people getting jealous of our exciting lives.”

Then Tara and Paige stepped inside.

“Are Bailey and Anna really running right now?” Tara asked?

“Yeah, they decided to get in some exercise,” I said. “We will probably all want to start doing that before too long.”

“Ugh, I hate running,” Tara groaned.

“It’s good for you,” the messy haired brunette said. “I used to do it pretty regularly.”

“Can’t I just spend time with Tav for cardio?” Tara asked.

“We need to do more than just cardio,” I said.

“Oh no,” Tara grumbled. “What does that mean?”

“He’s probably talking about exercising,” Paige laughed.

“So was I,” Tara purred as she winked at me.

“Paige is right,” I laughed “Pushups, sit-ups, probably some burpees.”

“Alright, now we are into stuff that not even I want to do,” Paige said.

“Don’t you want to be ready for anything?” I asked.

“If it means doing burpees then maybe not,” Paige said with a shrug.

Rolly laughed and shook his head.

“Laugh it up old timer, but you’re going to join us in this too,” I said.

“What are we talking about?” Anna asked as she entered with Bailey. The two women were sweaty and glistened slightly in the sunlight as they crossed the room.

“Burpees,” Tara groaned.

“Oh nice,” the redhead said. “Wouldn’t mind doing those again.”

“You disgust me,” Paige joked as she grimaced at her athletic companion.

“Hey, it’s not my fault you don’t know how to have fun,” Anna replied.

“I think you’re the only one who thinks burpees are fun,” Bailey said.

“Not true,” I said. “I enjoy them too.”

“Well at least we now know that we are being led by a crazy man,” Tara said.

“Better crazy than mean at least,” Rolly said with a shrug.

We all laughed and then started to pass breakfast around the table.

It seemed that an exercise plan might not go over as smoothly as I had hoped, but for the moment though it was not something I needed to worry about. Our days were still too full to fit in a fitness regimen, and at least our daily activities would help the girls to stay fit until then.

“Any more big projects today?” Paige asked.

“Yeah, I don’t want to lose this momentum we have going on now,” I replied.

“So then what are we going to work on today?” Bailey asked.

“Well, you’re going to start getting a garden set up,” I said. “Choose a big chunk of the courtyard and start getting the ground ready for planting.”

“I haven't really done much gardening before,” Bailey admitted.

“That’s okay,” I said, “There are plenty of books you can use to help you get an understanding of what to do first.”

“If you want, I could point you to where all the gardening books are,” Paige offered.

“Yeah, that would be great,” Bailey said with a smile.

“Paige, after you help Bailey with that, you and Tara will meet up and spar for a couple hours,” I instructed.

“Wait, but I practiced yesterday,” Tara said.

“Yes, that’s why I have you helping Paige today,” I explained.

“Oh, for a second I thought I was being punished or something,” the platinum blonde said with a shrug.

I raised an eyebrow at her. “I thought you liked knife practice.”

“I do, sorry,” she sighed. “I just, like, wanted to make sure I wasn’t in trouble or anything.”

“Why would you be in trouble?” I asked.

“I don’t know, but it was pretty normal back when this was actually a school,” she said. “It hadn’t happened for a while so I guess I just thought things seemed to be going too well.”

“Aww, you don’t need to be hard on yourself like that,” Bailey said.

“Yeah, everyone makes mistakes,” I said. “But I’m here to help you learn from them. Remember, I am not some college professor.”

“Yeah, that’s true,” Tara agreed with a nod. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to get all melodramatic.”

“It’s alright,” Bailey responded. “We are all here for each other.”

“She’s right,” Anna said with a nod. “Our mental state is just as important as our physical one. If we can’t open up and share with each other than we might just go crazy.”

“Thanks guys,” Tara smiled.

“Of course,” I said. “Now back to our plans. Anna, you and I will head out into the woods to check the traps.” I turned to the handyman. “Rolly, the gun range could use some improvements. A simple shooting bench would be nice, and a table or rack to set the guns on would mean we didn’t have to put them in the grass.”

“On it,” he said with a nod.

“If you have time do you think you could draw me up some plans for a bigger smoker too? The one we have clearly isn’t large enough anymore.”

“Yeah, no problem,” he said. “It will be a nice change of pace.”

“Good,” I said. “This afternoon we are going to do some more shooting. I want to get in as much range time as possible in these next couple days to help reinforce all you guys have learned.”

“Do you think the sound of shooting will attract any unwanted attention?” Bailey asked. “I had that thought last night while I was trying to fall asleep.”

“Not really,” I said as I shook my head. “The sound of the gunshots won’t carry more than a mile. Based on the area we are in, I would guess they won’t even travel that far.”

“Man, they are so loud that I sorta just assumed they could be heard forever away,” Tara said.

“Well a mile is still a good distance,” I said.

“Still not as far as I thought the noise would travel,” Bailey said.

“Well, I’m gonna get to work,” Rolly said as he stood. “Best of luck team.”

“Have fun,” Bailey called out.

“We should probably follow his lead,” I said. “Does everyone have their guns on them?” I asked.

The girls were all quick to assure me they were, and even double checked just in case.

“Perfect,” I replied. “Then let's get going.”

Anna and I hiked through the woods towards our second trap site. The first has been a mess of splintered wood, twisted wire and bloody fur.

“So do you think it was the mountain lion?” Anna asked.

“Probably,” I said while I pushed a branch out of my face. “It could be something like a pack of coyotes but I doubt it. I haven't heard any of them since arriving here.”

“It’s not good that this thing keeps trashing our traps is it?” the athlete asked.

“No, not really,” I said as I shook my head. “I hoped it would have gotten what it wanted and left us alone. Though I am worried that we have just provided it with an easier way to find meals.”

“Something something don’t feed a stray cat,” Anna said with a laugh.

“Yep,” I chuckled in agreement.

We entered a small clearing where another of our traps was supposed to be. And again, the only thing that remained of it was a tangle of metal and wire.

“Shit,” Anna said. “Guess we need to make some more traps.”

I knelt at the edge of the clearing and pushed some grass aside to reveal a shallow mountain lion print. “Well we can officially rule out coyotes.”

“What’d you find?” She asked as she rushed over to me.

“Tracks,” I said. “They’re kinda faint but these are definitely fresh.” I turned back to the woman standing behind me and grinned. “Want to learn how to track?”

“Hell yeah I do,” she said without hesitation.

“Well then, first lesson,” I began as I pressed a hand into the ground next to the track. “This a good way to check how fresh an animal track is. Look at the edges of my hand print. See how they are fresh and sharp?”

“I think so,” Anna said after she shifted around and crouched down in front of me. She traced a finger along the edges of my handprint and then did the same on the animal track. “This cat print looks to be pretty clear, kinda like your hand.”

“Yeah,” I said with a nod. “I would guess it is less than a day old. The beast probably messed with this area overnight or early this morning.”

“How will I know if the tracks are older?” Anna asked.

“The print will be more rounded at the edges as the ground starts to go back to a more natural state,” I explained

“Cool, so we found a track, what next?” the redhead asked.

“Well we see the direction the track is facing,” I said as I pointed in the direction the toes led. “We want to look for more signs in that direction. Along with additional tracks we want to be on the lookout for disturbed vegetation and foliage, scratches on the ground and trees, and any signs of the creature such as its shit.”

Anna nodded and headed into the forest in the direction our first sign pointed.

I got on my hands and knees and followed after. I felt my way along the ground in an attempt to find tracks that I might not have been able to see. This process looked like the goofiest thing when you watched someone do it, but it was one of the best ways you could track. It allowed you to use more senses than just sight and helped to put you in the headspace of creature you were trying to find.

“I found something,” Anna yelled.

I poked up and saw her about ten yards ahead of me.

“What’d you find?” I asked.

“Looks like some bits of animal and some scratch marks over here.”

I stood up and made my way over to her. There was a shred of bloody fur in a small clawed furrough in the ground.

“Good find,” I said.  “This is maybe a couple hours old. Look at the blood here, it’s still not entirely coagulated.”

Anna frowned and started to look around. Then she pulled the .45 from her backpack and racked the slide.

“Worried about something?” I asked as I looked at her gun and raised an eyebrow.

“After our run in with that bear I am sorta afraid of getting eaten by wild animals now,” she explained. “If the track is fresh there is a chance the cat is close.”

“You’re right,” I said as I stood, pulled out my knife, and made a large mark on the nearest tree. I had a feeling I would want to find this area again in the near future. “There is a chance its den is nearby.”

“That doesn’t make me feel any better,” Anna said with a furrowed brow.

“Don’t worry, we won't go looking for it today,” I said. “Though there is a chance this is a problem that needs to be taken care of soon.”

“Just promise that you won’t let the mountain lion eat me when we do take care of it,” Anna said.

“I’ll do my best,” I promised.

“That’s not exactly what I asked, but thanks,” she said with a smile.

“Come on, let’s finish checking the traps and get back to the others,” I said.

My redheaded companion nodded, looked around the area one last time, and followed me out of the area.

Only two of our seven traps seemed to be undisturbed. The two sites that were not destroyed or covered in signs of the big cat were the two farthest out. That meant that the cat lived closer to campus than I would have liked.

We checked the trotlines, but sadly there was nothing in them today. So the two of us headed back with nothing but the news of the mountain lion to show for our morning efforts.

“It’s always disappointing to come back empty handed,” Anna said as we hiked.

“It’s okay, that’s how this goes,” I said with a shrug. “Plus we will want to give the area a rest once we have a good month or two of meat. We don’t want to overtrap our forest.”

“Makes sense, but we aren't to that point yet, are we?” Anna asked

“Not yet,” I assured her. “Plus, with our tools we can start hunting and curing larger animals. Each deer, elk, or mountain lion will go a long way.”

“You know, as a kid I used to read those little house on the prairie books,” Anna said. “Every day we wake up and talk about farms or water I think about those books. I once found the idea of living like that exciting, but now I just sorta wish things were back to the way they were.”

“We might never get back to exactly where we were before, but we are doing what we can to make life comfortable,” I said.

“I know,” Anna said with a sigh. “And I also know that things could be a lot worse. It’s just hard sometimes to think that all of my future plans are sorta gone now. Not like I can be an athlete anymore.”

“No, but your past prepared you for the hard work and long days of hiking,” I explained.

“True,” Anna conceded. “I don’t know. It’s not that I am unhappy or anything it is just that some days the massive changes to pretty much every part of my life are harder than others. I mean, I don’t even know if I will ever see my family again.” She sighed. “Not that I had a great relationship with them anyway.”

“I bet it’s the same for the others too,” I said. “It’s not like we were prepared and hoping power would go out, and the world would be plunged into some sort of strange second dark age.”

“I’m sure someone was,” Anna said.

“Yeah, but it wasn’t one of us,” I replied as I clapped her on the shoulder. Anna looked back at me, and I gave her a big smile.

“Guess we were too busy trying to live normal lives,” she said and then she looked back at me and grinned. “Well, maybe not you Mr. I lived in the woods by myself for a year.”

“It seemed like a good idea at the time,” I said before I laughed. “Though I might have reconsidered if I had known I wouldn’t get a cold beer when I returned.”

“You know, we could maybe do something about that,” Anna said. “Growing up my dad had this little home brewing kit. Once we have all the necessary stuff in place, maybe we could work on growing our own beer.”

“That’s not a bad plan,” I said. “It would be a good morale booster and could even be used in trade if we ever ran into anyone who wasn’t a murdering lunatic.”

“Do you actually think that will happen?” the redhead asked.

“I do,” I nodded. Then we arrived at the campus again and broke free of the forest. “Lots of farmers and country folk around here who will be able to adapt to this new world, and they will want to trade.”

“That’s kinda exciting,” Anna said with a distant gaze in her eyes that made me think she was visualizing the future.

“Take a break,” I told Anna. “I’m going to go see how Rolly is doing and get things setup for this afternoon.

“Sounds good,” she replied with a nod. “I’ll see you at the gun range in a bit. Should I grab the others?”

“Yeah, if you don’t mind,” I said.

“Of course not,” she said with a smile before she gave me a wave and headed out.

I watched her leave before I made my way to the shooting range. Along the way, I ran into Bailey who was standing in the middle of a square chunk of the courtyard that had been marked out with wooden stakes and twine. The thin blonde woman leaned on a shovel as she flipped through a thick book on gardening

“How’s it going?” I asked?

Bailey jumped at the sound of my voice. “Holy crap. Sorry, didn’t notice you walk up.”

“Yeah I got that,” I said with a small chuckle. “Made any progress?”

“I think so,” Bailey said as she nodded towards several small freshly dug mounds of earth. “I planted some tomato seeds today. I have ten of them planted, and they are spaced out how the book recommended.”

“Don’t you need a cage or a fence for the tomatoes to grow up?” I asked

“Yeah,” Bailey nodded. “I have some sticks that I sharpened up to get them started, and I figure if they take off we can just build a small wall alongside the row I made.”

“Sounds like you are getting it figured out,” I stated.

“Yeah, it’s actually pretty nice,” She admitted. “I like the digging and getting to put something back into the earth.”

“Good, I had hoped that you might enjoy this task,” I said.

“Thanks,” Bailey said. “Did you and Anna have any luck this morning?”

“Not really,” I said. “Looks like the mountain lion really wants to screw with our stuff.”

“Uh-oh,” she replied.

“Yeah,” I said with a nod. “We will need to build some more traps.”

“At least we know how to do that,” the blond hippie mused.

“Yeah, but that’s a problem for another day,” I said. “Once you are finished up here head for the shooting range. We are going to get some more practice in.”

“Alright, I wanna throw the book inside and put away my tools and then I'll be there,” she said.

I gave her a nod and continued on and arrived at our shooting range a few moments later. The mound had shrunk a little overnight as the dirt settled, but the actual shooting line was much improved.

Rolly had pulled out a table from one of the college buildings to set all the guns on, and he had created a single person shooting bench out of a desk. A large rectangle had been drawn on the ground with spray paint around the desk and the table.

Rolly, who sat at the shooting bench with a notebook, looked back as I approached. “What do you think?”

“I like the shooting bench,” I said. “The table is nice too, but I don’t understand what you have going on down here on the ground.”

“It’s where I am going to build the shooting hut,” The old man said as he stood. He handed me his notebook and tapped the page. “It’s all right here.”

The first dozen pages were filled with rough blueprints for a larger smoker, possible outdoor bathrooms, and a multi-laned rectangular building that would allow them to shoot regardless of the weather. The shooting shed was complete with a roof, individual shooting benches and a shelf that ran along the back to store extra guns or ammo.

“This is really good stuff,” I said as I flipped through the pages.

“I have always liked designing construction projects,” Rolly said with a shrug. “I figured having a blueprint would also help us know what sort of stuff we would need to make it possible.”

“I agree,” I said with a nod. “We can check the material list you have here against what we have so we don’t end up with half completed projects.”

“Yeah, but all of this is going to take a little while,” he said. “I won't be able to just put this stuff up overnight.”

“That’s alright,” I replied. “I would rather we take a little time and do it right than to rush it and have the projects fall apart.”

“Glad we are on the same page,” Rolly said with a wide grin.

I nodded and handed him back his notebook as Tara and Paige walked up with the duffle of weapons and ammo.

“I heard we were supposed to meet you here,” Paige said as she tossed the bag onto the table.

“Yeah, how was your morning?” I asked.

“I think we’re really, like, starting to get the hang on this knife fighting stuff,” Tara said with a grin.

“I agree,” Paige said while she was taking off her glasses to clean the smudged lenses. “It is also a lot of fun too.”

“Well good,” I said. “Did Anna fill you in on our morning?”

“She told us that you found mountain lion tracks,” Tara said. “Is there anything else we need to know?”

“Not really,” I replied. “I just want you all to know so you can be careful.”

“Thanks for the heads up,” Paige said as she started to unpack the duffle bag. She laid out each of the guns on the table and ensured they all faced down range. “I feel way safer just having my own gun.”

“Same here,” Tara said.

“Good, but don’t get cocky,” I warned. “You’re far from invincible.”

“Yeah, but at least now I feel I stand a chance if I run into the kitty,” Paige said as she pulled out her pistol and checked the magazine.

I took some time to set up the range while we waited for Anna and Bailey. This time I set up some old tin cans, so that we could work on hitting smaller targets. Once they started to nail those regularly, I would get rid of the cans and setup old shotgun shells as targets. Once they were accurate, we would start to work on speed and combat drills.

The rest of the girls joined us, and we spent the afternoon shooting. The girls did well, but we didn’t move to smaller targets that afternoon. Bailey was a naturally good shot, and Anna, with her previous coaching, could hit the can almost every time. However, Paige and Tara struggled, but both for different reasons. Paige seemed to have a tough time picking out the metal can against the dirt backstop. It seemed her eyesight, even with glasses, was a little worse than the rest of ours. Tara, on the other hand, acted like she was afraid of the gun. She still jolted every time she squeezed the trigger.

“You have to relax,” I instructed. “The gun’s not going to hurt you.”

“I know that,” Tara said with a scowl. “I just can’t help it. I even like shooting these things, but--” She jolted as another BOOM shook the air, as Rolly fired his pistol.

“It’s alright,” I said as I put a hand on her shoulder. “I think the best way to get you through this might just be to have you keep shooting. You will get used to the sound and the feeling.”

“Does this mean I need private lessons?” Tara asked as her scowl transformed into a coy smile.

“Maybe,” I said with a smirk. “I might have a way to help you relax.”

“That would be good,” she said with mock innocence. “After all, I have been sooo stressed lately.”

“Well, then maybe you should meet me in my office later today,” I said.

“Oh, I’ll be there,” the platinum blond said with a wink before she shouldered the shotgun again and fired off another round.

As dusk approached, we called it a day. The ground was littered with empty shells and casings, and I had us spend the time cleaning them up after we emptied the guns and put them away.

“So how worried should we actually be about this mountain lion?” Bailey asked as she dumped a handful of shotgun shells into a five-gallon bucket Rolly had grabbed from his shed.

“Yeah, it seems to really like messing up our stuff,” Anna said.

“This thing is a predator but we are hardly its ideal prey,” I replied.
“Just keep your eyes and ears open.”

“Is that going to be enough?” Paige asked as she stood and brushed the dirt from her pants. “I mean, large cats are usually known for stealth right?”

“Hey, you all have a gun and the training to use it,” I said. “It hasn’t been on the campus grounds and since it has used our traps for easy food, it should be well fed.”

“Yeah but we won’t get to keep eating so well if we can’t trap,” Tara said.

“I know,” I said with a nod, dumped my own handful of brass into the bucket, and grabbed the duffle bag. “I am hoping if we stop arming our traps for a couple days it will wander off into a different area to find food.”

“What if it doesn’t?” Rolly asked.

“Then we hunt it down and kill it,” I said with a shrug. “Now come on, let’s go cook up some dinner. It’s getting late, and we can worry about all of this in the morning.” I headed out for the firepit and assumed the others would follow.

“Alright,” Anna said from behind me. “But if I get eaten in my sleep, I will become a ghost and I will haunt the shit out of you.”

The sound of laughter echoed through the campus grounds as we all gathered around the fire to cook and eat.

Chapter 6

That night, Tara cooked up a dinner of fish seasoned with basil, garlic salt, and pepper. She heated some canned green beans for a side, and we washed it down with some alcohol.

“Shooting is fun, but man is my shoulder sore,” Paige groaned.

“Tell me about it,” Tara agreed with a nod.

“I didn’t really notice it until we stopped,” Anna said.

“I dunno,” Paige said. “I kinda like it. It sorta feels like the sorta pain you feel when you exercise.”

“I guess,” the redhead said with a shrug. “Though I don’t like the soreness of exercise either. It usually means I need to take a day off.”

“I’m with Paige,” Rolly said. “I like the feeling of a sore shoulder after a day of shooting.”

“If we do this long enough does the pain go away?” Paige asked.

“Not really,” I said as I shook my head. “You just get used to it once you shoot long enough.”

“Guess we just have to shoot more then,” Bailey said with a shrug.

“You seem really broken up about that,” I said with a grin.

The blond hippie shrugged and took a bite of fish.

“At least we can always shoot our pistols without worrying about our shoulders,” Tara said.

“Well we can’t shoot every day anyway,” I added. “We have to keep in mind our ammo reserves.”

“Oh yeah, I kinda forgot about that part,” Anna sighed.

“It’s easy to forget about,” Rolly said. “Ammo is the real reason that shooting was always such an expensive hobby.”

“I never had to worry about that,” I said with a smile. “All my shooting sessions were sponsored by the government.”

“That’s one way to do it,” Rolly said with a nod.

“Did you ever get to shoot rockets or anything?” Tara asked with a large smile.

“Yeah, I got lots of special weapons training,” I said. “Mounted fifty cals are always a good time. Though you quickly lose feeling in your hands.”

“Holy shit, how come?” Bailey asked.

“They are such big bullets that the continuous fire just sorta shakes the feeling outta you,” I replied with a shrug.

“Dang, that sounds pretty hardcore,” Paige mused.

“Nah, it was just a big gun,” I said. “A lot of times you don’t actually need a bigger gun. Bullets are nasty pretty much regardless of size.”

“So what you’re saying is it’s not the size of the gun that matters?” Anna asked with a grin.

“Not as long as you know how to use it,” I said with a grin before I winked at the redhead.

“Well you certainly do,” Tara cooed.

Bailey giggled and went red but stayed silent.

Suddenly, Tara shrieked and jumped upright as she frantically looked for where she had set her pistol.

“What’s going on?” I asked as I too stood and pulled my pistol.

“There's, like, something in the trees!” she screeched as she pointed to the treeline behind me.

“Shit!” I spun and saw a pair of glowing green eyes just inside the forest.

“It’s that fucking cat isn’t it?” Anna whispered around and scanned the forest. She spotted the eyes, pulled her pistol and aimed.

The green dots disappeared into the darkness of the forest.

“Shit,” Anna spat as she lowered her gun.

“Where did it go?” Bailey asked as she grabbed onto my arm and pressed herself against me.

“I don’t know,” I said. “I am guessing the smell of our food lured it here though.”

“Hasn’t it been stealing enough of our food already?” Paige asked.

“Yeah, it’s already trashed several traps and taken our rabbits,” Anna added.

“Maybe there is more than one,” I suggested.

“Well that’s super terrifying to think about,” Tara said.

I sighed and scanned the forest for a minute longer before I holstered my pistol.

“So what do we do?” Paige asked.

“For tonight I think we should get some sleep,” I said. “I’ll cleanup the firepit and dispose of our trash before heading in.”

“Well what about tomorrow?” Paige asked. “What will we do about this then?”

“Let’s worry about that in the morning,” I said as I turned to the girls. “But we have done a lot in the last couple of days, and I think getting some rest is really the best option at this point.”

“What if the kitty tries to get into the dorm building?” Bailey asked.

“I’ll make sure the door is locked on my way in,” I assured her. “It won't be bothering us.”

The blond woman nodded but her eyes never left the treeline. She shivered, let go of me, and quickly started towards the dorm.

“Watch your back while you clean up,” Rolly said as he stood up and stretched. “That thing could still be out there.”

“I know, I’ll be careful,” I said.

“I should go catch up with Bailey,” Paige said. “See you in the morning, Tav.” She gave a small wave, nervously looked around the area, and jogged off to catch up with Bailey.

“Come on, we should get inside too,” Rolly said to Tara and Anna.

“Yeah, I would rather be inside anyway,” Tara said with a nod before she shoved her pistol back into her bag.

“You sure you’ll be okay out here?” Anna asked.

“Yeah, just go get some rest,” I said.

She nodded and joined Tara where she stood by Rolly. The trio gave me a wave and headed out.

I kept a hand on my pistol as I started to collect the plates, and cooking pan. I ran them inside then returned and gathered the bones and food scraps. I disposed of them in a small trash pit we had dug and made sure to cover it so as not to give the mountain lion another reason to visit our camp. By the time I started to put out the fire I had started to relax. There had been no further sign of the big cat skulking in the trees, and I hoped that maybe we had scared it away for good, but I had a feeling that was too much to ask.

Once there was nothing left by a pile of cooling embers, I checked the treeline one last time and then headed to my room. I locked the door to our dorm building and put a large chair at the top of the stairs to act as a barrier. It probably wouldn’t stop a large cat if they somehow got in the building, but I knew it would make the girls feel better.

I slipped past the girls down the hall and into my own room. I was half way through pulling off my shirt when there was a soft knock on my door. Before I had a chance to answer it the door opened, and Tara stepped into the room. She had a thin blanket draped over her like a cloak.

“Hey there,” she whispered.

“I thought you were asleep,” I replied as I tossed my shirt onto the floor.

“And miss my private lesson?” she asked as she stuck out her lip in an exaggerated pouty fashion and dropped her blanket to reveal the skimpy schoolgirl outfit she had on. It was complete with thigh high socks and skimpy tied together top.

Part of me wondered where she was finding these outfits but I knew better than to question a good thing.

She strutted towards me and wrapped her slender arms around my neck.

“Well it looks like it is time for your session then,” I said as I leaned in and kissed her. “Let’s see what you can remember from last time.”

“Well where should I start?” Tara asked, before she giggled and kissed my neck.

I raised an eyebrow and smiled as I unbuckled my belt and let my pants drop to the floor.

The sexy blond grinned and licked her lips as she looked down to the bulge in my boxers before she pulled them down to reveal her prize. Then she shifted onto her knees and started to suck on it.

I groaned and put a hand on top of her head of fluffy, platinum blond, hair and pulled her farther onto it.

Tara didn’t even gag and instead sucked harder.

I grinned and let out a soft moan. Then I pulled her off me.

“Aww, why’d you stop me?” She asked as she wiped her mouth. “I was having so much fun.”

“That much was obvious,” I said. “Are you sure you need a private lesson?”

“You wouldn’t, like, turn away such a willing student would you?” Tara asked as she lifted up the front of her short skirt and revealed herself to me. Her inner thighs were already slick with her own excitement.

“No, I suppose that wouldn’t be right now would it?” I said as I stepped up to her and pulled her in close.

Tara gasped and started to groan as my tip rubbed up against her.

I pushed her up against the wall and raised her up high enough to slip into her wet pussy.

“Oh fuck,” she moaned

“Yeah, did you enjoy that a little?” I asked

She bit her lip and nodded and started to push her hips into me.

I held her there against the wall and thrust into her until my legs started to burn. Then we moved from the wall to the floor where I had her get on her knees.

“We aren't done yet are we?” Tara purred as she wiggled her ass.

“Not by a long shot,” I said before I got behind her, grabbed her ass, and pulled her onto my swollen dick.

“My god how do you feel so good?” she purred

“You feel amazing.” I grinned and grunted as I fucked her hard from behind.

She moaned, arched her back, and moved into me each and every time I thrust.

“Harder,” she said between gasping breaths. The platinum blonde’s legs started to shake, and she was no longer able to hold herself up with her arms.

“I need to switch positions,” I said as I pulled out, grabbed her by the waist, and tossed her onto the bed. Then I moved her so that just her ass was hanging off the bed, opened her legs, and teased her with my tip.

“Put it back in,” she begged as she tried to push herself onto my cock.

“You have to ask nicely,” I said as I prodded and rubbed against her.

“Please fuck me,” she said. “I want to feel you fill me up.”

“Good girl,” I said with a smile before I pushed slowly into her. I sucked her breasts while I thrust into her until my legs too began to shake. Then I groaned, grabbed her hips, and pulled her as far onto my cock as she could go while I tried to bury myself in her.

Tara shuddered, spasmed, and let out an almost animal grunting sound as I felt her get tighter around me.

Unable to contain myself any longer I released my load deep inside her. With each hot spurt the woman under me grunted and shuddered again.

Tara shifted fully onto the bed as I pulled out. My cum leaked from her swollen pussy, and she got some on her finger and stuck it in her mouth.

“God that’s hot,” I said as I collapsed onto the bed beside her.

“Wow,” Tara said once she was able to catch her breath again. “How the fuck is it always so good?”

“I pride myself on being good at what I do,” I said with a chuckle before I tossed her a towel that was not far from the bed.

“Yeah, but like, oh my god, are you good,” she panted. “Of course, it doesn’t hurt that you are larger than anyone else I have ever been with.”

“I’ve heard that a couple times,” I said as put my hands behind my head and got comfortable on the bed.

Tara cleaned herself up and leaned against me. Then she let out a contented sigh, rested her head on my chest, and the silky locks of her platinum blonde hair drifted across my bare skin.

“You know, this whole situation is weird,” Tara said.

“Oh?” I asked as I raised an eyebrow. ”What do you mean?

“It’s just that, before all of this I would have for sure wanted to lock you down,” she said as she shifted to look at me. “But, I don’t know, like, I know you have slept with Paige, and I’m cool with it.”

“Well I’m glad that I am not causing problems between you all,” I said.

“It’s more than that though,” she whispered in my ear. “I don’t care if you sleep with all of us and usually I am a bit of a jealous bitch when it comes to men. Things are just different now, the world is different now.”

“You’re probably a little different too,” I said.

“Probably,” Tara said with a nod. “Those girls are kinda like my sisters now and why not share something as good as you with them?” She grinned up at me with her perfect white teeth. “Just make sure you don’t get so busy with the others that I can’t still get a turn.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” I said. “After all, we have so much fun together.”

“Yeah we do,” she agreed, then she let out a huge yawn, and snuggled in a little closer. “Though I’m a little worn out now. Goodnight, Tav.”

“Night, Tara,” I whispered as I threw the blanket over us and drifted off.

I woke the next morning with Tara still resting on my chest. I watched her perfect breasts rise and fall in the slow and steady manner of one who was sleeping deeply. I grinned as I lifted up the blanket and looked once more on her naked body. I could really get used to starting my days like this.

I yawned, stretched, and gently shook the sleeping blond.

Tara groaned and swatted my hand away.

“Come on, it’s time to get up,” I chuckled.

“Nooo, it’s too early,” she groaned.

“Nope, we were just up a bit late,” I said.

She pulled her face from my chest and opened a single eye to look at me. “Worth it.” Then she pushed herself upright and ran a hand through her tangled hair as she yawned wide.

“Agreed, but it does make the morning drag just a little,” I said as I stepped out of bed and began to pull on a fresh set of clothes. The blue jeans I buttoned up were loose and the black under armor athletic top was just a little too tight. That was the problem with scavenged clothes. At least the shirt really showed off my muscular torso. “You didn’t happen to bring in a fresh pair of clothes did you?”

“Nah, but it's not like my closet is far away,” Tara said. “Just toss me the blanket again.

I picked up the beige fleece she had been wrapped in the night before and threw it on top of her.

“Guess I should go get ready,” she said as she laughed and popped her head out of the blankets.

“Probably a good idea,” I said with a nod as I fixed my holster into the waistband of the new pants. “You don’t want to find out what I do to those who are late.”

Tara raised an eyebrow and stepped out of bed.

“I can be quite punishing,” I warned.

“What are you gonna do, spank me?” she teased before she stuck out her tongue and headed for the door.

“Guess you’ll just have to try it and find out,” I said with a grin.

“Maybe, like, another day,” Tara said with a wicked smile. “I’m still sore from last night.” She then opened the door and disappeared into the hallway beyond.

I laughed and shook my head as I made sure my backpack had everything I might need for the day. My half full water bottle was nestled in among the coiled rope, and a small first aid kit sat on top of both of them. Half a dozen extra rounds for the bull barreled 22-250 sat in the front pocket and a compass hung from a lanyard attached to one of the zippers. Satisfied with my simple kit I donned the vest that held my knife and threw my backpack over before I headed out into the hall.

The girls were all awake and getting dressed as I passed the common room.

“Morning ladies,” I said as I gave them a nod.

They all giggled and Tara went a little red as she finished pulling on a tight blue t-shirt. It seemed that news of my evening had traveled quickly. Then again, I had not exactly been subtle with Tara last night. Anyone even half-awake probably heard enough to know what had transpired.

I shook my head, moved the large chair out of the way, and headed downstairs. I pulled a fresh can of pre-ground coffee and some nuts from our supply before I made my way outside and towards the library.

As I walked through the courtyard, the sun rising in the sky behind me, I passed the fire pit, and our smoker, but the area was not how I had left it. The smoker sat in pieces on the ground and only chunks of smoked meat clung to the mangled hooks that had been inside.

“Fuck,” I swore as I headed in for a closer look. There were clear claw marks on the plywood, and ground around the smoker. I shook my head and walked around the corner to find more claw marks scratched into the door of our salt shack. Though, unlike the smoker, the shack still stood.

“Holy shit,” I heard Rolly mutter behind me.

I turned and saw that the old man stood, with his hands on his hips, over the destroyed utility.

“Well, guess that mountain lion really wanted what we were having,” The handyman said as he shook his head.

“Yeah,” I agreed with a nod. “At least I don’t have to wonder what to do today.”

“Yeah?” Rolly asked as he looked up at me. “You gonna hunt the thing down?”

“Can’t exactly let it keep destroying our stuff,” I said.

“Very true,” he said. “It’s probably not gonna be easy.”

“No, but I already fought a bear,” I said with a grin. “I think I’ll be okay. Plus, I won’t be going alone.”

“Didn’t figure you would,” Rolly said.

“Come on, let’s get to the library and brew up some coffee,” I suggested. “I want to make sure all the girls are awake when I tell them we will be hunting down a dangerous creature.”

Rolly chuckled and followed after me as I continued to the library.

By the time the girls came in about ten minutes later Rolly and I were sipping at hot cups of coffee. I hadn’t updated the whiteboard because today’s plans didn’t need to be written down.

All four of the girls were silent as they entered the building, and they stayed huddled close together. It seemed they had seen the destruction as well.

“So the kitty came out of the forest huh?” Bailey asked as she poured herself a cup of coffee.

“Yep,” I said with a nod.

“Well that seems really bad,” Paige said as she took her seat.

“Take a seat, and we’ll talk about it,” I said.

Anna raised an eyebrow, grabbed some coffee, and took a seat. She stared at me as she sipped at the bitter black liquid.

“We aren’t going to like what you have to say are we?” Tara asked as she sat and crossed her arms.

“Probably not,” I said as I shifted to look at them all.

“Oh good,” Anna groaned.

“It’s clear that this mountain lion is not going to just leave us alone like I hoped,” I started. “That means we need to eliminate the problem before the situation escalates.”

“So we have to hunt the kitty?” Bailey asked.

“Yep,” I said with a nod. “Anna and I picked up a trail yesterday that we might be able to use to find this things den, so we will be heading out into the forest together to do just that.”

“All of us?” Paige asked?

“All of us except Rolly,” I confirmed. “He is going to stay here and make us a new, and larger, smoker.”

“Isn’t five people kinda overkill for a hunting trip?” Tara asked.

“Not at all, especially not with what we are hunting,” I said.

“Oh, good, so all of us have to go after all,” Tara complained.

“Hey, at least we all have guns now,” Paige pointed out.

“True,” Anna said with a nod. “And with five of us the mountain lion shouldn’t be able to sneak up on us.”

“That’s the hope,” I said. “However, we will want to move quietly.”

“When will we leave?” Paige asked.

“Finish your coffee, eat some nuts, and go grab what you need for a day in the woods. At the very least everyone needs one bottle of water, a decent amount of carbs, your pistol, and your spear.”

“Wait, we have to bring our spears?” Anna scoffed.

“Don’t worry, the spears are backup weapons and hiking aids. I wouldn’t ask you to face down several hundred pounds of killer cat with nothing but spears.”

“Well thank god for that,” Tara said.

I took a sip of coffee and smiled.

Today would be interesting.

This would be the first time I would bring the girls with me on a task that I knew would be dangerous. This would be a true test of their skills so far and a test of how well they would do under pressure in a more controlled environment than Lanceton.

“Man am I glad we learned to shoot this week,” Paige said as she stared into her coffee.

“You’ll be fine,” Rolly assured her. “Plus, between this big cat and the deer, we will have meat for a few weeks.”

“Good point,” Anna said. “This might end up being a really good situation. With that much meat we could forgo the traps for a few days and let the rabbits reproduce a little.”

“That’s true,” I said. “Plus I think this will be fun. It breaks up our normal routine a little.

“That is pretty nice,” Tara admitted.

“Alright, meet me in the courtyard when you are all ready to go,” I said before I set down my empty coffee cup and stood. “I’m gonna grab a couple things myself.”

“We will finish up here and meet you in a little while,” Anna said.

“I’ll get to work on that smoker as soon as I finish my coffee,” Rolly added.

“Take your time,” I said to the table. “It’s going to be a long day, and I won’t blame anyone for wanting to stop and enjoy breakfast.”

“Wow, that’s a first,” Paige said.

“Oh god, you’re being nice because one of us is going to die, aren't you?” Bailey joked.

“No one is going to die,” I said with a laugh. “We fought a bear together, I think we can handle one big cat.” I gave them one last big smile and headed back to the dorms.

I went to the dining hall, filled my water bottle with some of our purified water, tossed a couple candy bars into my pack, and grabbed a can of beans. Then I went to our duffle bag of guns and pulled out the always reliable Mossberg 500, and a box of double-aught buckshot. I loaded the shotgun and tossed the spare shells into my front pocket. We would all have our pistols but a shotgun was a much better weapon for hunting. After that, feeling better prepared, I headed for the courtyard to wait for the girls.

The girls didn’t waste any time getting ready. They had made quick work of their coffee and met me in the courtyard ready to go in less than ten minutes after I had gone outside to wait.

Each one of them had changed into a long sleeve shirt, jeans, and hiking boots. They all carried their spear and had their pistols tucked into waistbands or pockets for easy access. Paige had even brought along a larger, better stocked, first aid kit than the one in my pack.

They were ready.

Things were tense the second we stepped off the campus and into the woods. The girls were unusually quiet and the blondes jumped at every ambient noise.

The first part of our journey was easy as we took the path towards the stream until we got close to the trap site were Anna and I had found solid tracks the day before. Still no one spoke. They only followed as I picked my way through the brush and branches, shotgun in hand.

The trap site looked unchanged since last time. The track I had first found was still there but it very obviously was not as sharp as it was the previous day. I followed it off in the direction it pointed until I saw the marked tree in the distance.

“This is where Anna and I turned back yesterday,” I whispered as I pointed to the tree.

“So you’re saying we are close then?” Tara asked in a low voice.

“I don’t know,” I said. “But if we can pick up the trail again, we might find the den. None of you have seen or heard any signs of the kitty yet have you?”

“Not yet,” Anna confirmed.

I nodded and continued forward to the tree. I motioned for the others to stay back while I got down on my hands and knees and started to search for tracks.

It didn’t take me long to find evidence of the day old trail, but, at first nothing pointed in a particular direction. Then I found another paw print, and it was fresher than the day old evidence too. It pointed me off to the left, and I stood, motioned for the girls to follow, and headed off in the direction.

“Keep an eye out for any signs that something went this way,” I whispered when the group caught up. “Found a track that pointed me over here but we need more evidence to stay on the trail.”

“What about that?” Bailey asked as she pointed to a tree about ten feet in front of us with several scratches in the bark.

“Perfect,” I said.

The trees thinned out and the terrain around us became more rocky and mountainous. Several small caves and holes dotted the hillside that we found ourselves traveling towards.

“Great, our kitty could be in any one of those little caves,” Bailey moaned.

“Yeah but if we follow the signs, we should be able to find out which one,” I replied in a whisper.

The farther along we went the easier it was to find signs of our prey, which was a good indicator that we were going in the right direction. Then, shortly after we moved fully into the mountainous rocky region, I found fresh blood and fur.

“We’re close,” I said after I crouched down and dipped a finger in a small pool of crimson. It wasn’t warm but wasn’t colagulated either.

“Alright ladies, be on guard,” Anna hissed the order.

More and more bits of old fur and dried blood lead us to a rather large cave opening nestled in the hillside. The smell of rotting meat drifted out from the warm, dark, hole.

“Fan out,” I said. “Create a semi-circle in front of the cave. That way, if the thing tries to slip past me, you can get it before it escapes.”

I raised the shotgun to my shoulder and started towards the cave mouth.

“We got your back,” Paige whispered as I slipped out of the sunlight and into the darkness of the natural cave.

I stopped right inside and gave my eyes time to adjust to the light change. I could hear the hiss of the large cat before I could see, but as I grew accustomed to the dim light, I found myself staring at one of the largest cougars I had ever seen, and it was clear that I was not welcome in its home.

Chapter 7

I pulled the trigger, but the cat was already on the move so the shot tore at the cave instead filling the air with bits of rock and bone. I staggered backwards out of the cave as the creature rushed towards me.

“What’s going on?” Anna yelled.

The cougar roared and leapt out of the darkness.

I fired again but hit nothing but the rocky hillside. Then I lost my hold on the gun as the massive brown cat slammed into my chest.

Bailey screamed, and all the girls went for their pistols as the cat and I hit the ground and rolled backwards down the rocky incline.

We came to a stop with the cat on top of me, and I barely had time to wrap my hands around its throat as it tried to bite at my face. I stared into the creature’s wild eyes as I heard the girls shouting somewhere above me.

I struggled against the snapping and growling cat that tried to claw and bite at me. We bucked and rolled but the beast was stronger than I was, and I would already feel my strength starting to fail.

“Can anyone get a shot?” Paige yelled.

“No, they are moving around too much!” Tara screamed.

I grunted and pushed the cat away from me as it snapped at my face again. Its claws bit into tough earth and tore up large chunks of dirt and grass.

“Someone do something, please,” I shouted.

The cat’s saliva dripped onto my face as it snarled and snapped its teeth. As I took in ragged breaths, I was assaulted by the hot, fetid breath that poured from the cougar’s maw.

The cat on top of me completely blocked my view from my allies, but I hoped that they were moving to do something helpful. I shifted to avoid a claw

I tried to pull my legs up towards my chest in order to get my feet planted on the cougar’s stomach. If I could do that, there was a chance I could launch it off me.

Just then I heard a yell rise up above the sound of the snarling animal and glimpsed Tara for just a moment. Then there was a wet thunk and the cat roared and spun on the platinum blond warrior, and I could see a spear sticking out of its back as it turned.

I took that moment of distraction to grab my knife and I yanked it free from my vest. I was presented an opening as the cougar roared and tried to lunge for the, now screaming, blonde. In that moment I leaned up and slashed its neck. Hot blood poured onto me as the mountain lion shifted its attention to me once more. It wobbled as its life spilled from its neck, but it came in for one last bite aimed at my face. I rolled away and felt the fangs clip my shoulder instead.

Anna and Paige took that moment to charge in and pushed the cat off me and onto the ground.

It slumped over onto its side and let out one last pitiful whine before dying.

“Holy shit,” I grumbled as I sat up. I was covered in blood, and my shoulder hurt like a bitch but the animal was dead.

“Yeah, that was pretty damn close,” Anna said as she helped me to my feet.

“Thanks for the help,” I said as I gave the girls a nod.

Bailey, who stood behind the others, hung her head. She put her pistol away and picked up the spear that she had dropped at her feet.

“Hey, you are included in that statement,” I called out to the hippie blonde.

“Why?” she asked. “It’s not like I really did anything.”

“If you had a clear shot would you have taken a shot at the lion?” I asked.

“Well, yeah,” she said as she looked up at me.

“That’s enough then,” I said as I gave her a smile. “Things just got a little more complicated than intended.”

Bailey smiled and went a little red.

“Yeah that thing was on top of you in seconds,” Paige said.

“Predators are dangerous,” I said with a nod. “I was expecting it to see me coming, but I had thought I could land a solid shot and end this fast.”

“Aw but then we would have missed seeing you wrestle a wild animal,” Tara teased.

“That was kinda fun,” Bailey admitted.

“Yeah, but are you okay?” Paige asked.

“I’m fine,” I said as I looked at my shoulder. It was hard to tell exactly how bad the wound was under the layer of blood that covered my upper body. “Got a small wound, you can patch it up once we get back home.”

“Will you make it back okay?” she asked as she looked me over.

“Oh yeah, it’s just my shoulder,” I assured her.

“Mission accomplished then?” Anna asked with a huge grin on her face.

“Pretty much,” I said with a nod before I walked over and retrieved the shotgun. I slung it over my uninjured shoulder and returned to the dead animal.

“So what, we just carry it back home?” Tara asked as she kicked the cougar.

“Yep,” I said before I bent over, and, with a pained grunt, hefted the creature up onto my shoulder.

“Um, do you want help with that?” Bailey asked as she raised a brow.

“I got it,” I said with a shake of my head. “Though let’s get going. This thing is heavy enough that I don’t want to just stand around with it up on my shoulder.

“Well then, I guess I’ll lead the way,” Anna said. “Everyone ready?”

After a quick check of their gear the girls all nodded.

“Oh yeah, let’s get back before we run into any more wild animals,” Tara said.

“Plus, I need to patch up Tav,” Paige said.

“Think I can watch to see if I can learn anything?” Bailey asked.

“Of course!” Paige replied excitedly.

I grinned and followed the girls through the woods. My shoulder throbbed as the cougar bounced on the wound with every step, but it did very little to impede my good mood.

The whole group kept a more casual pace, and they laughed and talked all because of the dead creature that sat on my shoulder. I noticed Bailey frequently look back at me, smiled, and went bright red before she quickly looked away. It was funny that she was still shy with me after these couple of weeks.

“So what are the plans once we get back to campus?” Anna asked as she glanced over her shoulder at me.

“We need to gut and skin the mountain lion,” I replied. “If Rolly has his new, larger smoker completed we might be able to smoke up this cat.”

“You mentioned something about jerky at some point,” Paige said. “Any chance we could learn how to make some of that?”

“Yeah, jerky would be nice for days like these,” Tara agreed.

“Sure, we can work on making up some jerky,” I said. “I think we will do it with the deer though. I haven't exactly had mountain lion before.”

“Wow, you know so much that sometimes I forget that you have not done everything,” Bailey muttered.

“Well yeah, he hasn’t done you yet,” Tara said with a grin as she winked at her hippie companion.

Bailey went bright red and hid her face from me as the rest of the girls giggled. “That’s not what I meant.”

“Oh I know,” Tara replied. “But I totally couldn’t pass that moment up.”

“You never can,” Anna said with a smirk.

“I don’t mind,” I chimed in. “And don’t worry, I don’t generally turn down new experiences.” I gave Bailey a wink as she turned back around to glance at me. That just caused her to look away again quickly, and I shook my head as I laughed.

“Sounds to me like we are eating cat tonight then,” Anna said.

“So nothing new for Tav then huh?” Paige said with a goofy smile.

Tara laughed while Bailey and Anna groaned.

“That was pretty bad,” I said with a chuckle.

“I thought it was funny,” Tara said with a shrug.

“Well yeah,” Bailey said. “It is something you would say.”

“That’s true,” the platinum blond agreed.

“I am honestly a bit surprised Paige beat you to it,” Anna said.

“I’m kinda surprised Paige said it at all,” I said.

“What can I say, Tara must be influencing me,” Paige joked.

“I would love to take credit for your corruption,” Tara admitted. “Though, for once, I don’t think I’m, like, the one to blame.” She turned to look at me, smirked, and raised an eyebrow.

“Hey, don’t blame this on me!” I exclaimed.

“She was so innocent before you came along though,” Anna said sarcastically.

“For some reason I don’t think that is true,” I said.

“We all know that the nerdy ones are always the biggest freaks,” Tara said with a laugh.

“You don’t know if that’s true,” Paige added quickly as she adjusted her glasses.

“Wow, I was joking,” Tara said. “But you got, like, super defensive super fast. Maybe there is some truth to it after all.”

Paige went bright red and quickened her pace and pulled ahead of the rest of the group.

“Wanna chime in on this subject, Tav?” Anna asked as she watched her brunette friend take the lead.

“Nope,” I said before I shook my head.

“Quite the gentleman,” Bailey said.

“What can I say, I’m old fashioned,” I replied with a wink.

We all laughed as we continued our forest trek, and not long after we arrived back at the campus.

Rolly had been busy building while we were gone and a brand new smoker sat about five yards away from the fire pit. The last one was about the size of a small safe but this one looked more like a large closet or wardrobe. It was more than big enough to hold a deer, a large cat, or several rabbits.

“Nice work,” I said as I dropped the mountain lion onto the grass and took a seat on one of the benches by the fire. I let out a sigh and massaged my wounded shoulder. It had started to stiffen up during the trek back.

“You should have let me look at this before we walked back,” Paige said with a frown before she took a seat next to me, and pulled out her medical bag. It was full of band aids, clean gauze, alcohol pads, antibacterial lotion, medical scissors, and a small sewing kit in case she needed to stitch up larger wounds. She pulled a clean rag and a bottle of peroxide from her backpack, soaked the rag, and started to dab it at my bloody shoulder.

“It’s not that bad,” I said with a shrug.

“That’s for me to judge,” the bookish brunette said as she continued to clean up my shoulder. “Does it hurt?”

“Not enough to slow me down,” I said. “Though carrying a cat on top of it didn’t help much.”

“I could have at least put a bandage over it before you did that,” Paige said as she shook her head.

“What, and ruin his whole tough guy look?” Tara said as she joined us and took a seat.

“Yeah, because we all know it is just not bad ass to get your injuries cleaned,” the braided redhead said sarcastically.

“Dirt and gore are some of the most manly things,” I agreed.

Paige rolled her eyes and wiped enough of the blood away to reveal the actual wound.

There were two angry red gashes in the top of my shoulder, and I winced as Paige poked at them with the peroxide covered rag.

“Well, it looks like you got lucky,” Paige said. “The area is inflamed, but the wound looks to be pretty superficial.  As long as we can keep it clean I think you will be alright. I would suggest getting a bath before bed.”

“Welcome back,” Rolly called out as he walked up. “Looks like, once again, things went well.”

“Yeah, but Tav got hurt being all heroic again,” Bailey said.

“Well if you have to get hurt, that seems the best way to do it,” Rolly chuckled.

“Gave me another chance to practice patching people up,” Paige said as she set down the rag and grabbed a patch of gauze. She applied a liberal amount of antibacterial cream to it and set it gently on top of the wound.

“Well you seem to be doing a fine job,” Rolly said.

“She is,” I confirmed with a nod.

“I think he gets hurt just so Paige can play doctor,” Tara teased.

“As if he needs an excuse for that,” Anna added.

“Plus I don’t think Tav would ever do something dumb like that,” Paige said. “Not even for a pretty girl.” She finished setting the bandage in place with medical tape before she looked up and winked at me.

“I don’t know any guy who hasn’t done something dumb for a girl,” I said. “Depends on how pretty the girl is, though.” I smirked as everyone laughed. “Alright, come on, let’s get this kitty cut up.”

“We could use the nice new smoker that Rolly built once we do,” Bailey said.

“Yeah, it looks nice,” I said to the old man as I stood.

“Thanks, I spent a little more time building this one,” the grey haired man said. “I still wanna reinforce the door so we don’t get a repeat of what happened last night. I will add a nice big lock to this one too.”

“Perfect,” I said.

“Can we use it to make jerky?” Anna asked.

“I have some racks set up inside just for that purpose,” Rolly said with a proud smile.

“Well there you go,” I said. “Today you learn how to make jerky. Though we have to get to the meat first. Anna, Bailey, you two get that thing gutted and skinned.”

“I was afraid you were going to say that,” Bailey groaned.

“It’s okay, it’s just meat now,” Anna said.

“Yeah,” Bailey said quietly. “Let’s just get this done quick.”

“Tara, you and Anna will take most of the entrails and bury them in a nice big hole,” I instructed. “Make sure they are down deep enough that they won't smell as they rot.”

“Alright, what about the head?” Paige asked.

“Take it off too,” I said. “Keep the heart, liver, and the tongue though. I think it’s about time we start making better use of what we hunt.”

“Ew,” Tara said as her face wrinkled with disgust. “Why would we eat something’s heart or tongue?”

“Tastes good,” Rolly said.

“That and they are packed with vitamins and nutrients we don’t get from the regular meat,” I explained.

“You know, eating meat is one thing, but I think eating their organs is a bit too much for me,” Bailey said as she started to cut open the cougar.

“You at least have to try some,” I said. “It is not so different in taste or texture from normal meat. If we put it in a stew, you won't even be able to tell the difference.”

“Fine,” Bailey sighed.

“Well I’m excited to try out some organ,” Anna said.

“Yeah it will be a nice change,” Rolly agreed.

“Good, then let's get to work,” I said. “I’m gonna help rolly get a nice fire going in the bottom of the smoker so we can throw the cat in there tonight.”

“I’ll start grabbing some wood,” Rolly said.

“What do you want us to do once we get this thing skinned?” Anna asked

“I want to go over the butchering process with all of you,” I said. “So give me a shout when it’s naked.” Then I headed off after Rolly and caught up with him as he piled wood up in his arms.

“These girls are really starting to get the hang of all this stuff aren't they?” Rolly asked

“Yeah,” I replied. “Without them I might not have made it back today. The cat was on top of me before I could put a bullet in it. It had me pinned before Tara stepped up and speared the beast.”

“Well good for her,” Rolly said.

I nodded and grabbed an armful of firewood.

Rolly waited for me to finish before we started to walk back towards the smoker together.

“Now that the cougar is out of the way things should go back to normal around here,” I said as we walked.

“I hope so,” the handyman said. “I feel like we have had no end to the excitement of these past few weeks.”

“At least it was nothing we couldn’t handle,” I pointed out.

“With any luck it will stay that way,” Rolly said. “But I think it’s only a matter of time before we have another run in with those bikers.”

“Agreed,” I said. “But I don’t think it will be more than scouting parties until they can figure out where we are.”

We reached the smoker, and Rolly pulled it open to reveal several wire racks, and a couple hooks attached to a 2x4 rafter at the top.

“This is fancy,” I said with an impressed nod.

“Like I said, just spent a little more time with this one was all,” Rolly replied as he knelt and started to fill the pit dug under the smoker with wood. The greying handyman had already put down a bed of paper, dry grass, and small twigs that would light easily.

“You know, we might need to find some more kitchen thermometers,” I said as I started to add my wood to the pit as well. “We can get better results if we can control the temperature.”

“It will mean more work though,” Rolly said. “We would need to try to check it every hour or two.”

“Once everything is set up that shouldn’t be a problem,” I said. “Not between five of us anyway. Already our workload is getting a bit smaller.”

“Tav, we’re ready for you,” Anna called out.

I pulled my head out of the smoker and looked over to see her and Bailey sitting next to the nicely skinned cougar.

“I got it from here,” Rolly said. “Seems like overkill for two of us to start a fire anyway.”

“Good point,” I said with a smile. Then I clapped him on the back, stood, and joined the girls.

“How’s it look?” Bailey asked.

“It looks nicely done,” I said after I knelt down and inspected the meat. It was clear they hadn’t been sloppy with their cuts and there was no excess hair embedded into the meat from improper skinning.

“So how do we cut this thing up?” Anna asked.

“Let me show you,” I said with a smile.

We waited for the other two to join us then, and then over the next half an hour I went through my process for butchering the animal. It was a little sloppy due to my lack of experience with mountain lions, but we pulled out a lot of meat.

“This,” I said as I ran my knife along the top of the spine seperating a long strip of meat from the bone, “is my favorite cut of meat. It’s called the backstrap.”

“What’s so good about it?” Bailey asked.

“Because of where this muscle sits on the body it tends to be very tender and very lean,” I explained. “I haven't found bad backstrap yet, and I have eaten a lot of different animals.”

“Does it make good jerky?” Paige asked.

“Oh yeah,” I said. “But this is dinner tonight. I haven't had mountain lion before and I think the best way to try it is to start with the best part.”

“Sounds like a good plan to me,” Anna said with a large grin. She looked at the pink meat we had piled around us and licked her lips. “I never thought raw meat would ever get me so hungry.”

“Let’s throw some in the salt shed, and slice some up for jerky then,” I said. “Once that’s done we can get dinner going.”

“Well, smokers all ready for some meat,” Rolly called over to us.

“Let’s make jerky already!” Tara exclaimed.

“Alright,” I said as I chuckled and grabbed one of the flanks carved from the kitty. I took it over to one of our benches, set it down, and pulled out my knife. “This is real complicated so pay attention.”

The girls gathered around as I started to cut the flank into thin steaks. Once the flank had been filleted into steaks, I cut those steaks into two inch strips.

“We should make a simple cutting board,” Bailey mused as she watched me work.

“Yeah, because now we need to clean our seat,” Paige agreed with a nod.

“I bet we have some wood we can turn into a basic cutting board,” Rolly said. “I’ll look into it.”

“It can wait until tomorrow,” I said as I finished making strips of mountain lion flank. “This is about it. Now we just need to season this stuff and put it in the smoker.”

“Wait, really?” Anna asked. “That’s so simple though.”

“I know, jerky is pretty easy,” I said. “We will just need to watch it so that it does not dry out more than we want it to.”

“How long before we can eat it?” Tara asked.

“Probably six to eight hours. I cut it nice and thin so that it will dry out quickly.”

“Can I grab the spices?” Bailey asked excitedly.

“Sure,” I said as I smiled at her. “If it helps, I hear that mountain lion tastes a lot like pork.”

“Yeah, that means nothing to me,” she said as she raised an eyebrow. “Thanks though.”

“If you’re okay with it, I could go along and help you pick out spices,” Tara offered.

“That would be cool,” Bailey said with a smile. “Thanks.”

The two girls headed off towards the dining hall while I took the meat strips and headed for the smoker. I set them on the racks in an organized and evenly spaced fashion.

“Until the jerky is done, we probably don’t want to smoke anything else in here,” I said.

“How come?” Paige asked.

“Airflow,” Rolly answered. “You pack these things too full and nothing will get the proper amount of heat and smoke. We don’t wanna ruin our first batch of jerky by putting too much around it.”

“What he said,” I said with a smirk as I pointed at the old handyman. “Though we do need something to clean up with. The one problem with some raw meat is we need to sanitize after using it. Paige can we borrow some alcohol pads?”

She nodded as her messy brunette bun bounced on her head and pulled her medical supplies out again. She got a handful of the desired item and handed them to me. “Here you go.”

“Thank you,” I said as I ripped one open and started to clean my hands. The rabbit, deer, and fish we caught so far were not exactly clean but I knew for a fact that a simple wash with soap would keep me from getting sick after handling them. Though with something unknown like mountain lion I did not want to take my chances. Once I was done, I tossed the dirty wipes into the fire where they sizzled and burned.

“I’m gonna get the rest of this stuff put away and check the temp in the shed,” Anna said before she took the rest of the cougar meat, except for the backstrap, and carried it off to the salt shed.

“That means we can start dinner, right?” Paige asked.

“Yeah,” I said with a nod before I grabbed a cast iron pan that sat in the grass and tossed it on top of the fire. “Should be just about dark by the time it’s ready to eat.”

“What are we going to do with the rest of our evening then?” Paige asked as she took a seat and repacked her bag.

“Well I don’t know about the rest of you but I think I’m going to go to bed early,” I said. “Turns out wrestling a wild animal really takes it outta you.”

“Don’t forget to take a bath,” Paige instructed. “You need to keep that shoulder clean.”

“Yes doctor,” I said with a grin.

Then Bailey and Tara returned with a small selection of spices.

“Oooh, are we getting food started?” Tara asked.

“Seems we got back just in time,” Bailey added.

“Yeah,” I said with a nod. “What spices did you get?”

“Cumin and cayenne pepper,” Tara said. “We have done a lot of lighter spices lately, and I thought a blend of the two would, like, work really well on jerky.”

“That sounds really good,” Paige said.

“Agreed,” Rolly added. “Though at the moment almost anything sounds good.”

“Don’t worry,” I said as I placed the backstrap into the hot pan. “Dinner will be ready soon enough. I think some beans and alcohol might go well with our victory meal. Don’t you guys think so?”

“Hell yeah,” Anna said as she emerged from the salt shack. “We hunted a fucking mountain lion, of course we drink and celebrate!”

“Well I better go get my whiskey then,” Rolly said with a grin. “Don’t worry, I’ll bring back some stuff for the rest of ya too.”

“You’re the best, Rolly,” Bailey said with a large smile.

“Yeah, in case we have not said it in a while, thanks for everything Rolly,” Anna said.

“Aw come on, don’t get all sappy on me,” The handyman said with a chuckle.

“Hey, we just want you to know you are appreciated,” Paige said.

“Thanks, but it’s not necessary,” Rolly said as he quickly turned in an attempt to hide his red cheeks. “I’ll be right back.” He quickly shuffled off before anyone could say anything else.

“I think you embarrassed the poor guy,” I said with a chuckle.

“We meant what we said though,” Paige said with a shrug.

“I know, but I have a feeling that the man is not used to such overt kindness,” I said.

“That’s kinda sad,” Bailey mused. “Well, I better spice this jerky. Anyone want to help?”

“I think you’ve got this,” Anna said as she looked at me. “Have any tips for her?”

“Not really,” I confessed. “Try not to go crazy with the spices. We want the flavor but if you add too much it kinda just makes the meat a salt lick.”

“Good to know,” Bailey said as she moved to the smoker. She opened it and used her spices to season the strips of cougar drying on the racks.

Rolly came back with alcohol, and beans as I finished cooking the cat. We gathered around as the sky grew orange, passed around the bottles, and started to eat. By the time our food was gone it was the light blue of early evening.

“So what did you think?” I asked.

“That was pretty good,” Tara said. “But it could have used some sauce. It was a little dry.”

“Yeah, this stuff was way leaner than it usually would be,” I said with a nod. “What’d you think of it, Bailey?”

“Yeah, it was really good,” The blonde hippie said. “Really tender, just like you said.”

“Good,” I said with a nod. “Well, I'm gonna go grab a late bath before turning in for the night. I trust that you all can take care of the fire.”

“Of course, you go take care of yourself,” Rolly said as he sat there with his bottle of bourbon.

“You think you’ll be safe out there alone?” Tara asked.

“Yeah, we took care of our biggest danger in the woods for now,” I said as I stood. “If I’m gone too long, you can send someone in after me.”

“Well then don’t be gone too long,” Anna said with a grin. “I want to sleep, not chase your lost ass around a forest.”

“Well then I'll watch my step,” I said with a laugh, waved, and headed for my room.

I gathered a change of clothes, a lantern, and an extra bandage, and disappeared into the woods. The night was peaceful and reminded me of why I had decided to go off the grid in the first place.

I arrived at the stream, and lit the lantern before I stripped, and stepped into the chilly water. It was still soothing despite the water temperature and it felt nice to scrub off all the blood I had been covered in from the fight. My shoulder stung as I scrubbed out my wound, but I gritted my teeth and really dug in there to ensure no dirt was left in my flesh.

Once I was clean, I took a seat on the edge of the stream and let myself air dry as I stared at the stars where they could be seen through the trees. For the first time in several days the area felt peaceful, but there was still a lot of work to do, so I soon got up, put my clothes back on, and headed back.

Tomorrow would be a new day, with more survival tasks to do.

Chapter 8

By the time I got up the next morning the sun was already well into the sky, and my room was bright with light. My shoulder was sore and felt stiff as I pushed myself upright. There was a good chance I would be feeling this one for the next several days. I was surprised that no one had come to get me, and quickly got up, got dressed, stuffed my daily gear into my pack, and headed out into the hall. No one was in the common room when I got there, and after I knocked on Rolly’s door it became clear that he was up as well.

I swore to myself, hurried down the stairs, and sprinted across campus and into the library. I was greeted by the smell of fresh cooked meat and hot coffee.

“Morning sleeping beauty,” Tara teased from where she sat on the edge of the table.

The others sat around her dressed for another day of work, and on the table was a large breakfast spread and a steaming pot of coffee.

“Sorry I was late,” I said. “I guess yesterday took more out of me than I thought.”

“Hey, don’t worry about it,” Bailey said with her usual bright smile.

“Yeah, it let us sneak down here and make you breakfast,” Anna said.

“You didn’t have to do that,” I said as I took a seat at the table with the rest of them. “Plus, I am setting a bad example.”

“Relax,” Rolly said. “You wrestled a wild animal yesterday. You are allowed to sleep in a little.”

“Yeah,” Paige said. “How’s that shoulder doing?”

“Stiff,” I said as I rolled it. “Though you did a good job, and I think it’s gonna heal up just fine. It’s really nice of you guys to do all this for me.” I pulled over a plate of hot meat and nuts.

“Honestly, this is sorta the least we can do,” Anna said. “You have done so much for us, and we thought now was the perfect time to do something for you in return.”

“Don't expect us to make a habit of this though,” Tara said. “We still expect you to be the first one up most mornings.”

“Yeah, and you should probably eat quickly since there is always so much to do,” Paige teased.

“Duly, noted,” I said with a laugh as I poured myself a cup of coffee. “Thanks guys.” My tone was soft and sincere, and I really hoped they understood how much this meant to me. It was a simple gesture, sure, but it really showed how much they really cared. It was one of the first moments they had really gone out of their way to do something just for me, and they gave up extra sleep to do it too.

“How was the stream at night?” Bailey asked. “I bet it was beautiful.”

“It was rather peaceful,” I agreed with a nod. “I sat there a while and enjoyed the sight of the stars while I dried off.”

“Man I love the outdoors,” the blonde hippie mused with a smile and a distant look in her eye.

“Yeah, the forest is nice, but I'm still glad we have actual buildings to sleep in,” Rolly said. “The older I get the more I appreciate even a crappy bed to sleep on at night.”

“If you know how to do it right, you can make a pretty comfortable bed almost anywhere,” I commented.

“Well that's a skill I don't have,” the handyman replied with a chuckle. “Maybe you can show me sometime.”

“Maybe you can show all of us sometimes,” Paige said.

“Sounds fun,” I said. “Maybe once we have everything in place, we can take a group camping trip. I could teach you skills more specific to wilderness survival, and we could enjoy a night out under the stars.”

“That sounds perfect,” Bailey said with a sigh.

“It might if there were not, like, so many bugs out there,” Tara said.

“Ah come on, bugs aren't so bad,” Paige said. “There are a couple great books on different bug species here in the library. I can get them for you if you want.”

“Why would I want that?” Tara asked as she raised an eyebrow.

“Oh, sorry, I should explain,” Paige said. “When something weirds me out, like bugs or whatever, the way I get over it is by learning about it. The world is a lot less scary once you explore it a little deeper.”

“Man I wish it worked that way for me,” Anna said. “I feel like my brain takes that same information and applies it in the opposite way. Once I start learning the facts they only serve to validate my fears.”

“Huh,” Tara said. “Maybe I will have to try it sometime and see how it works for me.” The platinum blonde shrugged. “Thanks for the idea, Paige.”

We ate, drank coffee, and laughed for longer than we did any other morning. It felt right considering all we had been through recently, and our needs were met well enough that a lazy morning now and again would not kill us. However, after I finished my food, I stood and headed for the whiteboard.

“This place is starting to look really nice,” I said as I looked over the plans written out. “We have a lot of fundamentals in place, and in a couple of days I think we will have the start of a beautiful garden and a sheltered gun range. This is just the start though, because until common concerns such as water, food, and safety become as mundane as they were before the EMP, we are not finished.”

“What do you mean?” Tara asked

“I mean we still need to find a way to store our clean water, and a filtration system would be nice so that we could always have some water being prepared even when we don't want to start a fire,” I explained. “Things are obviously better, but we can’t rest yet.”

“So what's the plan now then?” Rolly asked.

“Because of the mountain lion we got a little lax on our traps. So Tara, you and Bailey go out and take care of that,” I ordered. “Don't forget to bring some wire because several of the sites need a brand new trap. It also wouldn't hurt to scout for new trails around the area too. Moving our traps around every week or two will probably lead to better results as long as we can keep finding fresh signs of game.

“Cool, so Paige and I are sparring this morning then, yeah?” Anna asked.

“Not today,” I said as I shook my head. “Paige, I need you to gather up any area maps you might have found. That is your first priority, but after that I want you to go out and work on the garden. Bailey got it started and marked out but I am sure there is some work that still can be done.”

“What are the maps for?” Paige asked. “Are you going somewhere?”

“I am,” I said. “And Anna is going with me.”

Everyone turned to look at Anna who sat there with a grin of barely hidden excitement.

“Where are we going?” The athletic redhead asked.

“Well, now that the campus seems safe again I think it is time that we go and explore the surrounding area,” I said. “We should be able to find some isolated houses tucked into the mountains that could provide more guns, ammo, and other valuable supplies.”

“Why are you taking me?” Anna asked. “I am sure any one of us could be of use to you out there.”

“Yes, but you are the strongest, and we want to be able to carry back as much as possible,” I explained. “I have no idea what sort of loot, if any, we might find but for this initial adventure, so I need someone who can carry as much as I can.”

“I appreciate, like, not being picked for this duty,” Tara said.

“I thought you might,” I said with a small laugh. “You will all go out with me at some point. These trips are a great chance for me to teach you about pathfinding and how to read maps.”

“Oh man, that sounds like fun,” Paige said.

“The hiking part of this sounds fun,” Bailey added. “Not sure how well I would do with the map stuff though, I usually stuck to trails.”

“It's not as hard as people think it is,” I assured her.

“Don't worry, I will let you know how true that is later today,” Anna said with a grin.

“I don't think you will get the chance to do it today,” I said.

“What do you mean?” The athlete asked.

“People generally don't build isolated houses less than a day’s trip from a college campus,” Rolly chimed in.

“Exactly, we will probably be gone a few days.” I said.

“Why does that sound like such a long time?” Tara asked.

“Because it is,” Paige said. “We haven't gone a single day without Tav since he first saved us.”

“It's alright,” I cooed. “You are far more capable than you were when I first met you, and we have a great home established here.”

“What if something goes wrong?” Bailey asked as her eyes went wide.

“Nothing is going to go wrong,” I assured her.

“Yeah, but, like, what if it does?” Tara asked.

“Come on now,” Rolly said as he rolled his eyes. “We got along for a long time before Tav came alone. We can do it again for a couple days. We are set up way better now than we were back then.”

“What if the bikers show up?” Paige asked?

“Then you hide like we talked about the other day,” I said. “You let them poke around and then you let them leave. All we have to do to stay safe from people like them is to stay hidden. They have no reason to bother us if they don't know where we are.”

“That makes sense,” Paige said with a nod. “Sorry, I just got nervous at the thought of you not being here to protect us.”

“It's okay, but that's why I have been training you all how to protect yourselves,” I said. “You are not defenseless children. You’re badass women who have managed to survive all that has been thrown at them thus far.”

“Yeah, we have been through a lot,” Anna said. “Come on, we are better than this.”

“You're right,” Tara said. “There is no reason to worry anymore. As long as we keep doing what we have been doing everything is going to be good. After all, we are getting pretty damn good at this.”

“That's the spirit,” I said with a grin. “I wouldn't be doing this if I felt you wouldn't be safe while I was gone.”

“This is also a good chance to show him what we can do without him,” Rolly said. “We have a list of stuff there, and books on how to do anything we don't already know. I see no reason we can't maybe knock a project or two off the list before he comes back.”

“Alright, now I'm getting a little excited about this whole thing,” Paige said with a large grin.

“Yeah, plus I want to see what sorts of goodies they can, like, find out there,” Tara said. “My dad has a ski cabin in Aspen, if they find half as much cool stuff as his cabin has it will be awesome.”

“Good, then I think we are done here for now,” I said. “Let's get to work.”

The girls cheered headed to get their tasks done. Bailey and Tara grabbed their spears, put on their backpacks, and headed outside. Paige disappeared into the library in search of maps, and Anna waited close by with a grin.

“What are you waiting for?” I asked with a smile.

“Well, you never told me what I should bring,” she said.

“I suppose I didn't,” I started. “But I would say that you want enough food and water for three days, your pistol and spear, a flashlight, and a compass.”

“Is that it?” She asked before she raised an eyebrow.

“We want to pack light,” I explained. “The less we take with us the more we can shove into our packs. I'm going to hollow out a few duffle bags and throw them in my backpack so we have more storage.”

“But like, do I want a change of clothes or a tent or something?” Anna asked.

“Nope, with any luck we can stay in the houses that we raid,” I said. “If we don't find any, then I can build us enough shelter to sleep comfortably.”

“Alright, I guess I better go get packed,” the athletic woman said with a grin. Then she hopped up and sprinted from the library.

“Anything in particular you want me to get done while you’re gone?” Rolly asked when we were alone.

“I trust you judgement,” I said. “You know what needs to be done around here.”

“It's nice to know you have faith in me,” The handyman said. “What about our morning meetings? You want to write out tasks for everyone while you are gone or something?”

“Not really,” I said. “I think that the girls can govern themselves for a little while.”

“Sounds good,” he replied with a nod. Rolly then sighed and pushed himself away from the table. He struggled to his feet and let out a groan. “I hope your trip goes well.”

“Thank you,” I said. “Have a productive few days without me.”

“Oh I will,” the old man said as he started towards the door. “I always do.”

Shortly after Rolly left the building Paige emerged from the stacks with several rolled up maps tucked under one arm. She held her glasses on with the other as she sprinted towards me.

“You find anything good?” I asked

“Oh yeah,” she said as she set the maps onto the table. She spread our four individual maps and each one had the campus property lines on it along with several other parcels of owned land nearby marked. “I cannot guarantee that anything is in any of these marked spots but the fact that someone owns that land should be a good sign, right?”

“It should be, yeah.” I said with a nod. “These maps will be perfect for these little adventures.”

“How many do you think you will try to hit?” Paige asked as she leaned over the table and studied the maps. “Some of these places are really far off the beaten path.”

“I think the goal will always be to scout out one or two locations,” I said. “If they are full enough, we will take a group trip there at a later point.”

“Well I am excited to see what you guys find,” Paige commented. “Who knows what sort of places or people you might find out there.”

“Let's hope that all the stories we return with are good ones,” I said with a chuckle. “Thanks for your help. I have what I need from you for now. You can head off and start working on the garden.”

“Alright,” Paige said before she got up and left the building.

I rolled up the maps once more and headed back to my room. Then I emptied my pack of everything that had been in it before and gathered what I felt I would need for the trip. I packed the hand charged flashlight, my small first aid kit, and I tucked two compasses into my vest. I made sure both my spare magazines for the black 9mm Springfield XD were loaded and added them to the bag as well. I carried the Springfield in the holster in my waistband and had my knife sheathed on my vest. I decided against bringing the shotgun in the off chance that they needed it here. I was more than sure that Anna and I could take care of any trouble we ran into with nothing but our pistols. The last thing I added were two empty duffle bags.

After my bag was packed, I headed out to the courtyard and checked the smoker. The meat strips had turned into a nice dry jerky overnight, and I wrapped a bundle of them in foil and added them to my bag along with three cans of beans and the same number of water bottles. I planned to forage while on this trip, but I wanted to ensure that if we found nothing we still had food.

Everyone met back up around noon. Anna stood there with a grin on her face as she clutched at both straps of her backpack and rocked on her heels. She was clearly excited that I picked her to go with me.

“Okay, we are ready to head out,” I said to the others. “As I said earlier, we will be gone a few days. That means that you don't need to worry if we don't come back tonight.”

“Question?” Bailey asked. “When is it okay to worry, exactly?”

“Give us three days,” I said with a chuckle. “If, at the end of the third day, we haven't returned then you could think about maybe coming in after us.”

“Alright,” the blond hippie agreed with a nod.

“You'll be fine,” Rolly said. “Plus it will be hard to miss you when we are having so much fun here.”

“Oh man, that was such a grandpa thing to say,” Paige said with a smile as she shook her head.

“He’s right though,” Tara said. “There is a lot for us to do here still and without you here to distract me I might get more of it done.”

“Well I’m sorry I slow you down so much,” I chuckled.

“I don’t think it’s your fault that this one can’t stop daydreaming about you naked,” Paige said with a grin.

“On that note, I think we should get going,” Anna said with a laugh.

“Probably a good idea,” I agreed with a nod.

“Have fun you two!” Bailey exclaimed as she waved wildly at us.

“Thanks,” I said as I returned the wave and started off towards the woods.

“Just don’t have too much fun,” Tara teased.

“We’ll see,” Anna replied as she turned back and winked at the platinum blond.

The girls giggled, and Rolly rolled his eyes as we disappeared into the forest.

The first plot I had chosen to investigate was about four hours south of the campus. The land had been purchased over forty years ago, and there was little to indicate what sort of plans the buyers had for the land. My hope was that it was a simple cabin. It would give us a place to sleep for the night and should house some camping supplies if nothing else.

“I have never been out this direction,” Anna said as she picked her way through the forest behind me. “I always wanted to explore the area but had never really had the chance to slip away before the world kinda ended.”

“It sounds like you kept yourself a bit too busy back before the EMP,” I said as I stopped to check the map.

“Back then it seemed important to stay busy,” she responded with a shrug. “I needed to be the best so I could further my athletic career. It feels silly now.”

“Hey, that seemingly silly choice prepared you for this whole scenario,” I said. “Leave the past in the past and worry more about what’s in front of us.”

“You’re right,” Anna said “Sorry, something about being in the forest and taking nice long hikes gets me all introspective. “

“I know that feeling,” I said with a grin. “It’s alright though we have quite a bit of hiking ahead of us and plenty of time to talk. My solutions are usually just a little simpler than most people want. Turns out the answer of, just don’t do that, that doesn’t always go over well.” I looked back at Anna and grinned.

“You just like to be direct,” the redhead chuckled. “But I think I'm good for now. I would rather learn about this pathfinding stuff.” She walked up beside me and pulled out her own compass. “Tell me how to make sense of this map.”

“Well, what we have here is a topographical map,” I explained as I handed her the map. “These rings help to denote elevation and give you an idea of the terrain you might be going through.”

“I know some of this,” Anna said. “This here is the compass rose. That helps gives us cardinal directions to make the map easier to understand, and this over here is the map key to explain the symbols such as roads and railroads. How am I doing so far?”

“So far so good,” I said with a nod. “One of the important parts of navigating with a map is to orient the map with your compass. To do that just turn the map until north on the map is pointed in the same direction as north on your compass.”

“Oh, yeah that is pretty easy,” Anna said as she shifted the map around in her hands. “So, assuming the place we are heading for is the spot you have circled, we need to keep heading south. The direction we’re pointed.”

“Exactly,” I said. “Can you tell distance?”

“Um….” Anna scanned the map for a moment before she found the distance key on the side. She used her finger to try to estimate distance but with little success. “Alright, what simple trick makes this thing easier?”

“Use your compass,” I said as I tapped the tool. “The marks on the side are there specifically to help you judge distance.”

“Doh,” Anna sighed. “I should have known that the answer was something dumb and simple.”

“It’s okay,” I said with a chuckle. “This is a learning experience. Until we can find any landmarks, there is not much more we can do with the map except to head south. If we can find some landmarks, I will show you how to try to triangulate our position on the map.”

“That sounds slightly more complicated,” Anna said. “But let me guess, it’s all done with this compass?” She held up the item for emphasis and grinned.

“Yes it is,” I said with a grin as I folded up the map and continued on. “Really, the most important part of navigation is to know your directions. With a compass that is easy, but you cannot always count on your compass.”

“Right, sometimes magnetic metals can mess it up,” Anna said. “I remember that from when I was a kid.”

“Yeah, but as long as you can get your bearings and find north you can get out of most situations. Like right now we know that home is north of here.”

“Well how do we know where north is without our compass then?” Anna asked. “Does that moss thing actually work?”

“No, moss seems to grow pretty much where it pleases,” I said. “I don’t know where that idea started but I am sure it has done more harm than good at this point. My favorite way to find direction is the sun.”

“Sun rises in the east and sets in the west, that’s simple enough,” Anna agreed. “So you just check the placement of the sun and oriente yourself from there?”

“More or less,” I said. “Though the sun only rises true east on two days of the year. Right now we are heading towards summer so the sun is rising and setting northeast and northwest.”

“Huh, people really never go over that part of the saying.”

“It’s not generally important,” I shrugged. “At least you don’t have to worry about any area besides this one. The slant of the rising and setting sun is different depending on your location and Hemisphere.”

“Oh geez, did you have to learn all of this in the Rangers?” the redhead asked.

“Yeah, we never knew where we were going to go next and had to be ready to navigate through any sort of terrain with very light supplies,” I explained.

“Damn, that sounds pretty hardcore,” Anna mused. “How on earth did you remember all of this stuff?”

“Well we did a lot of applied learning,” I said with a laugh. “Getting to test what I learned in potentially life ending scenarios helped to galvanize the information in my mind.”

“That makes sense,” Anna said. “It has been easier to learn knowing that my survival depends on it.”

“You have all adapted well to the situation,” I said. “I have been impressed with all of you.”

“Thanks,” Anna said before she smiled, went red, and focused on her feet as we marched on.

An hour into our hike, we started to head uphill. Most of these locations were set on the top of small mountains or hills, and our first stop was no exception. The trees thinned out around us as we climbed higher, but never disappeared completely. The ground was rougher and more rocky and we found ourselves having to move slower to ensure that we didn’t misstep and tumble back down the hill.

Anna stopped and took a deep breath as she looked at the sky. She pulled out a water bottle and took a small drink. She wiped the sweat from her brow and continued onward.

“Doing alright?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Anna huffed. “I’ve done far worse hikes, but I was also in a little better shape then.”

“Yeah, I figured this would be a nice workout,” I said.

“I have been wanting to do more of that,” Anna admitted.

“Come on, the first place should be up at the top of this hill,” I said. “Wanna race me to top?”

“You’re on,” Anna smiled wider than I had seen her smile since my arrival. She took a second and stretched as I started to sprint up the hill.

Each of my long strides carried me farther up the hill and farther away from my athletic companion. I kept my eyes fixed forward on the path ahead of me so as not to misstep.

“On your left,” Anna yelled.

I chanced a glance behind me and saw her rocketing up the hill. I grinned and went to run faster but as my front foot hit the round, I felt a rock slip out from under me. I stumbled forward, fell onto my knees, and my redheaded companion cheered as she passed me.

“You should have kept your eyes on the prize!” Anna exclaimed.

I chuckled, pushed myself upright, and brushed off my pants. There was no recovering from that little fall, not against Anna anyway. So I went for a casual sprint to finish out this race.

“What’s the matter old man?” Anna yelled down to me as she reached the summit. “Can’t keep up?”

“You know, I am pretty sure I would have hit the top first if you had not caused me to fall,” I replied.

“Guess you shoulda been more careful,” Anna laughed. She threw her hands into the air and cheered as I joined her at the top.

“So how long am I going to have to hear about this defeat?” I asked with a grin.

“We’ll see,” Anna said with a shrug. “I won’t gloat nearly as long if you can manage to beat me next time.”

“Oh, I didn’t know there was going to be a next time,” I said as I pulled out my water bottle and took a drink.

“You just unleashed a monster, Tav,” she said. “I got a taste of competition and I want more.”

“I clearly should have thought about this more before I challenged you,” I joked.

Anna grinned and crouched to catch her breath.

“Well, the first place location should be just up ahead,” I said as I pointed into the trees. “Let’s go see if there is anything there.” I put away my water and headed through the trees.

“I’m right behind you,” Anna said.

It quickly became clear that something was wrong, because the closer we got to whatever waited us the worse the trees looked. At first I didn’t think anything of how few leaves clung to the branches of the surrounding trees, but a couple minutes later the trees around me were almost bare. The trees had also taken on a sickly grey color, and the branches were thin and frail.

“What the fuck is this,” Anna whispered.

“I don’t know,” I said. “It can’t be good though.” I pulled my pistol and chambered a round. “Keep your eyes open.”

Up ahead I could make out what looked to be a cabin. I approached carefully and took cover behind a large, sick, tree at the edge of the clearing the building sat in.

It looked like a traditional old hunting cabin complete with a deer skull hanging over the front door. The whole place was in disrepair, and it appeared like a stiff breeze might collapse the entire thing. Every window was covered by rotting boards, and every so often the cabin creaked for seemingly no reason. Despite all of that, it seemed like the building could be occupied. The ground the building sat on looked as dead and blighted as the trees that surrounded the place, and there was a foul stink in the air.

“I think we found a meth house,” I hissed.

“If that's true I don’t want to meet whoever might be inside,” Anna whispered.

“Agreed,” I replied.

“So what do we do?” she asked.

“Well, there is a chance that no one is home,” I said. “I’m going to go see if I can peek inside. You stay put.”

“Gladly,” Anna said. “I’ll cover you from here,”

“Alright, but no guns,” I said with a sigh. “If it is a meth house any misplaced shots could cause this whole place to go up.”

“Shit,” Anna muttered. “I don’t like this, Tav.”

“Me neither, but this could be a good place to find guns,” I whispered before I peeked around the tree at the cabin again. Then, once I felt safe that no one was out there, I pulled jogged to one of the boarded up cabin windows to sneak a peek inside.

Chapter 9

I pressed myself against the cabin and listened for a minute, but I heard no indication of someone inside. Then I looked back at Anna, gave her a thumbs up, and leaned up to look in through one of the windows. All of what I could see was covered in a thick layer of dust, and there was an acrid shrap smell that lingered in the air.

“Is anyone in there?” Anna hissed at me from her place in the trees.

“Doesn’t look like it,” I said as I stood up and waved her over. “Let’s go have a look inside.”

The redhead scanned the area one last time before charging out of the trees and over to my position. Her nose wrinkled as soon as she got next to me and she shook her head to try to clear away the smell.

“What is that?” She asked.

“Smells like some sort of chemical cocktail. I think I was right about this being a meth house.” I walked over to the door and pulled it slowly open. I leaned in and peered inside before I took a step inside.

The main room was musty and covered in thick layers of dust. Some old trash sat discarded in the corners of the room, and empty beer cans were sprinkled randomly across the hardwood floors. There was a single dirty couch sitting in front of a cold stone fireplace, and several animal skulls hung on the thin walls. A single deer bust hung crooked over the fire’s hearth, but it too was covered in thick dust, and a cheap trucker hat had been tucked between its antlers.

“This place looks like every cabin in every horror movie I have ever seen,” Anna said as she peeked in too.

“Afraid?” I asked with a grin as I looked over to her.

“Unnerved maybe, but I know you’ll keep me safe,” she said with a chuckle.

“Well then follow me and stick close,” I said. “It looks pretty long abandoned, so I think we should be fine.”

“Alright, but if someone in a mask holding a knife runs after us you better shoot him,” she joked.

“Let’s just hope that I can kill it with bullets,” I replied before I took my first step onto the spongy wooden floor. It creaked under my weight and barely felt like it would support me as I tried to move gently forward.

“Please tell me we don’t need to search through the trash and shit,” Anna said as she gingerly stepped in behind me.

“Oh, hell no,” I said. “I don’t think there is any situation where I would think that was a good idea.”

“Thank god,” Anna while she batted away a fly buzzing past her beautiful face. “Just being in here is bad enough.”

“Move slow,” I instructed. “There could be traps anywhere.”

“Traps?” Anna replied “Why am I not surprised.”

“Meth heads go to crazy lengths to keep people away from their stuff,” Every step we took stirred up more dust as we crept through the first room.

“You know, I think this place is actually scarier than anything I have experienced up to this point,” Anna said. “Like I legitimately feel like I just stepped into a horror movie.”

“Trust me when I tell you that this is nothing,” I said. “I have been in college dorms more disgusting than this place. Places like this usually have a nice stash of guns in them, and we can use the extra weapons.”

“I think it’s an atmosphere thing,” she said. “I just feel like we are going to get to a basement and find some horrible creature or cannibal man chained up.”

“Don’t let your imagination get the better of you,” I said. “This really is just an old dusty cabin, and there is no such thing as monsters.”

“I don’t know, I think we could safely call the bikers monsters,” Anna said. “I mean, they took off a man’s head, and burned down a police station.”

“They are animals, calling them monsters gives them too much credit,” I said.

The far side of the main room ended in a threshold that led into what looked to be a kitchen and a dark hallway. I clicked on my flashlight and checked down the hallway to see a partially open door that led into a bathroom. The hallway itself was littered with more empty beer bottles and a couple of magazines. There was a second door on the right side of the hall, but it had been boarded up.

“Anything good down there?” Anna asked.

“Not really,” I said as I shook my head. “Not unless you want to check out some drug addicts’ bathroom.”

“Oh god no,” Anna groaned. “I have a feeling it would be worse in there than it is here.”

“You’re probably right,” I said. “Come on, let’s check out this kitchen.”

“Lead on, Boss,” Anna said.

I turned away from the hallway and stepped into a sizable kitchen. Everything in here had once been white, but now seemed to be stained a sickly yellow color. The sink was piled high with used dishes, and even more beer cans covered the countertops.

“God, whoever lived here liked to drink,” Anna muttered.

“Too bad they didn’t save any for us,” I joked.

“Please, as if I would drink anything we found in a dusty old cabin like this,” Anna replied.

There was an old school fridge sitting in one corner with a small brown sludge dripping out of the bottom, and there was another opening at the back of the room.

“What do you think happened to whoever lived here?” Anna asked.

“Based on what we have seen so far I would guess whoever owned this place got hungry after the EMP and went out in search of food,” I said.

Some cans on the counter top shifted, and a couple of them rolled off and bounced across the dirty linoleum floor.

“What was that?” Anna gasped as she pressed up against me.

“I don’t know,” I said as I aimed my pistol at the countertop.

A couple more cans dropped onto the floor as a large rat scurried over the countertop and ran out the broken window behind the sink.

I let out a breath and chuckled as I lowered my gun.

“Looks like we are not the only ones looking for scraps,” Anna said.

“Yeah, I’m surprised we haven't seen more of them.”

It was hard to sneak through the kitchen due to the flooring. It was somehow both sticky and slick and every time I pulled my foot up there was an audible sucking noise. As I passed the fridge I was hit by the smell of whatever was rotting inside it. I grimaced and kept going, but I heard Anna gag a moment later.

“You okay?” I asked.

“I’ll be fine,” she said. “I was just not prepared for the smell.”

“Yeah, it’s pretty bad,” I agreed. “Just resist the urge to open the fridge and find out what’s inside.”

“Aw man, I really wanted to see what could cause such a smell,” Anna replied in mock disappointment.

I chuckled and shook my head.

“You know, I could see how this might have once been a pretty cool place to come chill,” Anna said. “Like, if everything was clean I could see the appeal of coming to this place with my friends and a case of beer to escape for a weekend.”

“What about that horror movie vibe?” I asked.

“Well, I think that would sort of be part of the appeal,” she said. “I used to think it was fun to be afraid.”

“You don’t now though?” I asked

“Nah, there are more than enough scary moments in real life now,” she explained.

I stepped through the opening on the far side of the kitchen and found myself standing at the top of a set of stairs that led into complete darkness. An acrid stench floated up from whatever waited in the darkness below.

Anna joined me at the top of the stairs and shook her head. “I hope whatever is down there is worth all this.”

“Me too,” I said.

I pulled out my flashlight, clicked it on, and shined it down the stairs. The wooden stairs were dotted with dead flies and there looked to be a yellow haze in the air at the bottom.

“Well this must be where they made the meth,” Anna said with a sigh.

“Yeah, I would try not to breathe when we’re down there,” I suggested.

“Oh yeah, good idea,” Anna said sarcastically as she rolled her eyes.

“Alright, same rules, stay close and watch your step,” I said. “Who knows what else we might find down here.”

“Right behind you,” my redheaded companion said before she nudged me forward.

I moved slowly down the stairs with my flashlight in one hand and knife in the other. As I reached the bottom, the harsh smell of the yellow burned my nose and made my eyes water. I took shallow breaths in an attempt to take in as little of whatever this stuff was as possible.

I scanned the room with my light as Anna made her way down the stairs behind me.

The basement was made up of a large central room, but there were three more closed doors set into the rotting wood plank walls. A full set of equipment needed to make meth sat dormant on several large tables in the middle of the room. All the ingredients one might need for the drug were scattered throughout the room, and a filthy, well-worn cot was pushed into the corner under the stairs. A jug half full of yellow liquid, and a water bottle sat beside it. Compared to the cabin above this main room was almost clean except for the large number of dead flies that decorated the place.

“How is this room just as creepy as the others even though it doesn’t have any of the old skulls?” Anna asked.

“I think it’s all the dead flies,” I said.

“Yeah, what’s up with that?” she followed up.

“I think it’s the air,” I replied. “I think we should finish this fast, I don’t want to breathe this stuff any longer than I have to.”

I headed left, around the tables, towards the first door, but felt Anna grab my shoulder.

“Wait,” she whispered and pointed up at the ceiling above me.

My eyes went wide as I shined the flashlight on several, rust eaten, kitchen knives attached to some sort of swinging pole tucked up between the floor joists.

I shined the light around and found another tripwire setup in front of me. If Anna had not said anything I might have ended up with a chest full of stab wounds. This was why it paid to bring backup.

“Nice spot,” I said. A quick inspection of the trap showed me that it was easily disabled, so I reached up, held the pole in place, and cut the wire that triggered it. Then I guided the pole down and let it hang there.

“Well I hope you remember to be careful,” she chided.

“I think you might have mentioned it, yeah,” I said with a small smile. Then I went to the first door and pulled it open only to be greeted by a fresh wave of stench. The interior of the first room was covered in plastic bags full of shit, and plastic bottles of piss.

“Don’t look in there,” I said before I slammed the door shut, hunched over, and gagged as I tried to fight the urge to vomit.

“Yeah, I could smell it from here,” Anna said with a frown.

I moved to the second door and thankfully no new smells escaped as I threw it open. Instead the interior was cleaner than any of the other places in the cabin so far, and several boxes of shotgun shells, .45, and 7.62x39mm ammo sat against the far wall on a folding table along with a cheap looking pistol. Three rifle cases, one open, sat on the floor, along with a small selection of knives.

“I found something,” I called out and stepped into the room. I set the flashlight on the table and pulled one of the duffle bags out of my backpack as Anna entered the room.

“Looks like you called it,” Anna said after she knelt down and popped open a rifle case to reveal a black, semi auto, 12-gauge shotgun.

“I haven’t been around a lot of places like this, but the few I have been in all had guns,” I said while I loaded the duffle bag full of ammo. There were four hundred rounds of .45, half of which were hollow point, seven hundred rounds of surplus 7.62x39mm, and two hundred and fifty 12 gauge shells. The boxes the ammo came in was yellow and soft, and I almost thought about just dumping all the ammo loose into the bag so I wouldn’t have to deal with it. However, I decided that, for the time being, the boxes were useful, and I could get rid of them once we reached the campus.

“I like this,” Anna said.

I turned to see her holding a somewhat rusty SKS rifle with curved twenty round detachable magazine.

“Awesome,” I said with a grin. “Any extra magazines in the case?”

“Doesn’t look like it,” she said after she checked.

“That’s a shame,” I said. “Still, it’s a decent looking gun. Make sure it’s not loaded and toss it in the bag.

The magazine was full, and Anna popped it out before she cleared the chamber. Then she loaded the single round back in the magazine before tossing it and the gun into the duffle bag. Her movements were really smooth and well-practiced, even with the unfamiliar gun, and I felt a bit of pride swell in my chest.

I tossed the shotgun in on top before I picked up the pistol, a cheap, dirty, .45 caliber Hi Point, cleared it, and added it to the bag as well.

“What sorta gun is that rifle?” Anna asked.

“It’s an SKS, basically a semi-automatic civilian model AK-47,” I explained. “They were made to be tough, cheap, and easy to use. I’ve shot them a few times, and while they are a bit slower and heavier than the AR platform, the recoil is nice and smooth and it won’t quit.”

“Sounds sweet,” she said as her grin widened.

“It needs to be cleaned up, but once it is, it should make for a nice reliable gun,” I said with a nod of agreement before I tossed the duffle over my shoulder, picked up my flashlight, and headed back out into the main room.

“Almost done,” Anna said as she followed me out.

“Yeah, just one more room,” I said as I headed for door number three. As I pulled the door open, it came off its rusty hinges and fell forward into the main room.

“Wow, is there anything in here that is not falling apart?” Anna asked.

“Meth is nasty stuff,” I said. “It doesn’t spare anything from its destructive potential. Even if we destroyed everything here, the land would never be the same again.”

“No thank you,” she said.

Then I stepped into the last room. Based on the couch, porno mags, meth and needles, I guessed this was a recreational room of sorts. I shined the flashlight around, and then, after seeing nothing immediately useful, turned back to Anna.

“Let’s get out of here,” I said.

“Do you want to take a closer look in there?” she asked as she pointed to the room behind me.

“Not really,” I said. “Seeing one needle is enough to make me stay away. Even if we did find something else, I am not sure it would be worth the risk.”

“Good point,” she said. “Now the only thing that stands between us and the real world is one last trip through that horror show of a cabin up there.”

“It really does feel like we entered a different world doesn’t it?” I asked as I started to pick my way through the basement towards the stairs.

“Let’s not visit this one again anytime soon,” Anna joked as we moved up the creaking soft wood stairs.

The dead flies crunched uncomfortably under foot as we went up the stairs, and for a brief moment I was almost glad to be back on the first floor.

“Well, on the plus side, my sense of smell seems to have been deadened by the chemicals downstairs,” Anna said as we stepped, once more, into the kitchen.

I chuckled and stepped over the pit, but stopped suddenly.

“Anna, did you leave the front door open?” I whispered.

“No, I pulled it closed behind me,” she replied quietly.

The front door was wide open and there was a bag sitting next to it that was not there before. The head of a rabbit stuck out the top, and fresh red blood dripped onto the floor.

“Shi--”

My words were cut off by the boom of a shotgun, and the air was suddenly filled with bits of wooden shrapnel as a hole was blasted into the wall beside me, and wooden slivers embedded themselves into my face, shoulders, and chest.

I winced at the stinging pain and dropped completely as I heard giggling come from the other side of the wall, and a moment later bits of shredded cans and garbage rained down around me as a second shotgun blast tore into the kitchen.

“Willy knew they’d send someone after him!” a shrill voice screamed out.

I heard the familiar sound of a break action shotgun being opened and looked to the wide eyed redhead pressed onto the ground just beyond the pit.

“What do we do?” she mouthed.

“Run,” I yelled as I pushed myself to my feet and booked it towards the door. The duffle bag smacked into me as I ran, and I looked back to see a haggard, greasy black haired man sitting in the bathroom reloading a double-barreled shotgun. He had on some ripped dirty blue jeans, a yellow stained wife beater, and a wide brimmed floppy hat.

Anna followed me closely, ran through the front room, and sprinted out the front door as this dirty man grinned.

His mouth was full of teeth rotting from the gums down, and he leveled the shotgun towards the door as I followed my companion’s lead and dove outside.

The man cackled and fired both barrels exploding part of his entryway, but missed both me and Anna.

“Get to the trees!” I shouted as I pointed forward.

“Slippery little people aren't ya?” the meth head asked as he cracked open his gun and started to load in two more shells.

“We aren’t here for you,” I yelled out as I ran into the forest and took cover behind a large blighted tree. I tossed the bag of guns onto the ground so I had full mobility, but held my position for the moment.

“That’s what the last feds said, but I knew the truth,” the man screamed as he stepped into the doorway. “This is my home, and I will defend it. Ruby Ridge!” He shook his shotgun over his head and let out a defiant warcry.

“We aren’t feds, man,” Anna called out from behind the relative safety of her own large tree. “The USA is gone, we got hit by an EMP.”

“Your lies won’t work here temptress,” the man said. “I know one of those brainwashed students from down the hill when I sees em. Ol’ Willy watched that school for a long time.” He giggled and licked his lips in a creepy but suggestive way. “Shouldn’t have let my manly needs get in the way of what needed to be done. No matter, once I am done with you two I’ll go burn that place down like I shoulda done years ago.”

While he talked, I pulled my pistol from its holster. There was no way I was trying to run away from a crazy man who made a credible threat to the school where we lived.

“Keep him talking,” I whispered to Anna. “I’m going to line up a shot,”

“That school is abandoned Willy,” Anna said as she nodded to me. “Like I said, there was an EMP, so no one wanted to stick around.”

“Don’t lie to me!” the meth head screamed as he leveled his weapon in our direction. “I don’t have much teeth but I still got eyes, and I saw them pretty girls there ‘bout a week ago. If they didn’t have that old man with ‘em I would have liberated them from the government machine and brought them here to be my wives.”

I peeked around the side of the tree and saw that the man was focused on Anna’s location, so I leaned slowly out and extended my gun.

“Well, maybe I can be your wife now?” Anna sang out like a siren.

“Wait, really?” the grime covered man gasped as he lowered his gun slightly.

It was in that moment that he noticed me, but it was too late. There was a sharp crack from my pistol, and the druggy’s head snapped back as he took a bullet between the eyes. A wet mass of hair, blood, and brain painted part of the cabin as the shotgun dropped from his hands, and he slammed onto the ground with a thud.

I emerged from behind the tree and approached him with my gun ready. While he should be dead, I had seen strange things when dealing with people on drugs, but as I got closer, I could tell this guy wouldn’t be going anywhere.

I holstered my gun and knelt over the derelict man before I picked up his dropped weapon.

“Is it done?” Anna asked without revealing herself.

“Yeah, he’s dead,” I said.

The redhead stepped back into the clearing and rushed to my side. She composed herself and calmed her ragged breathing.

“You alright?” I asked.

“Yeah, he didn’t hit me, but I learned today that I really don’t like being shot at,” she said.

“No one does,” I said as I added the shotgun to our haul. “At least we are officially done here.” I wiped away the blood that trickled down my face from the splinters and headed back into the woods.

“Do we really just leave now?” Anna asked. “It doesn’t feel like the sort of place that we should leave standing.”

“It would be dangerous to try to level the place ourselves with the equipment we have,” I explained. “Plus, with this piece of shit dead the place might go up on its own. The process of cooking meth is very particular and without intervention could lead to catastrophic results.”

“Shit,” Anna muttered as she glanced behind her. She shuddered and pressed a little closer to me. “Well, I guess I’m glad that it will all work itself out.”

“Saves us the trouble,” I agreed with a nod.

“So where do we go from here?” she asked

“For now let's just worry about getting away from that drug den,” I said as I picked up our bag of newly acquired weapons.

We walked until the thin forest around us returned to the lush green of spring growth, and then I stopped to pull out the map. There was another plot east of our location, but it would probably take us three or four hours to get there.

“Alright, I want your opinion,” I said as I looked over at Anna. “We could head towards this next spot and stop in a couple hours when the sun started to go down to make camp, or we could push on through and get to this second location.”

“Do we know what this other place is?” Anna asked.

“No, but it can’t be any worse than that cabin,” I replied.

“True, and if there is something there, it means we don’t have to sleep in the woods,” the redhead said.

“That was sorta what I was thinking too,” I said. “So do we push on then?”

“Yeah, I think so,” Anna said with a nod.

I charted a quick course on the map based of the plot that the cabin had been sitting on, oriented myself with my compass, and started out.

“Hey, you’re okay, right?” Anna asked as we hiked along. “I just sorta realized that I was so eager to get away from that place that I forgot to ask.”

“No worries,” I said as I gave her a small smile. “I’m good. We took out the bad guy and got the guns.”

“And you didn’t get hurt, right?” She asked.

“I got some splinters from when he blew a hole in the wall, and my hearing is still a little off, but besides that I am good,” I assured her.

“Good, overall I think that went well, but I would rather not do it again.

“Agreed, let’s leave that in the past,” I said. “We are done with that place and don’t need to worry about it anymore.”

“You’re right,” Anna said as she looked to the path ahead. “At least we can’t go back and say that this trip was boring.” She looked over at me and grinned.

I laughed and shook my head, but she was right. So far this trip had been anything but boring, but I hoped that the second plot would not be quite as exciting as the first.

Chapter 10

Our journey took us down the hill and back into heavy forest. We crossed a rapidly flowing stream and pushed our way through a dense thicket of thorns before our path once again led us uphill. However, this was no surprise as the plot seemed to be at the top of one of the higher small mountains in the area. By this point we were both breathing a little heavily, and my legs ached from the almost constant uphill climb.

“Well, if nothing else we should get a great view of the area from the top of this mountain,” Anna said as she trudged along.

“That would almost be worth the whole trip,” I said. “A good view of the area can give us a lot of data and help us more accurately navigate with our maps.”

“I was just thinking that it would be pretty,” Anna said with a shrug. “But what you said makes sense too.”

“It will certainly be beautiful,” I replied. “Should also be a good place to look at the stars. Sometimes I still get a little awestruck when I look up and see how many of them there are.”

“I can’t imagine you being awestruck by anything,” Anna said.

“Hey, even tough guys can't get enough of the marvels of nature and the world,” I said.

“I guess so,” Anna admitted. “You just seem like the guy who has seen it all and is not easily impressed.”

“Now you’re making me sound old,” I said with a grin.

“That’s not what I meant, and you know it,” she scoffed.

“I know,” I said with a chuckle. “But you’re not entirely wrong. I just happen to find nature fairly impressive. It’s hard to spend a year living in it and not find yourself at least somewhat enamored with the wild.”

“I never really thought about that,” Anna said. “I guess it makes sense though. I mean I have a greater respect and understanding of nature since starting to spend extra time in it. It’s sorta funny, for all the time I spent outside very little of that time was actually spent enjoying the world around me. I was always just so focused on that next game or competition.”

“Do you miss it?” I asked

“Sometimes I do, yeah,” the redhead said with a nod. “It was my life for a very long time.”

“You have all done an impressive job adjusting to our new life,” I commented.

“Thanks, but I think it has been harder for us than you know,” Anna admitted. “You should have seen us in those first few weeks. We were sure that this thing was all temporary and that someone would swoop in and save us. I guess someone did though, just not in the way we thought.” The beautiful redhead looked over and me and smiled warmly.

“Don’t give me all the credit here,” I said. “You guys have done just has much work as I have.”

“Yeah, but we didn’t have much direction until you came along,” Anna rebutted. “Even Rolly, for all his experience, didn’t have the skills to save us from our situation.”

“At least it’s all under control now,” I said with a smile. “We’re doing really well despite all the troubles we have faced so far.”

“Yeah, we really are,” Anna said. Then she took a deep breath and let out a happy sigh.

As we continued to climb higher, the trees thinned out, and the sun sank lower in the sky. The grade got steeper, and we found the last chunk of our trip required a little easy climbing as we picked our way up the rocky mountainside.

“I think I know this mountain,” Anna huffed as she pulled herself forward.

“Oh yeah?” I responded after I sucked in a lungful of thin air.

“If this is the mountain I am thinking of there is a ski slope on the other side,” she said.

It made sense. There were hardly any trees up this high and things were starting to get chilly enough that there could be snow.

“I should have brought a jacket,” Anna said.

“We’ll be fine,” I replied. “Even if there is no building I can make a small shelter and build us a nice warm fire.”

“Yeah, but I am cold now,” she said in a mock whine.

“Better climb faster then,” I recommended with a grin.

She laughed, shook her head, and continued to pull herself towards the summit.

It was dark by the time we reached the top, but what we found made the whole trip worth it.

A large ski lodge sat on a nice flat chunk of land, with a metal shed built half into the mountain set out behind it. The roof of the single story lodge was lined with solar panels, and there were several large windows around the exterior that would give anyone inside a great view of the surrounding area. The whole building was made up of the clean lines and sharp angles of modern design, but it was accented by the more traditional stonework, and thick logs that made up traditional ski cabins. A set of large, solid wood, double doors sat under an awning held up my two large stone covered pillars.

This top was high enough to overlook the entirety of the surrounding area nicely, and there was indeed a snow covered slope on the opposite side of the mountain. Off in the distance we could make out the small clearing of our campus. However, that was far from the most interesting sight, as several columns of black smoke rose from various places off in the distance.

“That doesn’t look good,” Anna said with a frown as she surveyed the forested region with me. “I think the smoke is coming from Greenville, Meyers, and Geary. They are some of the smaller towns dotted around out past Lanceton.”

“Yeah, that’s probably bad,” I admitted. “Last time we saw smoke like this was after the bikers torched the Lanceton police station.”

“I had a feeling it might be those biker guys,” Anna groaned. “They seem to love messing shit up.”

“They seem to be getting more destructive too,” I noted. “They might be angry after we killed their guys.”

“Or maybe we are not the only people to poke at those assholes,” Anna suggested. “They could be retaliating.”

“This is just another good reason for us to stay hidden,” I said.

“Yeah, I would rather our home not be set on fire,” Anna agreed before she sighed. She turned to me, her arms crossed over her chest. “Are we going to do something about them? I mean, you took the time to take out that meth head just in the off chance he got high and stumbled into our area so why leave the bikers?”

“That was just one guy,” I explained. “He was a little easier to take care of than a whole gang of bikers. Trust me, I would love to ensure that they never troubled us again but I can’t just ride into their territory and pick a fight. At least not until I know more about their setup and numbers.”

“What if we went as a group?” Anna asked.

“Absolutely not,” I said while I shook my head. “If they came to us, I would expect you to fight, but there is no way I am taking you girls into hostile territory like that.”

“We’re not helpless,” Anna exclaimed.

“Yes but you’re not warriors and you’re not ready for a real battle,” I said. “You will be, but you just aren't yet.”

“You’re right, sorry,” Anna said with a small sigh. She shivered and looked towards the lodge behind us. “I just know things would be safer if those fucking bikers weren’t around.”

“Hey,” I said quietly as I put a hand on her shoulder. “Your instincts are good, but I don’t want to put you guys into that situation before you are ready.”

“I get it,” Anna said. “I understand that you are just trying to keep us safe. I’ve always been the type to get a little overeager. It is good that you are here to rein me in when I do.”

“That’s what I'm here for,” I said. “Now come on, let’s get inside before it gets any colder or darker.”

“Yes please,” the redhead said as she rubbed her arms for warmth.

We jogged over to the front door and were pleasantly surprised to find it unlocked.

Anna whistled as we stepped inside and got our first look of the plush interior.

“Yeah, holy shit,” I muttered.

The whole place looked like something out of a modern design magazine. There were lots of straight clean lines, black and white contrast, and windows to let in light. There was a large living room area in front of us furnished with a large black leather couch, and matching, black leather reclining chair. They were positioned around a now pointless sixty inch flat screen TV set above a stone fireplace. A small rolling bar sat next to the couch with a decanter of some amber liquid inside.

“This is swanky,” Anna said.

“Yeah, whoever owned this place had money,” I said.

“Oh shit, I think I might actually know whose place this is,” Anna said suddenly. “There was some young corporate guy who passed through town last winter. He was that typical blond douche with a hedge fund.”

“Well he was clearly not lying about his money,” I said.

“That’s for sure,” Anna agreed with a nod. “He invited a few of us college girls up to his ski lodge, but none of us took him up on it.”

“Clearly they didn’t know what they were missing,” I joked.

“No kidding, if I knew his lodge was this nice I might have had to take him up on his offer,” she said.

“Turns out you didn’t need to,” I said.

Anna laughed, shrugged off her backpack, stepped down into the living room area, and plopped down onto the couch. Then she let out a moan of comfort and spread out like a starfish.

“Comfortable?” I asked as I stripped off my own backpack and tossed the bag of guns next to it.

“Sooo comfortable,” she said. “We just did a twelve hour hike, and my legs are screaming at me.”

“Don’t get too comfortable,” I said with a chuckle. “We need to do a quick check of the house before we settle in for the night.”

“Oh crap,” Anna said as she jumped upright. “I didn’t even think about that.” she pulled out her own pistol. “Should we stick together or split up?”

“Stick with me,” I said. “This isn’t an episode of Scooby Doo, so no reason to take chances.”

“Got it.” She grinned as she returned to me.

Together we made our way through the lodge and checked every room. We started in the kitchen which was full of state-of-the-art appliances and a large gas stove. The countertops were covered in white marble, and four stools sat in front of a breakfast bar that looked into the living room.

“This kitchen is larger than most of the rooms in the house I grew up in,” Anna whispered as we did our sweep.

I nodded and stopped at the deep, two compartment, sink. I tried the handle and water started to pour from the spigot.

“Is that running water?” Anna asked before she went slack jawed.

“Yeah, and it’s getting warm too,” I muttered. “This place must have its own well or water tank somewhere.”

A door at the end of the kitchen opened up into a large, two-car garage. We were surprised to find it dimly lit by a flickering lamp set in one corner.

“Wait, how can that thing be on?” Anna asked. “Am I really seeing that, or is this place fucking with me?”

“The solar panels must still be working,” I said as I scanned the room.

“Wait, are you saying this place actually has power?” Anna gasped.

“Kind of,” I replied with a nod. “The battery that the panels feed into must be at least somewhat shielded, but until we test it, we won’t know what in the house, if anything, didn’t get fried in the blast.”

“This place is amazing,” Anna muttered.

“Well let’s finish making sure no one else is here then we can start playing with appliances,” I said quietly before chuckling. There was a thin layer of dust on everything that made me feel like we were alone, but it wasn’t worth the risk to assume.

The garage held no vehicles but was instead mostly full of ski equipment. Tucked against one wall, in a large metal electrical box, was an array of batteries and the converter used by the solar panels. Everything inside the box seemed to be working.

There was not much else inside the large space so we made our way back into the house, through the kitchen, and down the hallway on the opposite side of the house.

The hallway had three doors, one at the very end, and one on each of the two walls. We went into the right door first and found ourselves in a spacious guest bedroom. A queen sized bed sat made with fine clean bedding, and a quick look in the closet revealed a host of cold weather clothes. There was a lamp sitting on a nightstand right next to the bed and I tried to flip it on once we cleared the room. For a moment there was nothing but then the fluorescent bulb buzzed to life.

“Well I’ll be damned,” I muttered.

“I can’t wait to tell the others about this place,” Anna said before she walked up to the large TV hanging on the wall and tried to click it on. Nothing happened. “Why didn’t the TV work?”

“Well, the TV has a lot more electronics in it than a simple lamp, so the EMP probably fried it,” I explained. “I would guess that not much here is going to work except for the lights.”

“That’s still something,” Anna said.

“Yeah, but come on, let’s finish this quick so we can relax some,” I said as I turned back to the door, stepped into the hall, and moved across to the door on the opposite side. I waited for Anna to move up behind me before I threw the door open and rushed inside.

This room was clearly the master bedroom. A lavish king sized bed sat covered in soft silky blankets, and there was a door open to an attached bathroom. The bed sat facing two large windows that looked out over the snow covered side of the mountain, and it had a fireplace of its own set into one wall. I cleared the main room and checked the closet which was also full of men's clothing, and some more cold weather and skiing gear.

“No one in here,” Anna called out as she checked the bathroom on the other side of the room. “Though there is a huge fucking jacuzzi tub in here. It’s already filled and you could easily fit four or five people.” She looked at me and grinned. “Do you think we can use it while we are here?”

“I don’t see why not,” I said with a shrug. “Stay put, I am gonna check the last door.” She nodded, and I slipped back into the hall. At this point I was almost positive this place was empty, but there was no reason not to finish my sweep, so I approached the last door and pushed it open with my pistol read. A second smaller bathroom sat behind it, and I let out a sigh of relief.

“All clear,” I shouted out as I holstered my pistol.

“Awesome,” my redheaded friend responded from the other room. She stepped into the hallway and stowed her weapon too. “Does that mean we can sit down now?”

“Oh yeah,” I said with a grin before I headed back to the living room, flopped onto the couch, and felt myself sink into the soft leather.

Anna plopped onto the couch next to me and let out a contented sigh.

“This is wonderful,” I said.

“Yeah, I could get used to this,” Anna said as she sank into the plush leather.

“If you want to find a way to get this couch back to campus be my guest,” I said with a grin

“That’s not what I meant,” she said before letting out a laugh. “I bet we will find some really good shit in here.”

“You’re right, but we can worry about that in the morning,” I said. “Tonight let’s eat some food, get some rest, and just enjoy this place.”

“I’m on board with that plan,” Anna said. “Plus, did you see that bed in the master bedroom? It looks more comfortable than anything I have ever slept on. I bet it will feel amazing after we spend an hour in that hot tub.”

“Yeah hot water might be the greatest part of this trip,” I agreed. “It means I can properly clean myself after having to spend time in that disgusting pit of a cabin earlier.”

“Oh yeah, I still feel gross from being in that basement,” Anna said as she leaned in close to look at my cheek. “I bet we can find some simple first aid stuff to clean up those splinters too.”

“That would be appreciated,” I said as I picked at one of slivers stuck in my forearm.

“You know what, you stay put, and I’ll go figure out how to get the water in the tub warm,” Anna said as she pushed herself up off the couch.

“Don’t take too long or I might fall asleep out here,” I joked.

Anna grinned, pulled the pony tail out of her hair, and started to shake out her long red braid. A long mess of red hair blossomed from the braid as each knot came loose.

I raised an eyebrow and leaned forward a little as I watched it all unfurl and fall over her shoulder and flow down her back until it stopped right over her tight ass.

“Wow,” I said.

“Hmmm?” she asked as she turned to look at me.

“Your hair,” I said as I pointed to it.

“Uhhh. Yeah?”

“It’s really pretty,” I said. “I’ve never seen it down.”

“Oh,” she said, and her cheeks turned a bit red. “Uhhh, I guess I’ll come get you when the jacuzzi is ready. Okay?”

“Sure,” I replied.

I settled back into the couch and watched as Anna spun, bounced away from me, and stopped at the lightswitch by the door. I squinted as she flipped it on and flooded the room with bright light from the four fluorescent lights that sat above my head.

“Awesome,” Anna muttered before she disappeared. “Don’t go anywhere.”

It was strange how unfamiliar the artificial lighting felt to me after all this time. It felt almost strange to be able to see the room around me so well despite the darkness of the world outside the windows only feet away. Despite the harsh white light I started to find myself drifting off to sleep to the sound of silence. I tried to fight the feeling but felt my eyelids grow heavier as the comfort of the place overtook me.

“Wow, you weren’t kidding about falling asleep were you?” Anna whispered in my ear.

I snorted and jolted upright at the sound of her voice, and she shook her head and laughed. “Come on, I have the hot tub ready for us.”

“Sorry, it’s been a long day,” I said as I got to my feet.

“Don’t worry about it, just come enjoy an actual hot bath,” she replied as she beckoned me forward.

I followed her into the master bathroom where a medium sized jacuzzi bubbled and foamed in a welcome manner. The whole room was already filled with steam, and lit by the orange glow of half a dozen candles.

“The lights in here don’t seem to work,” Anna explained as she pointed to the candles. “But I found these in a drawer and figured they would work fine.”

“Well it looks nice,” I said with a small smile. “I smell something though, is that the candles?”

“No,” Anna said as she shook her head. “I found a bath bomb and threw it in.”

“Smells good,” I commented.

Anna grinned and nodded in agreement.

Then we just stood there for a moment looking at each other.

“So, uhhh, I, uhhh don’t have a bathing suit,” she said as she glanced away from me.

“Me either,” I laughed. “I guess I didn’t think about that. We could just take our clothes off?”

“Yeah, I guess,” She bit her bottom lip.

“The water is a bit opaque,” I continued. “So, we won’t really see each--”

“That will work,” she cleared her throat. “I uhhh, just wanna soak. You know?”

“I can turn my head if you want?” I asked.

“Uhh, It probably doesn’t matter,” she whispered. “I guess I don’t care.”

“But, you sound like you do care,” I said as I pulled off my shirt. Several small splitters were embedded in my chest as well but they were more itchy than painful.

“I just…” she hesitated and sighed as she began to unbuckle her belt. “I haven't been naked in front of a guy in a long time.”

“You can keep your panties on if you want,” I said with a shrug as I dropped my jeans.

“No, that would just be weird,” Anna muttered, and then she shimmied out of her jeans. She did leave her underwear on though. They were white and rose high on her perfect hips.

“Look, I just want you to be comfortable,” I said as I pulled my own pants off. “I can go and let you--”

“It’s fine. This was my idea.” She let out another sigh as she pulled off her shirt. She had on a black sports bra that she peeled off right after to reveal perky round breasts.

My gaze drifted to her breasts as I slipped off my underwear.

“Shit,” Anna muttered as her eyes drifted to my crotch. She went a little red, and I watched as her nipples got hard.

Then we both stared at each other for a few moments. Her green eyes seemed to devour my naked body, and my eyes drank in her pale, but slightly freckled skin and her lean athletic body.

“I’m gonna get in.” I chuckled and slipped into the tub. The warm bubbles danced and popped around me and a pleasant aroma rose from the steam.

“Is it as nice as it looks?” Anna asked as she lingered at the edge of the tub in her cotton underwear.

“Are you asking about my dick?” I smirked at her.

“Ohhh, god,” she gasped, and then her face turned fire-engine red. “No, I meant the water. The water!”

“Yeah,” I laughed as I gestured at the bubbles. “It’s great. I think you should join me.”

“You’re right,” she said. “I am being stupid, sorry.” She pulled off her panties and tossed them in a pile with her other clothes.

Anna’s body had looked amazing with the underwear on, but she somehow looked a hundred times more sexy completely nude. She had a small tuft of dark red hair set between her legs that obscured what waited beneath, but the lines and curves of her muscles connecting her legs and abs to her hips were now fully exposed for me to appreciate. She really did have a rocking body, and I felt myself grow hard in the water.

“Oh, it’s great!” Anna slipped into the tub across from me and let out a long and happy moan.

“Right?” I said with a laugh.

“I didn’t know how much I needed this,” she said as she closed her eyes and let herself sink in until the water reached her neck.

I felt her feet brush up against me as she relaxed and let her body float, and then she opened one eye as I grabbed her by the ankle and gently pulled her closer.

“What are you doing?” she gasped as her naked thigh bumped into mine.

“You said you would help me with all these splinters didn’t you?” I asked.

She smiled, nodded, and leaned out of tub to grab a small black pouch from the side of the tub. Then she unzipped it and pulled out a set of tweezers before tossing the pouch onto the floor. “Where do you want me to start?”

“Go with the face and work your way down,” I said.

“Work my way down, huh?” she whispered as her eyes flickered to mine.

“Yeah,” I whispered in return.

The redhead nodded and ran a hand gently over my face a moment before she brought up the tweezers and pulled out the first small bit of wood.

“Thank you,” I said with a wince.

“Of course,” she said as she yanked out another.

For a while we sat in silence as Anna gently felt around my body and tended to my wounds. Her arms rested on my chest while she worked, and she was kind of half-sitting on my right thigh. All I really need to do was grab her by the waist and move her over a few inches to the left, and my rock hard cock would slide inside of her.

And from the way her cheeks were flushed, I guessed that she was thinking the same thing.

“You know, I was nervous when you first came along,” Anna whispered after she pulled out the last splinter from my torso.

“I think everyone was,” I said.

“Yeah, but I was nervous for a different reason,” she replied.

“Why is that?” I asked

“You seemed kind and genuine from the start, and I was afraid I would grow to like you more than I should,” she admitted.

“Why would that be a problem?” I asked

“Last summer I went through a huge break up,” she explained. “The guy was a fucking asshole and left my heart in pieces, so I swore off guys. Hell, until you came along I was actually starting to think I wasn’t even into guys anymore.”

“So, you were afraid we would grow close, and I would disappoint you just like the last guy?” I asked

“Pretty much,” she sighed. “I’m starting to think that might not be the case though.” She tossed the tweezers behind her and placed a hand on my chest.

“Well I am glad you feel comfortable with me,” I said as I reached up to wrap my right hand around her muscular waist.

“Oh my god,” Anna said as she rolled her eyes. “Alright, I'm done being subtle and flirty, Tav. Shut up and kiss me.”

“I’m going to do a lot more than just kiss you,” I growled and then I leaned in and aggressively kissed her full lips.

Anna tasted like cinnamon and oranges, and grabbed the back of my head, kissed me back hard, and forced her tongue past my lips. Then she moaned into my mouth as I returned the favor with my own tongue.

Anna rubbed her stiff nipples against my chest and rubbed up against my cock until she finally gave in and just grabbed it. The redhead was practically panting as she pulled her lips away from mine and stroked my shaft.

“You seem to be ready for more,” I said.

“Yes, please,” she pleaded.

I grinned and ran a hand between her thighs. She moaned and quivered as I slid them closer to her crotch.

Then I wrapped my fingers around each side of her hips, lifted her up over my cock, and slowly lowered her down onto me. She reached a hand down into the water to help guide me in, and we both let out a gasp of sweet agony when my cock filled her pussy and pushed her walls out.

“Oh. My. God.” Her words came out in a groan of ecstasy, and she leaned her head against my chest as she sighed.

“You are so tight,” I whispered in her ear.

“Cause you are so big,” she replied. “Shit. It feels really good.”

“We haven’t even started yet,” I purred, and then I began to push and pull on her hips so that I slid in and out of her tunnel in the spa.

At first, I was doing most of the guiding with my hands, but then the athletic redhead began to take things at her own pace, and I just ended up holding her hips while she used her legs to grind and rub me inside of her. After five minutes, I felt her body begin to tense, and she bit my shoulder as a violent orgasm began to take her. The beautiful redhead’s pussy tightened and spasmed around my shaft while she climaxed, and I pulled her long hair back so that I could kiss her sweet lips. This drove her over the edge even more, and she screamed into my mouth as her body shook and spasmed for a second time.

“Holy shit,” she gasped once her body relaxed.

“Yeah,” I replied as I kissed her neck.

“You are so good,” she whispered. “I’ve never come like that before.”

“You did all the work,” I laughed.

“I guess I did,” she laughed, “and I’m getting all hot in this water. Can we take this to that massive bed?”

“Sure,” I said. I was still deep inside of her, so I pulled her off my cock, slid my right arm under her legs, and then stood up cradling her.

“So strong,” she muttered as she leaned her head against my shoulder.

“You haven’t seen anything yet,” I said as I made my way into the bedroom and threw her dripping wet and very naked body onto the bed.

“Then show me,” Anna said as she parted the wet hair that had clung to her face. Then she grinned and spread her legs wide so that I could see her pretty pink pussy.

“Damn, you look delicious,” I growled as I kneeled on the bed and began to crawl toward her.

“Then come and eat me.” She beckoned me forward with one finger.

I needed no more prompting. I slid onto the bed, grabbed her legs by the ankles and spread her open more so that I could feast on her pussy.

Anna let out a long and guttural moan as I devoured her, and then she wrapped her legs around my head. She didn’t last long like this, only a handful of minutes, and then she was writhing on the massive bed and screaming as she climaxed again.

While she was still spasming, I pulled my face away from her wet pussy, came up to my knees, and then slid into her. She was beyond dripping, and my shaft was still wet from when we had fucked in the jacuzzi, so I was able to slide my full length into her with one movement.

Then we both groaned as we kissed each other.

“So good,” she whispered as her walls spasmed around me.

“Yeah,” I agreed as I started to slide in and out of her.

“You have to pull out,” she reminded me.

“Yep,” I said as I increased my tempo.

“God, I almost don’t want you to,” she whined as I thrust into her. “I really want your cum. Fuck, Tav, please pull out though.”

“I will,” I laughed as I continued to pleasure the beautiful redhead. Her athletic body was beyond amazing feeling, and my head started to spin as I got lost in the sensation of her.

“You like that?” she teased as she ran her fingers over my closed eyes and lips.

“Hell yeah,” I groaned as I felt her pussy tighten up around my cock.

“Working out pays off again,” she laughed.

“I need to switch positions, or I’ll cum,” I said.

“Okay,” she agreed, and we moved from the bed to one of the large glass windows where I pressed her up against the glass and fucked her from behind so she could look at the stars.

Anna moaned with every thrust, and her legs started to shake as I reached around and teased her clit with one hand while I continued to keep up my rhythm.

She pulled away from me long enough to turn around, bit her lip, and wrap her arms around my neck.

“Are we done already?” I asked

“Oh, no,” she groaned. “You are so strong. I just want you to fuck me while holding me up.”

I raised an eyebrow and took a step away from the window, grabbed Anna by her muscular thighs, and pulled her off the ground. Then I slowly lowered her onto my cock and grinned as I watched as her face contorted into an expression of pure pleasure.

“Just like that!” she screamed as her climax took over her body. “Yes, Tav. Just like that”

I pumped inside her until her climax subsided, and my own legs started to tremble. Then I set her on the side of the bed and ran a hand through her long red hair.

“We gotta be careful,” I panted. “Can’t risk finishing inside you.”

“I know,” she said with a smirk. “Don’t worry, I always finish what I start.”

She locked her lips around my cock and worked the shaft with one hand as she started to suck and tease.

I placed a hand on Anna’s head and set the pace until I could no longer take it. The release felt amazing, and she let out a satisfied groan as she swallowed every last drop that I poured into her mouth.

“Oh god, that was good,” the redhead said as she collapsed onto the bed. “We should have done this sooner.”

“I agree,” I said with a laugh as I looked over at her.

“Tara and Paige said you were good, but experiencing it first hand was something else,” Anna gushed.

“Well, I have had quite a bit of practice as of late,” I said. “Though you were hardly a slouch.”

“What I lack in experience I make up for in raw enthusiasm,” the athletic redhead said.

“You certainly did,” I chuckled.

“This was a good night,” Anna said before she yawned, snuggled up close, and wrapped her arms around my neck. Then she stared out the large windows at the stars with a smile fixed firmly on her face.

“Tomorrow should be pretty nice too,” I said. “At least it won’t involve crazed druggies.”

Anna nodded as she struggled to keep her eyelids open. It seemed that the day’s events were finally starting to catch up with her.

I chuckled and pulled the heavy warm blanket up over our naked forms. Then I pulled a down pillow over and used it to prop up my head as I stared at the world until sleep took me.

The warm light of the sun shining through the large glass windows woke us the next morning.

“Hey there,” Anna croaked in a groggy voice before she stretched and let out a large yawn.

“Morning,” I said as I cracked an eye open to see the mountainside for the first time in the light. The surrounding forest was a lush green, and the far side of the mountain was covered in brilliant white snow.

“It’s beautiful, isn't it?” Anna asked after she shifted to rest her head on my chest and looked out the window too.

“Really is a good place to put a lodge,” I agreed with a nod.

“I’m excited to see what sort of stuff we can find here,” the long-haired, athletic girl said.

“Me too,” I said.

“Hey,” Anna shifted up to look at me. “Last night while I was falling asleep after you fucked my brains out, I had an idea.”

“Let’s hear it,” I chuckled.

“What if we stay here a couple of days,” she said. “No one is expecting us back right away, and it would give us plenty of time to scavenge.”

“Well I doubt it will take us more than a day to clean this place out,” I said.

“Well no, but it would sorta be nice to have a break,” Anna admitted.

“That’s not exactly fair to the others,” I said as I raised an eyebrow.

“They would all understand, and there is no reason they can’t come up here at some point for the very same reason,” she said. “Plus, we could probably use a couple days to rest up after yesterday. I still can’t smell right, and my lungs burn every time I breathe.”

“I guess we could use the down time,” I said as I looked at the tiny injuries that covered my arms.

“Plus,” Anna whispered before she leaned forward and ran her tongue up my neck. “I can really make it worth your while.”

“Prove it,” I said with a grin and looked into her large green eyes.

“Gladly,” she said before she bit her lip and threw her tangled mess of long red hair behind her. Then the redhead threw back the blanket and crawled on top of me.

I was already rock hard, and she was already dripping wet, so she ended up proving that it would be worth my while rather quickly.

Chapter 11

An hour or so later, Anna and I sat on the living room couch in our underwear as we ate breakfast.

“Lazy mornings are great,” Anna said before she tore off another chunk of jerky.

“I agree,” I said. “When I was out in the woods on my own every morning was a lazy morning, and it was wonderful.”

“When you say lazy mornings you mean that you, like, got up at nine instead of seven don’t you?” Anna asked.

“Maybe,” I said. “Is that a problem?”

“Of course not,” she laughed. “You just seem like the kinda person who stays busy.”

“You’re not wrong,” I said. “Though I know how to unwind.”

“Oh I know,” the redhead said with a grin. “I was there last night, and then again this morning.”

“Yeah?” I asked as I raised an eyebrow. “Enjoy that some?”

“Maybe a little,” she said before she laughed, rolled her eyes, and stood up to stretch. “Though I think I am about done being lazy for now.”

“And you accused me of wanting to stay busy,” I scoffed.

“Hey, we weren’t talking about me,” she replied as she crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m going to go get dressed and start picking this place apart. You can join me when you’re ready to be productive.”

I laughed as the beautiful redhead stuck her tongue out and walked away. She was right though, it was time to get to work, so I stood up and followed her to the bedroom where my clothes still sat in a pile.

“I’m going to need your help to get my hair back into a braid at some point today,” Anna said as she pulled on her pants. Then she picked up her shirt, sniffed it, and shook her head before she dropped it back onto the floor.

“I don’t have much experience with hair,” I said as I pulled on my own pants.

“Don’t worry, I think you can handle it,” she replied with a laugh.

“You know, you could save some time by just letting me cut your hair,” I joked. “I just sharpened my knife the other day so it wouldn’t be hard.”

“Don’t you dare,” she warned. “I love my hair and no one gets to cut it except for me.”

“Well then you want to borrow my knife?” I teased.

“No!” she exclaimed with a laugh before she tossed a pillow at my head.

“Alright, I’ll just help you braid it again,” I said as I dodged the pillow and scooped up my shirt. “You wanna start by going through the garage today? I figure you can probably figure out if any of the ski gear in there is worth anything to us.”

“Yeah, I can do that,” she said. “I figure I will just pile anything useful I find in the living room. We can sort through it easier in there and decide what is worth carrying back.”

“Good call,” I said. “I’ll start here and work my way out towards you. Give me a shout if you need anything.”

“Oh, I will,” she said with a wink. She made her way towards the door and smacked my ass on the way out. “Try not to have too much fun without me.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” I said.

Then the woman slipped out the door and down the hall as her long red hair flowed like a cloak behind her.

I started going through the room, starting with the large walk-in closet. Most of the mens clothes that hung inside looked to be about my size. I tossed them onto the bed, thankful that I could get rid of the stuff I had been wearing while in the drug cabin.

Aside from clothes I also found a large locked gun case in a wardrobe tucked away in the back of the closet. While it appeared they had spared no expense on the price of the lock, the keys were easy to find sitting in the top drawer of the bedside nightstand.

I let out a whistle after I opened up the case. Sitting neatly in a custom cut foam insert was a HK MR556A1 rifle. Like everything else that we had found here so far, no expense had been spared on it. Four full magazines sat in their own foam cut outs, and pretty much every sort of attachment you could want was also in the case. I pulled out the rifle and inspected it. It was clean and well oiled, with a match grade, chrome lined, twenty inch barrel, and floating front rail system. A Trijicon ACOG 4x scope was attached to the top with a quick removal system and flip up iron sights.

There was a tactical flashlight, laser sight, two types of front grips, flip up bipod, and an EOtech holographic sight all set into their own spots in the foam. Each one could be easily attached to the rails to customize for any number of situations. There was also a single point sling attached to the back end of the padded adjustable stock.

The guy who bought this gun had done his research, but the gun was so nice and so clean that I wondered if he had ever fired it. I set the rifle back into its case and returned to the wardrobe I had found it in. Sitting next to where I had found the case, were two, two thousand round boxes of 62gr 5.56 FMJ ammo. There was nothing I could do to keep the grin from my face. Two, twenty count, boxes of cheap 5.56 tracer rounds sat on top of the good stuff, along with three boxes of 5.56 hollow points. None of the boxes of ammo were opened, and a large layer of dust coated the cardboard. Hanging on a hook above all the ammo was a complete but compact cleaning kit for the AR.

So far this trip had been great for guns, but we were quickly running into an issue of weight. The first duffle bag was already heavy, but a thousand extra rounds would make it unbearable for more than a short trip. We would probably have to prioritize and leave what was not immediately necessary here until we could make it back for a second trip.

I carried the ammo out into the living room and found Anna opening a bottle of wine in the kitchen.

“Was that tucked away in the garage?” I asked.

“No,” she said as she shook her head. “I poked around outside for a bit and found a door that led to a natural wine cellar. Place was packed full of a bunch of stuff I had never heard of.”

“Well, must be good then,” I teased.

“Obviously,” She said with a grin. “There’s also some beers and scotch down there too.”

“Yet you brought up wine?” I asked as I raised an eyebrow.

“I dunno, it kinda felt like this little getaway needed wine,” Anna said with a smirk and a shrug. She took a drink, walked over, and offered me the bottle. “I figured we could light a fire and snuggle up naked with a bottle once it gets dark again.”

“What, you couldn’t find any wine glasses?” I asked with a grin as I set down the ammo, took the bottle and took a big drink. It was a smooth red blend with bitter cherry and chocolate notes. It was pretty damn good for wine. I passed the bottle back and leaned against the counter.

“Oh is just sharing the bottle not good enough?” she asked as she stuck her tongue out at me. “Are you worried you might catch cooties if we both drink out of it?”

“I guess I can risk it,” I replied with a shrug. “Plus I am probably not fancy enough to drink from whatever crystal glasses they have here.”

“Screw being fancy,” Anna said as took a long drink and then handed the bottle to me again. “Society is gone, and there is no one left to judge us for dumb stuff like what sort of glass we used to drink from.”

“I like your thinking,” I said with a big grin as I took the bottle again and leaned back on the couch. “Find anything good in the garage?”

“Lots of really high end ski gear. I figured that was not an immediate concern,” she said after she set down the wine and walked over to me. She nodded towards a blue tote that sat on the floor. “That’s full of camp gear. There is a lamp, couple propane tanks, emergency blanket. Pretty much just the really basic stuff.”

“All good stuff to have,” I said.

“There is also a little bit of climbing gear out there,” she said. “Some actual carabiners, a few coils of rope, and a pair of crampons. Wasn’t sure if you would want anything but the rope.” She moved over next to me, leaned onto my shoulder, and took the half empty bottle of wine.

“Bring it all in here,” I said. “Having some climbing supplies might be good at some point.”

“Yeah, I guess we will never know what we are going to need,” she said. “Though I have started to wonder how exactly we plan on getting all this stuff back.”

“I was thinking the same thing,” I said. “There is another huge box of ammo and a really nice rifle in a custom case still in the bedroom. Just the rifle case, and the duffle bag we already have is almost too much for one person.”

“So then are we thinking multiple trips?” Anna asked before she took a drink.

“Yeah, I will probably rotate who I bring up here with me so everyone gets a chance to see this place,”

“I am sure they would all enjoy a night up here,” Anna said. “Though I think it is unfair that they won’t have to go through the drug house like I did.”

“You think I should make it a mandatory stop on each visit?” I joked.

“At least for the first time,” Anna said sarcastically with a nod. Then she broke into a fit of laughter so intense that she let out a pig-like snort.

“Did I miss something?” I asked.

“No, sorry,” Anna said as she settled herself and wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. “I just thought about how Tara or Bailey might react to the inside of that place. Their faces as they went through that place would be priceless.” She let out one last little chuckle and shook her head. “Sorry, the idea just struck me as really funny.”

“Clearly,” I said with a chuckle. “But I think they might not have handled it quite as well as you did.”

“I wouldn’t underestimate any of them,” Anna replied. “We are all stronger than we look.”

“Oh I know,” I said. “It was just an exceptionally awful situation.”

“True,” she said. “I was honestly surprised that I didn’t dream about that place.”

“Hey, it’s in the past now, and we don’t have any reason to ever go back,” I said.

“Thank god for that,” she muttered. “Alright, this has been fun but I’m gonna finish moving stuff out of the garage and start going through the kitchen.”

“I will probably join you in the kitchen. I am almost done in the master bedroom.”

“Sounds like a date,” Anna said before she gave me a wink, waved, and walked away.

Ten minutes later I moved the last of the clothes out of the master bedroom and into our living room pile. I had moved the rifle and the rest of the ammo first and went through the nightstand before calling the room clear. The nightstand had a bundle of condoms that I left there so I could use them when I was here.

Anna had already moved in all of her stuff and was in the process of going through the kitchen already.

“Find anything actually edible in there?” I asked as I joined her.

“Yeah, actually,” Anna said. “There is a lot of canned and freeze dried stuff in here.”

“What about the fridge?” I asked

“I haven't been brave enough to check inside there yet,” she admitted.

“Well then, allow me,” I said smoothly as I moved to the fridge and pulled it open. To my suprise the lights came on in the interior, and it was still cold. All I could figure was that maybe the metal exterior of the appliance had shielded it more than I had assumed. However, the contents inside were less impressive than the fact that it was actually on. A half-gallon of chunky milk and a carton of eggs sat in the door. There was some severely wilted lettuce and a rotting tomato in the crisper drawer, and some spoiled lunch meat sat on a shelf.

“How bad is it?” Anna asked.

“Things still running. Sadly most of the stuff in here was dairy based and spoiled anyway.”

“It’s still cool that it runs,” she said.

“Yeah, plus it looks like there is a six pack of stout in here,” I said. “Never heard of the brewery, but it might be good.”

“Awesome, I was actually a little worried I might never have a cold beer ever again,” Anna said.

“Well worry no more,” I said as I pulled out two bottles from the fridge. I turned and handed one to her before I pulled a bottle opener off the fridge and popped open my brew.

“First wine and now beer?” Anna asked with a raised brow. “It must be vacation.”

“You said you wanted to relax a couple days didn’t you?”

“You’re right, cheers,” Anna said before she grinned and grabbed the opener from me. She opened her beer then clinked her bottle against mine.

“Cheers,” I replied before taking my first drink. The dark beer was dense, smooth, and finished with hints of chocolate and cherry. It was a little surprising how good the beer was. I had expected at least some level of skunkiness to it after all this time but if it was there the other flavors hid it well, and the draft went great with the wine aftertaste in my mouth.

“God, that’s good,” Anna said after she drained half her bottle.

I set the bottle on the counter and closed the door. That’s when I noticed the yellow sticky note that I had passed over several times.

“Did you see this?” I asked Anna as I tried to make sense of the sloppy handwriting.

“No, is it important?” the redhead asked.

“Kinda, it looks like whoever was here last headed for some nearby refugee center that the national guard set up after the EMP,” I said.

“The national guard set up a refugee camp?” Anna asked with a groan. “Man, we really did fuck up by staying at the campus.”

“Don’t get too upset,” I said as I tucked the note into my pocket. “Makeshift refugee camps can be pretty miserable places. Especially if they are not set up for long term support. Think of all the mouths they have to feed with no vehicles to deliver food.”

“Oh yeah, I never thought about that,” she muttered. “Man, it is strange how our decision to stay at the campus over break was one of the best choices we could have made.” Anna took another drink of beer and stared at the window set above the kitchen sink.

“Well I am glad you did,” I said before I pulled open the freezer. There was a little more in this side of the refrigerator, but all of the packages of meat looked badly freezer burned. However, I dug around and was rewarded with a small tub of ice cream that had been hidden in the back.

“Hey, Tav, why don’t we all just move up here?” Anna asked. “I mean we would have running water, gas heat, and a gorgeous place to stay. We would be farther away from all the trouble too.”

“I wish we could,” I said

“But?” she asked as she looked at me and raised an eyebrow.

“But it’s not a good idea,” I said. “Running water is nice but whatever reservoir supplies it won't last forever. The electricity is nice but look at the terrain. We couldn’t grow anything out there, and we would have to travel farther to hunt and trap.”

“Ugh, I didn’t think of that,” Anna said. “I just like it up here.”

“Me too, and there is no reason we cannot come here from time to time,” I said.

“You’re right,” she replied. “I suppose this place would not be quite as nice if we lived here anyway.”

“It’s also not quite big enough for five,” I said. “We would drive each other crazy after a few weeks living this close.”

“Yeah, I didn’t think of that either,” she sighed. “Sorry, I know I should just be thankful for what we have.”

“You’re apologizing way too much today,” I said with a chuckle.

“Am I?” she asked. “I guess I just want to impress you and worry now that we are alone together I might come across as stupid.”

“Have I ever treated any of you like you are stupid?” I asked

“No, I suppose not,” she grumbled.

“That’s because you aren't,” I stated. “You better take another drink of that beer. Seems that you still haven't quite started to relax.”

“I thought you weren’t supposed to get drunk,” Anna teased.

“I never said you couldn’t get buzzed though,” I laughed.

Anna laughed, shook her head, and took another drink of beer. Then she set it down, picked up the bottle of wine, took a drink, and grinned at me.

We both shared a laugh, and then we went back to searching the cabinets.

Most of what we found in the kitchen were luxury items, such as a box of chocolates, some coffee, powdered hot chocolate, and two boxes of muffin mix. They were all added to the pile before Anna and I found a couple coats and headed outside.

“There is a little metal shed out back,” Anna said. “I haven’t checked it out yet.”

“Let’s start there then,” I said as we headed towards it.

“So, is this place more what you were hoping to find out here?” Anna asked.

“Yeah, this is almost exactly what I hoped to find,” I said. “If we had found nothing else the rifle this guy had here and the ammo would have made the whole trip worth it.”

“For some reason I thought guns would be one of the harder things to find,” Anna said. “But we now have more of them than we have people.”

“Well I think people didn’t realize this was quite the emergency it was,” I said. “It looks like they focused more on food and water so they could get to the places the government said were safe.”

“Like that refugee camp,” Anna mused. “Yeah, I guess if you thought the army or police were going to keep you safe why would you grab a gun instead of more water or food.”

“Pro tip, always grab a gun,” I chuckled. “People go crazy in emergency situations, and I would rather be armed than full.”

“I don’t think you have to worry about any of us girls leaving our gun behind,” Anna said.

“Yeah, I was almost worried I wouldn’t be able to get you guys off the range that first day,” I said.

“It was fun,” the redhead said.

“It’s good you guys think so,” I said. “It will help in getting you to practice.”

We arrived at the metal shed. It was thin aluminum, half sunk into the mountainside, and the sliding front door was held closed with a chain and a padlock.

“Cover your ears,” I ordered as I pulled out my pistol, and aimed at the lock. I looked away and covered my ears as best as possible with one hand before I pulled the trigger and blew off the lock.

“Care to do the honors?” I asked as I pulled off the chain.

Anna grinned and pulled the door open. Inside there were two camo ATVs, helmets, and two large gas cans.

“Wow,” I muttered.

“Do you think they run?” Anna asked as she stepped inside and ran a hand along the seat.

“I don’t know, but if they do, we can carry a lot more gear back to campus,” I said. “

“Yeah, these things could be awesome,” she agreed with a nod.

The keys were already in the ignition so I tried to turn on the first one. The engine chugged for a moment but rumbled to life.

Anna threw her hands up in the air and let out a cheer.

I grinned, turned off the ATV, and gave the redhead a high five.

“I can’t believe they run,” Anna said.

“The mountain side must have protected whatever electrical bits are in these things,” I explained.

“That’s awesome,” Anna said. “This will make getting around the campus town that much easier.”

“Yeah, we can use them to move larger objects too,” I said. Then I turned off the vehicle and searched the rest of the small shack. There were two pairs of snow shoes hanging on the wall, but nothing else of value.

Both of us grabbed an ATV and wheeled it into the garage of the ski lodge.

“Have we picked this whole place clean?” Anna asked.

“Nah, we have the spare bedroom and bathrooms to look through still,” I said. “I figure we can get that taken care of before the end of the day.”

“Wait, does that mean tomorrow we will actually just get to relax?” Anna asked.

“At least until we head back,” I said with a grin. “It probably won’t take us very long to finish up today either, so we have plenty of time to kick back, drink, and maybe enjoy another soak in the jacuzzi tub.”

“The others are going to be super jealous,” the redhead said with a delighted smirk painted on her face.

“Only until they get the chance to come here themselves,” I said.

“How soon do you think you will be doing that?” Anna asked

“I don’t know yet, but one of the things I found with the gun was an impressive spotting scope,” I said. “I might spend some time outside before it gets dark, surveying the area. My hope is that there are a few places around here that we might be able to come back and pick through later. That would give me an excuse to pull another of the girls up here sooner rather than later.”

“I’m sure they would appreciate the break and the alone time with you as much as I do,” Anna cooed.

“That’s the hope,” I said. “Thinking that maybe once we have all the big stuff done we bring everyone up this way. We could spend a few days up here in celebration.”

“I like that idea,” Anna commented. “That would give Rolly a reason to come up here too.”

“That was my thought too,” I said. “That guy does a lot, and I think he deserves some time to himself. Not sure I want to bring him on a scavenge run though. He is tough but clearly getting older. I would rather not run him ragged.”

“I am glad he stuck around,” Anna said. “He is always so happy to just help out. I haven't met many people as genuine as Rolly.”

“If he were any nicer, I might suspect he was up to something,” I joked.

“No kidding,” Anna agreed with a laugh.

We went into the lodge and made our way down the hall to the spare bedroom. It was considerably smaller than the master room across the hall, but it was still larger than most rooms you find in an average home. The queen sized bed sitting in the middle of the room looked almost small.

Anna started to go through the dresser as I rifled through the closet. There were more cold weather clothes in the closet, but most of them were female clothes, and the handful of male outfits were far too small to fit me. Beyond that, the only thing I found in the closet were half a dozen beanies, and two ski goggles that I figured could come in handy.

“I am not finding much here,” Anna said as she pulled open another drawer. “Anything over there?”

“Not really, but it’s hard to complain after the amazing gun, the ATVs, and all the food this place had for us,” I said.

“Yeah, and we still have to figure out how much stuff we can actually fit on those ATVs,” Anna pointed out.

“That sounds like a problem for tomorrow,” I said as I closed the closet. “You good here?”

“I think so,” Anna replied. “This all just more fancy clothes.”

“Anything your size at least?” I asked

“I can squeeze into them,” she said with a shrug, “but I’ve got some muscle on my frame. They might fit the other girls better.”

“I will have them take a look when they come up here,” I said.

“So is that it then?” Anna asked.

“At least for this room,” I said. “I’ll search the last bathroom. You go finish that beer and get comfortable.”

“Are you sure?” she asked. “I mean I am not nearly as worn out as you are. I mean you still have that shoulder wound. Plus, aren't you still healing from that bear a few weeks back?”

“The area is a little sore, but Paige did a good job stitching it up, so it healed really quick,” I said.

“Still, you need the downtime more than I do,” she said. “So, I think it is you who is going to go finish their beer and take a seat on the couch.”

“Do I get a choice in the matter?” I asked with a coy smile.

“Nope, if you want me to be a leader then you have to put up with me telling you what to do now and again,” she said with a big grin. “Especially because you seem to need someone to tell you to stop once in a while.”

“Well alright then, boss lady,” I teased. “Have fun in the bathroom.”

Anna laughed and shook her head before I headed out of the room, grabbed my half-finished beer from the kitchen, and went to the living room. I stood in front of the large bank of windows that overlooked the snow-covered mountainside perfect for skiing. I took a sip of my beer and looked towards where Anna had gone. She was more comfortable here than I had seen her since we first met. This might be the perfect place to get her to open up a little.

I finished the beer, grabbed the spotting scope and a large blanket from our pile of loot, and slipped outside. I found a nice spot to sit and wrapped myself in the blanket while I inspected the nearby area. With the help of the powerful scope I was able to find three small houses tucked in the woods around the east side of this mountain. They all seemed to be less than two miles away from the ski lodge and could easily be reached by the ATVs. I noted them on the map I had brought with me before I turned my attention to the smoking areas that I had noticed the night before. All the smoke was coming from the south, past the campus, and past Lanceton. I couldn’t make out any real details at this distance but judging by the thickness of the smoke I guessed whatever towns had been set ablaze would need to be removed from our maps.

“I thought I told you to relax,” I heard Anna call out from behind me.

I turned to see the redhead standing there with her arms crossed and her red hair fluttering wildly in the wind.

“This doesn’t look relaxing to me,” she said.

“Honestly it is pretty zen,” I replied before I waved her over.

She jogged over and crouched next to me as she hugged herself for warmth.

“You should have put on a coat,” I said as I wrapped her in the blanket and pulled her in close.

“And you should be inside,” she chided after she raised an eyebrow.

“I just wanted to get a good look of the area,” I said.

“Well, did you at least find anything?” the shivering redhead asked.

“Yeah, I made a note of a couple places we could probably scavenge,” I said.

“What about those fires?” Anna asked.

“They are too far away,” I said. “Even with the scope all I can make out is distant smoke rising from a clearing of trees. Still, I think that we should probably increase combat training on our return.”

“Do you think the trouble could be headed our way?” she asked.

“Eventually, yes,” I said with a nod. “I just want us to be as ready as we can be when it does.”

“Good,” Anna said as she nodded and stared out across the forest.

For a moment we both stood there as the cold wind tugged at the blanket and howled in our ears. Each of us focused on the smoke curling up from distant fires.

“Come on, let’s get inside,” Anna said after a minute. Then she turned and pulled me towards the house.

“Still up for helping me with my hair?” Anna asked as she gestured for me to sit down on the couch with the blanket and pulled out a hairbrush.

“I thought I didn’t have a choice,” I replied with a smirk.

“You don’t,” she said as she sat down next to me. “I was just asking to be polite.” She started to run the brush through her long tangles of red hair. Every once in a while she would wince as she hit a snag that she had to brush out.

“You are going to have to tell me what to do,” I said. “I have never had hair long enough to even run a brush through.”

“Interesting, but don’t worry,” she said. “If you can handle complex knots, I think you will be able to handle a simple braid.”

“Just don’t blame me if it doesn’t come out as nice as you want it,” I joked.

“Don’t worry, I can think of a couple ways you can make it up to me if that happens,” Anna chuckled.

“Oh really?” I asked as I raised an eyebrow.

“Well we will have to see what happens,” She said with a grin. Then she finished running the brush through her hair and handed it to me.

The next half an hour was spent learning how to braid hair. I personally didn’t see the point of it. It would be far easier to just keep the hair short and not worry about any of this. Though it seemed to make Anna happy when it was back into its long tight braid.

Anna inspected the braid, nodded, and let out a contented sigh.

“How’d I do?” I asked.

“It’s good,” she said. “It’s not as good as the other girls can do, but I cannot complain with it being your first time.”

“Well I am just glad I could help,” I said.

“I wasn’t actually worried,” Anna admitted as she snuggled into me, propped up her feet on the arm of the couch, and looked out the window at the beautiful view that surrounded us.

I pulled up the bottle of wine, popped off the top, took a drink, and handed it to my redheaded companion.

“I thought we were going to wait until later,” she said before she took a drink of her own.

“Well, I figured this was a good way to start the afternoon,” I said.

“Can’t complain about that one,” she replied.

“Plus, I figured it might help loosen you up a bit,” I said.

“Oh, are we doing something fun?” she asked.

“Well, not quite,” I said.

“Uh-oh,” she said as she shifted to look at me. “Am I in trouble?”

“No no, nothing like that,” I assured her. “I just thought maybe we could take this time to talk a little.”

“Um, okay,” the redhead said as she raised an eyebrow. “What are we talking about?”

“Well let’s start with why you decided to stay behind at the college over break,” I said.

“Is this a counseling session now?” she laughed before she took another drink.

“Why, do you need one?” I asked with a chuckle. “Really though I am just interested in you is all. I really like you and want you to feel comfortable talking to me.”

“Alright, fine,” Anna sighed, set down the bottle, and sat up. “I stayed up here because I didn’t want to see my hometown again. Between my parents and my ex-boyfriend there wasn’t much back there I wanted to see.”

“What happened between you and your parents?” I asked.

“They were just--” she paused and sighed. “We never exactly saw eye to eye. I could never do well enough to impress my dad, and my mother was always upset that I was not more feminine.”

“Sounds like that could be rough,” I said.

“Yeah, I just couldn’t take it anymore. That was one of the reasons I came to this school at all. I wanted to make something of myself on my own. I thought maybe if I could do well here without them, I could maybe make them proud of me.”

“Did it work?” I asked.

“Well, it hadn’t yet,” she replied. “I was doing good though. My grades were excellent, and I was at the top of every team I was a part of. It wasn’t good enough for my dad though.”

“What about your mom?” I asked.

“She was upset that I hadn’t picked up something like cheerleading,” she scoffed. “What upsets me the most is how much it hurts knowing that I won’t see them again. I mean most of the time I was with them life sucked.”

“Family is a complicated thing,” I said with a shrug. “Emotions are too, and we can’t always choose how we will react to any given situation.”

“I suppose,” the redhead muttered.

“Hey, if it helps you certainly did make something of yourself,” I said as I nudged her. “What we have done up here has not been easy, and you were able to keep everyone safe for several months before I even showed up. I don’t know what your parents would think of your actions so far, but you should definitely be proud of what you have done and who you have become. I’m proud of you.”

“Thanks, Tav,” Anna whispered, and then she looked at me and smiled.

“Of course,” I said as I picked up the bottle of wine. “Feel better?”

“Yeah, maybe I did need to talk this out a little,” she admitted.

I took a drink and then handed her the bottle of wine. Then I leaned in and kissed her neck as she took a long drink.

She sighed when my lips touched her skin, and her sighs turned into moans of pleasure as my lips, tongue, and fingers slowly explored the rest of her body.

Chapter 12

The next morning I woke with the naked redhead once more tangled around me, and the room still smelled of all the delicious sex we had enjoyed the night before. The morning sun was bright in the window, so I yawned and then gently shook Anna awake.

“Five more minutes,” she groaned.

“Not today,” I said in a groggy voice.

“Oh yeah, we have to go back to reality don’t we?” Anna asked as she sat up and rubbed her eyes.

“Yeah, we need to get packed up,” I said.

“We have the ATVs, can’t we sleep in a little?” She groaned.

“I don’t want to be here any later than we have to be,” I explained “I would prefer to make it back before dark if possible.”

“Probably a good idea, I guess,” she said with a sigh. “We don’t want the others to freak out at all.”

“Exactly,” I said with a nod. “We told them we would be back today and the more punctual we can be the better.”

“Fine, let’s do this,” Anna said before she gave me a small kiss and slipped out of bed.

I watched her tight naked ass bounce over to her clothes, and then I got out of bed and started to pull on a fresh pair of clothes that I had pilfered from the lodge. The pair of jeans were a little tight, but the green button up work shirt was comfortable.

“You think we can fit everything on the ATVs?” Anna asked as she pulled on a shirt for the first time in over a day.

“I think we can get most of it at least,” I said.

“Awesome,” Anna said. “By the way, your ass looks great in those jeans. They fit everything just right.”

“Thanks,” I chuckled. “Maybe I should wear tight pants more often.”

“I know none of us ladies would complain.” Anna said.

Once we were dressed, we headed out into the living room where our pile of loot awaited us.

“Alright, we need to prioritize here,” I said. “Take the food first, and then the guns and ammo. Everything else is secondary.”

“Got it,” Anna said with a nod. “I will fill our second duffle bag full of canned food and dry goods.”

“Good, I’ll fill our bags with whatever I can fit in them and then start trying to arrange things on the vehicles,” I said.

Anna nodded and disappeared into the kitchen with our spare duffle while I started to move our stash into the garage. The ATVs each had racks behind the seat. I tossed the duffle bag of guns onto the back of one and strapped our spare gas on around it. I was able to tie on the rifle case as well, but it didn’t leave a ton of room for the rider. I would take this ATV to let my companion have a slightly more comfortable trip.

I ate the rest of the food I had brought with me while I filled up my backpack with as much ammo as I could cram into it. Thankfully the backpack was made for heavy loads, and it rested nicely on my shoulders. I was just glad that I wouldn’t have to hike with it the whole way home.

“I have the food,” Anna exclaimed as she emerged from the house with a full duffle bag. “I tossed the knives in here as well. They look way nicer than the stuff we have back on campus.”

“Good call,” I said. “We can never have too many knives.”

“That’s what I thought,” she said before she dropped the duffle bag next to me. “How’s it going out here? Still think we can bring back everything?”

“Not sure, first ATV is already loaded,” I said.

“Man, just imagine how much stuff we would have to leave behind if we hadn’t found these,” Anna said as she patted the four wheeler.

“At least we could have started our trip back already,” I joked.

“My back would still not think it was worth it,” she said.

“Oh, come on, I wouldn’t make us carry so much that we broke ourselves,” I said.

“No, but I’d try to take too much anyway,” she chuckled.

“Fair enough,” I said with a laugh. “How much do you have left to grab from the kitchen?”

“I cleared it out,” she said. “I was wondering though, should we grab a bottle of scotch or wine from the cellar?”

“Sounds good,” I said with a nod. “Get what you can carry, but remember, we’ll come back here in a few days to get the rest.”

“Will do,” she said. “Be back shortly.” With that she was gone again.

While she was gone, I got the second ATV packed with the food bag, another bag full of spare clothes, and random bits of gear that I figured might be important, such as the climbing equipment, and some cold weather clothes. I filled my companion’s bag with even more soft clothing items but left room for the alcohol.

Then I rolled the vehicles outside and did a quick look through the house to make sure I hadn’t left anything very important behind. I got back in time to see Anna packing some wine and scotch into her backpack and pulling it on.

“We ready to go?” she asked at my approach.

“Yeah, I think so,” I replied.

“I am kinda sad that we have to leave so soon,” she said as she stared at the lodge.

“We will be back,” I said as I mounted my gun laiden four wheeler.

“Yeah, but it was a nice break,” she said. “I almost wish I could stay up here forever.”

“It would be a bad idea in the long run,” I said.

“Yeah, I know,” Anna sighed. “Let’s just go before I decide to stay anyway.”

I laughed and turned on the ATV. Then we rumbled off down the mountain with all of our loot. It was a nice sunny day, and, if the route I planned was as clear as it should be, it would be an easy and good day to ride.

The return trip took us only around four hours. Most of that time was spent picking our way down the mountain so we didn’t flip the four wheelers, but once we were in the forest, we were able to weave our way through the trees and follow an almost perfectly straight line back to the campus.

We broke free of the trees at the edge of campus and were greeted by a warm spring breeze and a partly cloudy sky, but no one greeted us as we drove over to our dorm room and parked.

“Where is everyone?” Anna asked?

“Being smart,” I said with a smile. “We didn’t have a vehicle when we left so they probably heard us coming and went to hide.” I stepped into the building and made my way to the top of the basement stairs. “Come on out, it’s just me and Anna!”

“Oh thank god!” Tara called out from the darkness.

“Welcome back,” Rolly said as he put away his gun and started up the stairs.

“Thanks,” I said. “Nice job sticking to the plan.”

“Well, wasn’t the first time we had to use it since you left,” Paige said as she too emerged from the darkness.

“What--” I began worriedly.

“They just got back, let's give them a moment before we start in on that story,” Bailey interrupted. “How did things go on your end?”

“Started out poorly but ended well,” I said. “Sounds like it might have gone better for us than things went here for you guys.”

“Wasn’t a big deal,” Rolly said. “No reason to bother you with our boring story just yet. We aren’t in any danger right this moment.”

“Alright,” I said. “Come see what we brought back then.”

“Anything good?” Paige asked.

“Lots of great stuff,” I said with a nod. “More guns and ammo.”

“Awesome,” Bailey said with a grin.

“Hey guys,” Anna said with a wide smile as we all stepped into the courtyard. “You would not believe the cabin we found. There was this massive bed, a jacuzzi tub, and running hot water.”

“Wait, you guys found paradise?” Tara asked. “When can I go? I haven't felt hot water on my skin in, like, way too long.”

“Not quite,” Anna said. “Just a fancy ski lodge up at the top of a mountain.”

“Don’t worry, you’ll all get a chance to go see it,” I assured them.

“Well we are glad you guys are back,” Rolly said.

“Seems there was some excitement here while we were gone,” I said to Anna.

“What happened?” she asked.

“Don’t know, they won’t tell me yet,” I said with a shrug.

“Sorry for wanting to give you a moment to settle in,” Bailey said.

“Well, what if we go first?” Anna asked. “Our trip was not all luxurious baths at the top of snow-covered mountain peaks.”

“Sure,” Paige said. “You guys look mostly fine so I bet it wasn’t even that bad.

I laughed, looked at Anna, and raised an eyebrow.

“Oh, it was bad,” Anna said with a chuckle. “We found a meth lab in the middle of the woods. The whole area was like some sort of cursed ground right out of a horror movie, and the interior was not much better.”

“Let me guess, you found bodies in there,” Tara teased.

“Not quite,’ I said. “But it was pretty gross in there. There were several dozen old beer cans, discarded trash, and more dust that I had ever seen in one place.”

“Seriously?” Bailey asked as her face twisted into a grimace of disgust. “That sounds kinda gross.”

“That wasn’t even the worst part,” Anna said. “The basement was full of drug equipment and there was a room full of needles and nudie mags.”

“Don’t forget about that trap,” I said with a smirk.

“Are you sure you weren’t in some sort of horror movie?” Paige asked skeptically. “This sounds pretty ridiculous.”

“I really wish we were just making up some horror movie details, but no this place was very real. It seems that the druggie who lived there didn’t care much for cleaning.”

“Well tell us about this trap,” Tara said.

“There was a swinging knife thing tucked into the basement ceiling,” I said.

“Yeah, it was hooked up to a tripwire,” Anna said. “The knives were all rusty and gross.”

“I might have hit that tripwire were it not for Anna,” I said.

“Yeesh, this place sounds bad,” Bailey said.

“What about that crazed drug guy Anna mentioned?” Rolly asked. “Was he waiting at the end of this gauntlet of traps or something?”

“No, he snuck in while we were in the basement and tried to ambush us,” I said.

“It almost worked too,” Anna said. “But we managed to get back outside and take cover in the trees long enough for Tav to take him out.”

“Anna helped,” I was quick to point out. “She distracted him so that I could line up a clear shot.”

“Did you at least get anything useful from the horror house?” Paige asked.

“Yeah, actually,” Anna said. “We got some guns and a fair amount of ammo. We almost filled an entire duffle bag just on what that guy had.”

“Sweet,” Bailey said. “I have been itching to shoot more since you guys left.”

“Well I am glad you guys are okay, but I am still jealous of this lodge you guys found with running water,” Tara said.

“Don’t worry that place isn’t going anywhere,” I said. “Now your guys’ turn, what happened while we were gone?”

“Bikers came this way,” Rolly said. “They didn’t hit up the campus, but they rolled into town.”

“We stuck to the plan and hid in the basement,” Paige said.

“Yeah,” Rolly agreed with a nod. “They stuck around a while though. We heard their engines for at least a couple hours. Once they were gone, we emerged and went into town.”

“It wasn’t pretty,” Bailey muttered.

“They totally trashed the store,” Tara said. “Looked like they broke almost every window they could come across too.”

“Yeah, they were very destructive,” Paige said.

“Did they come up to the campus?” I asked.

“Didn’t seem like it,” Rolly said. “Still don’t like the fact they were poking around here.”

“Me either,” I said. “I think we need to focus more on defense in the coming days. Trouble is coming our way far too often for my liking, and I don’t think that is going to stop any time soon. I think it’s time to train. First though, let’s celebrate a little, and go through our loot.”

I turned, untied the load on my four wheeler, and pulled off the rifle case. I set it on the ground before dropping the duffle of guns next to it.

“What’s all of this?” Rolly asked as he knelt down and opened the case.

“New toys,” I said with a smirk.

The handiman let out a low whistle as he looked at the rifle held in the case.

“Wow, is that gun as nice as it looks?” Bailey asked.

“It is indeed,” I said as I unzipped the duffle.

“Who gets that one?” Paige asked as she nodded at the H&K.

“That one’s mine,” I laughed. “Got some less fancy but equally effective weapons here too.” I pulled out the SKS and handed it to Anna. Then I handed Paige the double-barreled shotgun.

“Holy shit, this stuff is awesome,” Paige said as she broke up the shotgun to check the barrels.

“Yeah, nice haul,” Anna said as she picked up the little Hi-Point and checked the chamber.

“Great job guys!” Bailey said with a grin. “I never thought I’d be so giddy to see new guns! What else did you get?”

Anna pulled the gear off her ATV and set it gently on the ground and then gestured for Paige to open it.

“Oh sweet,” the brunette said as she cradled the gun, stooped down and pulled open the duffle bag. “There is scotch, whiskey, and beer in here.”

“Hell yeah,” Tara said. “This is so awesome. Except for the whole meth lab part, it sounds like you guys pretty much had a vacation.”

“Trip seems like a great success overall,” Rolly said.

“Oh my gosh, are those clean sheets?” Bailey exclaimed as she pushed in next to Paige and pulled out some blue sheets from the bag. “These are so soft and expensive feeling!”

“I thought you might like that,” Anna grinned.

“When can we shoot our new guns?” Paige asked as she stood up and caressed her shotgun.

“We will need to clean them up some first, but we have enough ammo to spend some more time training. I think we should do that this afternoon.”

“You just got back, are you sure you want to just get right back into things?” Bailey asked.

“Trust me, we had plenty of rest while we were up there,” Anna said with a grin.

“They totally had sex,” Tara giggled.

“That’s not what I said,” Anna replied as she rolled her eyes.

“You didn’t have to,” Tara replied with a wink. “You are blushing ten different shades of red.”

“No, I’m not,” Anna groaned, but it was obvious that she was.

“I’m not hating,” Tara laughed. “You get it girl. Isn’t Tav’s cock wonderful?”

“Do we have to keep talking about--” Anna started.

“Welcome to the club,” Paige interrupted. “You think we should all get matching T-shirts--”

“I think we should worry about that later,” I interrupted. “We need to make sure you’re all ready in case someone comes to hurt us. Even if the bikers lose interest in the area, others will come trying to pick on the weak. We can’t be weak.”

“You’re right,” Paige agreed. “Sorry, we have way more important things to worry about right now.”

“No need to apologize,” I reassured her, “but I feel like we are being rude to Rolly.”

“Ahh, kids,” Rolly laughed. “All your talk reminds me of when I was a lad. I’m not offended. I appreciate the five of you. You’ve done more for this old heart than you know.”

“Ahhh, thanks Rolly!” Bailey said as she hugged the old man.

“Now, let’s go test out these new guns,” Rolly said as he gave me a nod.

“Someone go grab them,” I said, and the four girls moved to obey my order.

The gun range had gotten an upgrade in the few days I had been gone. Rolly had built the covered lanes section for us to shoot in complete with benches, individual lanes, and a shelf to hold guns and ammo.

“Very nice,” I said as I set down the rifle case. “You got this up quicker than I would have expected.”

“The girls helped out a lot,” Rolly said. “Seems you taught them well.”

“It’s still pretty impressive,” I said. “Nice job all of you.”

“You are a pretty good teacher,” Bailey said. “

“Glad you think so,” I said. “Because today you have some more learning to do.”

“We already know how to shoot,” Tara said.

“Yes, but now you need to know how to clean and maintain your weapons,” I said.

“This isn’t going to be as fun as shooting is it?” Anna asked.

“No, but if we don’t maintain our weapons they will fail us, and this is not something we can have happen,” I explained.

“Probably a good thing too,” Rolly said. “This stuff you took from that drug guy looks pretty beat up.”

“All the rust is superficial,” I said. “I wouldn’t have bothered bringing them back if I didn’t think they would work.”

I broke out the gun cleaning kit stuck in the rifle case. The kit was tailored for the AR-15, but there were enough rods and brushes to take care of all the guns we currently had. There was enough solvent and cleaner here to last us at least a couple weeks. Though I would certainly want to keep an eye out for more in my searches.

“What did I miss?” Paige asked as she came running up with the rest of our guns.

“We get to learn how to clean guns,” Tara groaned.

“Oh, sweet,” the brunette said.

“You would think that was fun,” Tara replied as she rolled her eyes.

Paige shrugged, sat down, and began to pull out all of the guns. She laid them out on the bench and looked over at me expectantly.

“Alright, looks like we are good to go,” I said as I pulled out the fancy rifle. “First, we need to go over how to break down our weapons. Each one is going to be a little different, but once you know what to look for you can strip, disassemble, and clean any gun.”

The girls went about unloading and clearing each of their pistols as I spoke. When they were done, I sat down beside them and pulled out my own pistol. Then I unloaded it and started to go through the process of pulling it apart. I went over the parts of the gun as I took the slide off, pulled out the spring, and pulled out the firing pin.

We disassembled each of our weapons and then cleaned the mechanisms and barrels. Once we were done with our pistols, we moved to the long rifles. We took a little extra time with the gear we pulled from the meth house. A little solvent and gun oil later the weapons were polished and looking as good as new.

By the time we were done each of the girls had smudges of black grease on their face and hands.

“You know, this wasn’t so bad,” Tara said as she ran a cloth with gun oil over her pretty glock pistol. “I mean, I don’t want to do it every day but it was kind of empowering.”

“Yeah, I like the smell of all the oil and grease,” Bailey said.

“I could see this being a sort of zen thing to do,” Paige said as she put the charging handle back in place on the AR.

“I mean, this is cool and all, but can we get back to shooting now?” Anna asked.

“Yeah,” I said with a laugh. “You all did good, now let's put some rounds down range.”

The girls were up in a moment, clearly eager to shoot. They each of them took up a spot in their own lane and waited patiently while Rolly and I set up a couple dozen empty tin cans down range.

We started with basic target practice. All of them were getting better, but Tara still struggled more than the rest. After a half hour of basic target practice I switched to basic combat drills.

“First, we are going to work on reloading,” I said as I paced behind them. “In a fire fight knowing how to reload quickly and without thinking is a huge asset.”

I pulled out my pistol, shot two rounds down range, ejected the magazine, and slammed in a fresh one all in one fluid motion.

“Whoa,” Paige said as she raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah, that was slick,” Rolly said.

“Well, I want you all to work on doing the same thing,” I said. “You are going to fire two rounds, eject the magazine, and load a new one in.”

“What do we do after that?” Bailey asked.

“You do it again,” I said. “Practice getting faster with each go, but don’t move so fast as to put yourself or those around you at risk of a misfire accident.”

“How accurate are we supposed to be?” Anna asked.

“Don’t worry about accuracy,” I said. “For now just work on the act of reloading.”

We spent thirty minutes going over the reloading drill before we switched over to moving targets. We setup a simple target pulled along by a rope. It was not exactly fast, but it allowed the girls to work on something less static.

We practiced until the sky started to grow orange around us, and for a moment we enjoyed ourselves and forgot about the reason we were training in the first place.

“Alright, let’s get cleaned up and make some dinner,” I said as I set down my smoking pistol.

“Do we have to stop?” Bailey asked. “I was thinking we could do a few more reload drills.”

“We have to ration our ammo,” I said. “We might have picked up a lot more but if we practice too much, we won’t have what we need in case of a fight.”

“I’m getting hungry anyway,” Rolly said. “I’ll get the fire started.”

“Thanks, Rolly,” Anna said as she tucked her gun into her pants. “I could actually really go for some hot food.”

“Well then I will do my best to not disappoint,” the old man said with a chuckle. He waved and headed off.

The girls and I started to clean up the range and pack up the guns.

“I’m glad to have you back,” Paige said to me as she put the SKS back into the duffle bag.

“Oh I bet you are,” Tara said with a grin. “It’s been a few days, you probably need a night with our man.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Paige groaned as she turned red and looked away.

“Well, it’s totally what I meant,” Tara giggled as she winked at me.

Anna and Bailey both chuckled and shook their heads as they picked spent shell casings up off the ground.

“Don’t worry ladies, if you need anything tonight you know where I’ll be,” I said.

“Might just have to come say hello,” Paige muttered.

“You know I’ll welcome you anytime,” I said.

“Noted,” the brunette said with a smile.

We finished cleaning the gun range and dropped off all of the weapons and gear in the dorm before we met Rolly at the fire pit.

The air was already filled with the smell of cooking meat, and the old man hummed happily as we approached.

“What’s for dinner?” Bailey asked.

“Some deer and beans,” Rolly said. “Nothing fancy.”

“Smells delicious though,” Anna said as she took a seat.

“Agreed,” I said. “Not as nice as the filet mignon and lobster Anna and I were eating at the lodge, though.”

“No fucking way!” Tara exclaimed.

“There is no justice in the world,” Paige pouted.

“Alright, alright, I was just teasing to get a reaction out of you,” I chuckled.

“Yeah, there was no lobster,” Anna chuckled, “but we did eat all the filet mignon.”

“Oh, stop, bitch,” Tara groaned at the redhead.

“Assholes,” Bailey laughed.

“That was a low blow,” Paige giggled.

“Missed you all,” Anna said as she blew kisses at the other three women.

The area around the firepit had been cleaned up since we left. Most of the glass had been removed and replaced with some large stone gravel that Rolly must have found. It looked nice and gave the place a more permanent feel.

“Anna let’s drink this.” I pulled a bottle of wine out of my pack and popped the cork as Rolly started to make up a plate for each of us.

“Oooohh,” Paige cooed. “I have so missed wine. Hand it here.”

I chuckled and passed it over to our bookish companion.

“I want it next,” Tara said. “I like my booze, but I have been known to enjoy a good vintage.”

“Well, we can’t promise it’s that,” Anna said. “I sorta just grabbed the bottle at random.”

“I’d drink Boones Farm at this point,” Tara replied.

“It’s good though,” Paige said as she wiped her mouth and passed the bottle. “Thanks guys.”

“Of course,” I said. “We gotta look out for each other. Sometimes that means bringing home a bunch of alcohol.”

“Food’s ready,” Rolly said as he passed around the meal.

We all ate and drank for a while just enjoying each other’s company. Despite how nice the lodge had been it was nice to be back in our new home. I smiled as I watched the girls laugh and joke as they passed around the wine and was reminded of all we had here that was worth fighting for. I let out a sigh and finished the food on my plate.

“Paige, have you been working on that biker map I found a couple weeks back?” I asked

“Yes,” she said as she looked at me and raised an eyebrow. “How come?”

“Well, have you managed to find out where the bikers came from using it?”

“Yeah, I think so,” she said.

“Wait a minute, you aren’t thinking of doing something stupid are you?” Anna asked.

“No,” I said as I shook my head. “I am thinking about doing something necessary. Right now we know very little about the bikers, and that gives them a major advantage. They can just show up here at any time and raise hell. I want to be able to return the favor if we have to.”

“So what, we take the fight to them?” Bailey asked.

“Not we, just me,” I said.

“I’m with Anna here, that sounds like it is pretty stupid,” Tara said.

“It might be if it was anything other than a scouting mission,” I said. “All I want to do is see what we are up against.”

“And you’re sure that is a good idea?” Anna asked. “I mean a million different things could go wrong.”

“Maybe, but this needs to happen,” I said. “We don’t have any idea how many of them there are, what sort of weapons they have, or what sort of base, if any, they have established.”

“Don’t worry, I am sure Tav did plenty of these types of scouting missions while he was in the military,” Rolly said.

“I did a few,” I said with a nod. “I’m trained specifically to operate behind enemy lines in hostile territory.”

“But what if something goes wrong?” Bailey asked.

“Yeah, if you get in too deep, what will you do?” Paige added.

“I won’t,” I said. “I promise.”

“So then what exactly is your plan?” Anna asked.

“I’ll take the map that Paige has and head out early tomorrow morning. Then I’ll infiltrate the biker camp, get an estimate of their strength and numbers, and then head back to you.”

“That seems pretty simple,” Tara said with a shrug.

“It is,” I said as I turned to look at Anna. “If things go south, and I run into trouble, I’ll make enough noise to scare them off.”

“You better,” the redhead growled. “If you don’t come back alive, I’ll kill you myself.”

“Noted,” I said with a grin.

“You just can’t help but throw yourself into danger on our behalf can you?” Paige teased as she handed me the bottle of wine.

“People do strange things for beautiful women.” I grinned and then I took a large drink. I figured I would try to enjoy myself a little bit, because tomorrow was gonna be a long day.

Chapter 13

The next morning was cold and a little damp. Paige was nowhere to be seen despite having come to bed with me the night before, but she often slipped out super early in the mornings.

I got out of bed and got dressed in a pair of camo cargo pants and an olive green T-shirt. I went with more natural tones so that I could better hide among the forest foliage for my scouting mission today.

After getting dressed, I moved on to my bag. It needed to be packed carefully so that I could fit in everything that would be needed for the trip. I was bringing the new H&K rifle fitted with the 4x sight, front grip, bipod, and all of the spare magazines, so I attached the single point sling to the stock and slipped it around my shoulder. I also prepared my freshly cleaned Springfield XD. Out of all the pistols I had found so far this one was my favorite. It had high capacity magazines, had proved to be accurate, and felt good to hold. My knife completed the weapons section of my loadout. If I was forced to use a weapon on this trip, I hoped it was the knife rather than any of the other weapons I brought along with me so I could maintain stealth.

Once all of my weapons were packed, I stuffed my backpack with some water, jerky, and first aid supplies. I put the spotting scope in the top of my backpack wrapped in the nicest, softest, towel I could find around the campus. Taking it along meant that I wouldn’t need to get as close and thus reduce risk on this mission.

The sun was starting to peek through the boards in my window as I finished packing my bag and pulling on my vest. It seemed the girls had been nice enough to give it a scrub while I was away, and it was now only partially stained with mountain lion blood.

I quietly slipped into the hallway, since I didn’t want to wake any of the sleeping girls, but when I got to the common room, I found them all up and waiting for me.

“Well, this is a surprise,” I said.

“What, you think we can’t get up early?” Anna asked with a smirk.

“That’s not what I meant, but what are you guys doing up?”

“We don’t think this is a good idea,” Paige said bluntly.

“Yeah, we are afraid you are going to get hurt,” Bailey said.

“Yep, and then what the fuck would we do without you?” Tara whined.

“At least let one of us go with you,” Anna exclaimed.

“That’s a really bad idea,” I said. “It is more dangerous to bring someone along. None of you are trained to do this like I am. I am very proud of all you girls have learned so far, but you are still not ready for a scouting mission like this one.”

“But you said we aren’t supposed to go anywhere alone,” Tara said with a frown.

“I know,” I sighed. “But as I said last night, I will be alright. I am just going to slip in, get the info, and get out. It will be just like my first trip to Lanceton.”

“Only with a lot more bikers,” Paige said.

“Yeah, but we have all ran into those goons before,” I added. “We know that they are not the brightest group of people.”

“That’s true,” Anna muttered.

“Alright, fine, we’ll let you leave,” Tara said as she crossed her arms over her chest. “You just have to come back.”

“Oh I plan on it,” I said with a smirk. “Anna already said she would kill me if I didn't.”

“I still mean it,” the redhead said with a laugh.

“I don’t doubt it,” I said. “It’s also cute how you girls think you could stop me from leaving if you didn’t agree with me.”

“Hey, we are scrappy,” Bailey joked.

“I suppose you are,” I smiled. “Now, if you’ll excuse me I need to get going. The sooner I get there, the sooner I can make it back. Paige, you have that map?”

The brunette nodded, adjusted her thick black glasses, and pulled the paper from her pocket. Then she opened it up and pointed to a spot clearly marked in red ink. “That is where I think they came from.”

“Is it anywhere important?” I asked

“Not really,” she said. “It’s just another small town.”

“Well, maybe I’ll find out what it was that drove them to choose that place as their home.”

“Be careful,” Tara said as I was given the map. “We all know you are a badass but, like, we really want you to come back safe.”

“I know, I won’t take unnecessary risks,” I said before I looked over the map again and tucked it into my vest pocket. “Take care while I’m gone.”

“We will,” Anna assured me. “Now go be a hero.”

The girls all gathered around and wrapped me in a large warm group hug.

I chuckled but shook my head. I wasn’t a hero, but if that’s what they needed to think to feel better about me leaving then so be it. I gave them a wave and headed out to the courtyard.

I went out to the parking lot and pulled the black tarp off the old Triumph motorcycle we had taken from one of the bikers I had killed back when I first arrived. I filled it up with gas, strapped an extra can to the side, and started up the engine. I pulled on my helmet and was about to head out when Paige and Bailey came running up.

“Wait!” Paige yelled. She waved a piece of paper over her head as she approached.

“Whats up?” I asked as I turned off the engine. “I hope you aren't here to try to stop me again.”

“No, nothing like that,” Bailey said as she stopped and tried to catch her breath.

“Yeah, we actually had something we wanted to talk to you about,” Paige said. “It’s about Rolly.”

“Is everything okay?” I asked.

“Not exactly,” Bailey said. “While you were gone, we found out that he has a heart condition. It’s manageable with medication.”

“Yeah, but he was worried that you might make him take it easy, so he didn’t say anything,” Paige added before she handed me a slip of paper. “He is running low, Tav. To stretch it out, Rolly has been skipping days at random. I wrote down the name of the drug. If you can find some place with a pharmacy could you see if you can find more?”

“Of course,” I said as I tucked the paper into my pocket. “Thanks for telling me about this. I really wish the old man would have just told me himself. I could have taken care of this last time we were in Lanceton.”

“Yeah, that’s what I told him,” Bailey said. “He didn’t want us telling you even after we found out a couple nights ago.”

“Rolly is one stubborn old handyman,” Paige said with a smile.

“That he is,” I agreed. “That’s why I need to make sure he sticks around for a while. I think there was a pharmacy in Lanceton. I’ll make a stop and see if they have what we need on my way towards trouble.”

“Thanks, Tav,” Bailey said.

“Yeah, I really don’t know what we would do without you,” Paige said.

“You guys would do awesome, but don’t worry, I won’t be gone long,” I said before I slipped the motorcycle helmet back on, started the engine, and headed out of town.

It was only ten miles to Lanceton, and despite the abandoned cars that littered the road I was able to make the trip in less than twenty minutes. I knew the bikers had been around and did not want to risk riding directly into a group of them, so I pulled up outside of town, rolled my bike out of sight, and finished the trip on foot.

Things looked worse than they had during my last trip to Lanceton. There were more broken windows and several of the houses had collapsed into charred heaps, and I guessed that the bikers had evidently come back looking for whoever killed their friends here.

I pulled my pistol and checked every alley, crossroad, and intersection as I made my way towards the center of town. Most of the businesses were set up in the small downtown area that surrounded a quaint city park. If I was going to find a pharmacy it was going to be in that area.

I was only a couple blocks from the city center when I heard the laughing. It suddenly became very clear that I was not alone. My pace slowed as I moved quietly through the streets.

A couple gunshots echoed, and the sound of shattering glass filled the air for a moment. Then there was a cheer followed by wild laughter, and I rolled my eyes as another couple shots filled the air. It seemed I was just in time for target practice, so I snuck through the alley toward the noises.

Two scrawny looking biker goons stood in the square with their guns drawn. The first goon, a short man with stringy long blond hair, tossed up an empty alcohol bottle, while the second goon, a taller man with short cropped black hair, took shots with his shiny silver beretta. The bottle crashed to the ground after the gunman missed three shots.

“You, like, fucking suck dude,” the blond man laughed.

“Shuddup, I’m just drunk,” the tall one replied.

“Oh yeah, and what’s your excuse when you’re sober?” the blond man joked.

“Hey, fuck you man,” the tall one yelled.

“No thanks, I'm not into dudes,” the greasy blond laughed. “Especially ones as ugly as you.”

Both men broke into a fit of laughter and struggled to stay upright.

I rolled my eyes again and pulled up the rifle that hung from my shoulder. I didn’t see anyone other than these two idiots, and I was fairly sure if they had backup they would be close by. The guys were less than 20 yards away and aiming for vital organs was almost trivial with the 4x sight currently attached to the top of my gun. I smiled a little, let out a slow breath, and took the first shot. The blond man lurched backwards as a puff of red plumed from his chest, but before he had dropped to the ground, I shifted and took the second shot. The tall biker dropped instantly as I put a round right through his spine at the base of his skull. Then I waited, but no reinforcements came.

I stood up and let the gun hang on its sling once more. It was an impressive piece of firepower with a perfectly sighted optic. Sure, I had been close, but I had not expected it to hit so precisely where I had aimed. I patted the still warm gun and nodded. It was nice having something reliable and accurate at my side.

I marched into the square and picked up two new guns. The tall man had the shiny silver beretta, but the short blond had a sawn off pump action 12 gauge shoved into his pants. Both the stock and the barrel had been cut down in an uneven and amateur fashion. The guys were light on ammo with only twenty seven rounds of 9mm on the tall man, and eighteen rounds of 12 gauge birdshot stuffed into the pockets of the other.

I added the guns and ammo to my pack before I stood up and scanned the area. There was a small convenience store at the corner of the square with a red pharmacy sign still hanging in the broken window, so I crossed the square and stepped into the building.

It was dark and most of the shelves had been picked clean and toppled over. I clicked on my flashlight and stepped over countless bags of moldy bread and rotting snacks as I made my way to the back of the store. The large window that separated the main store from the pharmacy was cracked but remained intact, so I put a couple bullets through the lock, and pulled the door open. The room beyond was well stocked with lots of different types of pharmaceuticals, and I gave a silent fist pump.

Then I took out the paper from my vest and let out a sigh. Paige had clean and easy to read handwriting, but I realized I would have to go through all of the drugs here until I found the one on the paper.

“Hopefully I find it fast,” I whispered to myself as I pulled up the rolling chair and went to work reading labels.

I went through countless bottles of hard to pronounce pills before I finally stumbled upon half a dozen bottles of Rollys prescribed heart medicine.

“Helly yeah.” I let out a sigh of relief and put the bottles in my backpack. I didn’t know how long the bottles would last, but I was glad to know that, at least for a while, Rolly would be okay.

Since I was already here, I saw no reason not to pick up a few more pills that could come in handy, so I kept searching through the bottles until I found four bottles of amoxicillin antibiotics, and a couple bottles of antihistamines in case anyone had allergy problems.

Then I saw some oval packs of pills that I recognized.

“Hell yeah,” I said as I pulled one of the oval packs off the shelf. They were grouped together with other small pills in boxes that all seemed to indicate that they were contraceptives of various brands, so I shoveled all the bright colored pills and packages on the shelves around the oval birth control pill containers into my pack. I lost count of everything I took, but my bag was now stuffed, and I figured that the girls could decide whether they wanted to start using them or not.

I made my way back through the store and out into the noon day sun. It was painfully bright, and it took my eyes a moment to adjust. Based on the position of the sun it seemed that I had been in the store for a couple hours. Once my eyes adjusted, I made my way through town and back towards my bike.

Under the comfort of the forest shade I stopped, took a seat on my bike, pulled out lunch, and looked up at the sky as I took a bite of jerky. I was more behind than I had hoped to be by this point, but maybe that was for the best. My operation would be easier under cover of darkness and based on this map I would still make it to the base before nightfall. That meant I had some time to kill.

I took my time and enjoyed the jerky, dry crackers, and boiled water I had packed for the trip while I listened to the birds chirp happily around me. Things were still rather beautiful despite this whole end of the world scenario. It was not exactly the world I had hoped to come back to when I left the woods but, surprisingly, things were good.

Though I could certainly do with less crazy asshole bikers and meth heads.

After I ate, I turned on my bike, tossed the water bottle back into my pack, threw on my helmet, and looked at my map one more time before I took off.

The trees whipped by as I weaved my way along the winding mountain roads and dodged the many abandoned cars in my path. Every sign I passed had been vandalized, and the closer I got to the biker camp the more burnt-out cars I noticed. A couple miles later I passed two bodies rotting on the side of the road. They were both wearing a state trooper uniform and neither of them had a head.

Unfortunately, this was the sort of destruction I had expected to find, especially after Lanceton.

About an hour into my trip there was a break in the trees to my left that led to a small town, or what was left of it. I pulled off the road, pushed up the visor of the helmet, and shook my head. Most of the buildings were black and charred piles of rubble, and large anarchy symbols were sprayed in bright red paint on anything still standing.

The bikers were nothing but a pack of feral dogs, and someone needed to put them down. I flipped down my visor, gunned the engine, and tore out of town.

The road took me over a small mountain and down into a valley full of dense forest. I passed a second town, this one closer to the road, but I didn’t even need to slow down to see the burnt-out ruins it had become. It seemed that these guys had a real thing for fire. Honestly, I was a little suprised they had not torched a house or two when they visited the college town.

I rode for another half-hour until it became clear that I was getting close. Instead of graffiti the traffic signs were now adorned with barely cleaned skulls and splashes of dried blood. By the time the sky started to darken, I could hear the roar of engines faintly in the distance. That was my sign to pull over, so I hid my bike, left my backpack, and headed into the forest towards the rumble of motorcycles.

The sound of laughter, and the occasional cheer mingled with the sound of engines as I drew closer to what I could only assume was my destination. The occasional gunshot mixed with the cacophony of noises, and I made out bits of firelight through the trees. I smelled oily smoke and exhaust with hints of rot and decay that painted a vivid scene in my mind even though I didn’t even have a clear view of their camp yet.

I came to the top of a wooded hill and climbed the tallest tree. There, about a mile to the north, was what looked to be a large encampment. I could see many small fires burning in random places and dozens of small black dots moving around the area, so I pulled out the spotters scope to get a closer look.

A single road led into town, but there was a large gate of plywood and scrap metal that seemed to be patrolled my half a dozen figures. The front of the gate looked to be adorned with dozens of corpses impaled on spikes.

Fuck. These assholes were insane.

Bikers zipped in and out of town at irregular intervals, and the whole place seemed to be full of chaos. Even with the help of the scope I couldn’t make out enough details.

“I gotta get closer,” I muttered as I put down the spotters scope. I took out my map and drew a rough map of the town on the back while I worked on a plan to get inside. If I was going to learn what I was up against, I couldn’t just hide in the woods and watch, but lucky for me the only thing that seemed to be patrolled was the front gate. The rest of the town was ringed by trees and most of the activity seemed to be based on the center of the encampment.

My plan was to sneak through the forest on the west side of town, slip into the small residential section, and make my way towards the center. There was very little movement and activity around the dark houses that sat on the west side and, under cover of darkness, the area would provide me ample places to hide. I nodded and climbed down the tree. There were still a couple of hours before nightfall, but I had a bit of a hike ahead of me.

I cut a path close to the edge of the forest as I made my way around towards the west side. During the trip I passed close enough to the gate to be able to get a better view. More bodies that I had been unable to make out with the scope were strung up around the barricade, and a handful of them were tagged with the anarchy symbol in bright red. The bodies were all at different stages of decomposition, but there was a single thing that tied them all together. Every single body decorating these psychos’ gate were in uniform. I could make out cops, state troopers, and a few National Guard.

I growled and balled my fists. Their distaste for authority was clear, and it made me sick. While I knew that these types were bound to crop up, I had hoped that I wouldn’t have to deal with them so soon after coming back to what remained of civilization. Large red lines were etched into my palms as I forced myself to relax my fingers. The more I saw of this place the more I wished they gave me a reason to show them that there was still justice in the world.

“You are just here to get intel,” I muttered under my breath as I made myself keep going. When darkness fell, I wanted to be ready, and I couldn’t let my anger distract me from the real reason I was here.

Yeah, I needed to get intel, but maybe it wouldn’t hurt for me to kill a few of them in the process?

Chapter 14

I waited at the edge of camp until the sun set. The neighborhood I looked over was quiet, and dark. Three guys stumbled by at one point, pissed into the trees, and headed back into town. It was easy to slip into town since no one seemed to be worried that they might get infiltrated from any direction but the front.

As I entered the neighborhood it became clear why the bikers avoided this part of town. The buildings were trashed, and the streets and yards were littered with decomposing dead. Unlike those at the gate these weren’t wearing uniforms.

I stopped and put a hand over my mouth as I looked down at the mutilated corpse of what had once been a teenage boy.

“These fucking animals,” I muttered as I shook my head. It had been a long time since I had seen something this bad.

I continued through the neighborhood and saw no end to the bodies. In fact, there were more of them the closer I got towards where the bikers stayed.

And most of them were women.

Several female corpses were fresh enough to show no real signs of rot, but they were covered in bruises and clad in only torn shreds of clothing. Some were actually naked, and I had to take a few deep breaths when I stepped around them. I had forgotten how hard it was to distance myself from the atrocities around me, but if I wanted this to remain a scouting operation, I had to remain stoic.

While I looked for a place to hunker down until late in the night, I noticed an ancient, battered pick up truck. It was likely an old farm truck and was old enough that it might just still run. I didn’t know if that guess was correct, but it was worth keeping in mind.

I set up in a small house on the edge of the neighborhood that overlooked the bulk of the town. I started by making sure all of the doors were locked and barricaded in case someone tried to get in. Then I found a nice spot in one of the second story bedrooms and settled in for a long night.

The whole town was built around what was once a Vermont State Police HQ, but like so much of the world around here, it was defaced and adorned with grizzly proof of the new occupants barbaric tendencies.

While no bodies were strung up on the building itself there were some skulls hanging in the doorway, and the anarchy symbol had been used generously as a means to cover up the state trooper symbol and name. There were also half a dozen guys setup outside the main entrance and at least two at the two other doors I could see from my vantage point. It was the most heavily guarded building in this entire area, so I guessed this is where they either stored their guns or where their leader lived.

Dozens of Triumph motorcycles sat in a gas station parking lot across the street, and groups of bikers were spread out around the area in small groups huddled near fire barrels. The bikers laughed, drank, and occasionally fought among themselves, and I watched people routinely ride in and out of town.

There were two other buildings that seemed to be important aside from the main station. The first was a three story brick apartment building that seemed to be fairly well traveled and based on the flickering orange light coming from a dozen different windows I would guess it was fairly well occupied. Unlike the station, no one guarded the apartments, but the number of bikers that hung around it meant that getting inside would be a bit of an issue.

The second was what looked to be a small grocery store. It was stocked, well lit, and guarded by two men with shotguns. Unlike almost every other building in the city the glass windows in the front of the store remained intact, and I watched a few transactions transpire. Some biker would come up, talk to a guard, and offer something to him. Then the guard would take the item and go inside before coming out with something else. The grocery store seemed to be where the gang stockpiled their loot and bartered.

I spent an hour watching the area, but with the constant activity, and my imperfect point of view, it was almost impossible for me to come up with an accurate number of bikers in town. If I could get inside the buildings, I could get a more accurate count but that would be dangerous, and I saw no reason to take that risk. As it stood, I guessed that there were just under forty bikers buzzing about this dung heap they called home.

As the night went on more of the men around the barrels wandered over to the apartment building and disappeared inside, and even the guards in front of the grocery store warehouse locked up the building and headed inside. A small portion of the bikers broke off and made their way towards the station. Some of them switched out with the guards on duty, but some slipped inside.

I slumped back in my chair and let out a small sigh. There was not much more I could learn from this chair. I needed to get closer, so I packed away my spotters scope and slipped out the back door.

I left the safety of the dark and dead neighborhood behind as I made my way farther into town. I couldn’t leave before I at least got to peek in a couple windows and see exactly what was going on behind closed doors. I didn’t want to be surprised by anything should this group of bloodthirsty thugs come looking for vengeance.

I kept my rifle close and used every scrap of cover to make my way towards the gas station and state trooper HQ at the center of town. The bikers that were still outside were far too distracted or drunk to notice when I had to move in the open, and, at least for the moment, no new bikers were rolling into town.

I made it to the gas station and the parking lot of motorcycles. Then I hid among the rows of various colored vehicles and noticed that almost all of them still had their keys in the ignition.

The gas station itself consisted of a small store area stocked full of gas cans and an attached body shop. The doors to the shop were wide open and the interior was full of spare parts and extra tires. If there was at least one half decent mechanic in the group than these guys had more than enough parts to keep the whole gang running for at least a couple years.

I crouched low among the bikes as the roar of motorcycle engines filled the air. Two bikes came rolling into town, and they parked at the far end of the parking lot.

“Wooo!” the first biker, a bald man with a large scar running across his scalp, exclaimed. “What a fucking day!”

“You’re goddamn right,” the second biker, an older man wearing an eyepatch, agreed.

Both of the men started to unload gear from their saddle bags.

“When will the National Guard learn that the roads around this area are ours?” the bald man asked.

“Hey, if they wanna keep sending out small patrols it’s fine by me,” the eyepatch man said before he turned to his buddy and grinned. “Just gives us more guys to kill.”

“That’s true,” baldy said with a nod. “The farther out we go the less exciting the area is. I miss how it was in the beginning.”

“Hell yeah man, those first weeks were a fucking bloodbath,” his buddy replied as he slung a M16A2 over his shoulder before he pulled a couple spare magazines from his saddle bag. “I heard rumors though that the boss is getting as bored as we are.”

“Oh yeah?” the first man asked as he too pulled a M16A2 from where it had been tied on the back of his bike.

“Yeah, I think he is itching for a fight,” patch man said.

“I don’t blame him,” the scarred biker replied. “You heard if we are gonna do anything about Lanceton?”

“Nah, but I know a few more guys were sent up that way a couple days ago when we rode out,” eye patch biker said.

“Well come on, let’s go turn in these weapons for some booze and see if anyone brought back any fuck toys while we were away,” the bald man said as he started to walk away.

“Hell yeah brother,” the eye patch wearing man said. “I could use some entertainment.”

I tightened the grip on my rifle and clenched my jaw as I watched the two bikers walk away. Part of me wanted to shoot them right now, but I knew better than to give into my emotional impulses. Based on those guns they had with them, they had been telling the truth about the National Guard, and I pondered what to do with the intel.

For a while I stayed put while the two bikers traded in the guns at the old grocery store. It was my next stop because even from my closer spot I could not get a good look inside. A single large biker sat by the front entrance. He took the guns from the other guys, inspected them, then disappeared inside. A moment later he came back out with a case of cheap beer and a couple bottles of whiskey. Clearly satisfied with their trade, the two men took the alcohol and made their way towards the apartments. The whole thing was strangely civil given all I had witnessed today. Someone here had enough brains to not just let the troops go wild with the supplies.

I waited another five minutes and then moved up towards the store. I used the heavy shadows cast by the sporadic fires and surrounding buildings to approach without being seen by the man at the door.

He sat there, blissfully unaware of my presence, with an M16 on his lap and a cigarette in his lips. He hummed a tune I didn’t recognize and bopped his head along to some imaginary beat. I made my way around the back of the building and was pleasantly surprised to find a second door. I was less surprised to find that it was locked.

I pressed me face against the small glass window in the top of the door and peered inside. The building looked less like a grocery store and more like a warehouse now. There was a large stockpile of guns, ammo, and even what looked to be a small collection of grenades and explosives. There was also a pile of non-perishable food that could easily feed my group for four months, and enough booze and alcohol to keep us drunk for just as long. Beyond that there seemed to be a small stockpile of boots, mens clothes, and bedding. There was undoubtedly more in there but I wouldn’t be able to know what unless I could get inside.

The loud ringing of a bell filled the air, and the raucous laughter around me started to fade in response. The few bikers I could see looked up from their fire and headed off in the direction of the noise. Best I could tell the bell ringing came from the State Police HQ, and I wondered if their leader was going to address everyone.

I flattened myself up against the wall and snuck a peek around the corner. The bikers all gathered around the front of the HQ as the guards stepped aside and the front doors swung open.

A tall man with braided brown hair, and a long reddish brown beard stepped out, and the crowd went silent as the doors swung closed behind him.

“Good evening gentlemen,” he shouted.

The mob roared in response to the man’s words, but they hushed as he raised his hands.

“What’s the plan boss?” someone in the crowd yelled out.

“I’m glad you fuckin’ asked,” the boss began before he took a large swig from a dark bottle. He wiped his mouth and grinned wide. “Since the lights went out, things for us have been good. There has been violence, sex, and drink enough for everyone.”

The crowd cheered and hollered again.

I was certain nothing good was going to come from this little meeting, but at least it gave me a chance to get a more accurate count of the bikers. There was a crowd of about eighty guys in total including the boss. I rounded up to an even hundred because there was a good chance there were a few guys who had decided to skip this get-together or were out on missions.

“Lately though,” the boss continued as the crowd hushed, “things haven't exactly been going our way. We took a hit last week when that National Guard caravan came poking around.”

“We got the fuckers in the end!” someone yelled.

“True, but we didn’t get them all,” The boss said after he started to pace back and forth. “And then there is the matter of our guys going missing up near Lanceton. We have clearly gotten too soft since taking this town. We can’t keep letting people poke at us without repercussions.”

“What are we gonna do about it?” another man asked.

The boss stopped pacing, turned to face the crowd, and grinned wide. “We are going to kill every-fucking-one. Get your guns ready boys because tomorrow we start a new campaign of bloody carnage. We’ll ride for Lanceton first, find out who’s been shooting up our boys, and burn that fucking city to the fucking ground.”

The roar that arose from the crowd was one of pure destructive glee. The bikers started to shout and pound their chests as the very thought of violence and carnage got them hard.

“We won’t stop there,” The boss yelled out over the mob. “We’ll ride out farther than we have before, and torch everywhere we touch. When we’re done with this forest, the only things left living in it will be us and the fucking women we drag back to service us.”

The boss stood there, crossed his arms, and laughed as his mob worked themselves into a crazed frenzy.

“Fuck yeah, you’re the man!” someone shouted.

“I know,” the boss replied. “You don’t get here if you aren’t. Now go: drink, party, and sleep. Tomorrow we will remind this part of the new world why we aren’t to be fucked with.”

I shook my head and clenched my jaw. This wasn’t good. There was very little chance that my group could hold out against dozens of bikers even with our elevated position. They might not know where we were located, but it sounded like soon it might not matter.

They were going to search everywhere.

It was also clear that a fate worse than death waited for the girls if these assholes captured them, and I couldn’t let that happen. So I let out a sigh, looked up at the partially clouded night sky, and shook my head.

This was no longer just a scouting mission, and my night wouldn’t be over until I had kicked these mother fuckers in their dick.

I looked around the corner and saw that the crowd had started to disperse, and the boss had disappeared back inside the HQ. Half a dozen guys were heading my direction, and I took that as my cue to return to the neighborhood on the outskirts of town.

It took me a while to traverse the homes, but I moved slowly, stuck to the shadows, and made it safely back to the house I had camped in earlier. Then I setup the barricades in front of the doors again, returned to the second story room, and started to come up with a plan.

Fortunately, I was good at plans that involved destruction and death.

I observed the camp for the next couple of hours and was happy to see that everyone still gathered outside passed around bottles and cracked open cases of beer. The guys getting drunk would make it easier to sneak around unnoticed. However, it also meant that they might react in strange and erratic ways once I decided to go loud.

As I watched the gang, a plan started to come together in my mind. I didn’t need to kill them all and trying to do so would probably just get me killed. So instead my plan revolved around trashing their bikes, stealing some gear, and making them second guess going on the warpath.

I would start by being quiet for as long as possible. The longer I could keep my presence hidden from my enemy the better off I would be. There were only twenty-ish guys hanging around outside so I could start by sneaking gear from the warehouse to that old truck. As long as I could remain hidden I could pretty much fill the back of the bed before I ever started to make noise.

Once the truck was full, my time for stealth would be over. I would start by ruining as many of the motorcycles as possible. Even if I could not kill that many of them, taking out their rides would buy us time. I didn’t need to kill everyone, but I couldn’t leave before I dropped at least a few of these lowlife scum bags. Then, before the bikers truly caught on to what was happening, I would slip out of town in the truck, stop to grab my bike, and head back home. I had enough hardware that even if I were followed I could be able to take them out before I even reached Lanceton.

A large part of my plan hinged on the old truck, which meant before I could do any of this I needed to make sure that it actually ran. If it didn’t, I would have to rethink everything completely, but that was okay, since I had a few backup plans.

I stood up, stretched, and made my way back outside. At least checking the truck was a more exciting task than what I had done for the past few hours.

The rusted blue pickup truck was only a couple blocks away from my little safe house and getting to it was no problem. The truck bed was badly rusted, and contained a black tarp, a rusted red toolbox, and a couple, dust covered, gallon jugs of water. It seemed these bikers were both dumb and bad at scavenging their surroundings.

I slipped inside the truck, but the keys weren’t in the ignition. Finding them now would be an almost impossible task so I popped the plastic off the steering column and pulled out the ignition wires.

Time to get old fashioned.

There was a group of three bikers about thirty yards away who laughed and joked with one another. If this plan was going to work, I couldn’t skip checking if the truck ran, but I clearly had to do it fast. So I struck the wires together, and the pickup rumbled to life with no trouble. I turned off the vehicle a second later and then leaned over the seat so that no one could see me if they looked in the front window from a distance.

“Hey, what the fuck was that?” I heard someone in the distance ask.

It seemed that the bikers were not drunk enough to pass the noise off as nothing.

“I think that truck just started,” a second voice said.

“Bullshit, you know that none of that shit runs,” a third guy said.

“Well I better go check it out anyway,” the first voice said.

“Alright, fucking weirdo,” the third man chuckled.

I got out of the truck quickly as one of the bikers, who had been partying around a fire came my way. Then I slipped into the rusty truck bed, pulled the black tarp over myself, readied my pistol, and kept my breathing shallow.

“Swear I heard this thing turn on,” a drunken biker muttered as he pulled open one of the doors. “Oh shit, someone tried to hotwire this thing.” The truck shook as the door was slammed shut. “Did one of you guys try to get this thing running?”

“No, fuckhead, trucks don’t work anymore,” someone yelled in response.

“Yeah, guess so,” the drunken man slurred. The truck shook again and I heard heavy breathing on the other wide of the tarp.

“Well, is there anything there?” the second voice called out.

“Nah,” the drunk man said. “Guess we have just been drinking a little too much.”

“No such thing,” the second biker said. “Now get back here and finish your goddamn beer so you can have another.”

The drunk man above me let out a wheezing laugh that started to grow more distant after the truck shook one last time.

I took a deep breath and sat up just enough to peek over the edge of the lip of the truck bed. The bikers twenty yards away were already too preoccupied with their drinks to notice me again, so I climbed out and crept back towards the house so I could look over the area one more time.

With my getaway vehicle in working order it was just about time to put this plan into action.

Once I returned to the house, I pulled out my spotters scope and surveyed the scene. There were eleven bikers still outside, and all of them swayed and staggered drunkenly. I picked a path through the town that would lead me to the now unguarded grocery store warehouse and put the scope away. There were multiple routes mapped out in my head in case I needed to escape or find a quieter path. I did one last check of my weapons to ensure the guns were locked and loaded and then sunk once more into the darkness.

The bikers were about to see what happened to those who thought they could live without consequences.

They were about to see what happened when you pissed off an Army Ranger.

Chapter 15

By the time I reached the makeshift warehouse three more bikers had gone inside for the night, but two of the remaining bikers decided to take up a spot right in front of the grocery store, so I flattened myself up against the side of the building and pulled out my knife. I couldn’t go loud yet or this whole night would be a waste, but I didn’t think a couple drunk bikers would be a problem.

I peeked around the corner and saw that both men were leaning against the wall talking as they passed a cigarette between them. There was no direction I could approach from and remain unseen, but with how badly these two slurred their words I was not sure if it actually mattered. So I rushed around the corner and drove my knife into the base of the first guys skull. Once the knife was in, I twisted my wrist and felt his spine pop.

“Oh shit,” the second guy exclaimed as he dropped the cigarette and went for his pistol.

The dead man dropped to the ground as I yanked my knife from his neck. Then I stepped over his body and cut the throat of the second guy before he could even get his gun free of his holster.

The biker grabbed his opened throat with both hands as blood poured out between his fingers. He tried to scream for help, but it was too late. Instead he only made a wet gurgle as even more blood bubbled out of his open mouth.

Then he dropped to the ground on top of his buddy.

I cleaned my blade on the dead man’s jeans and sheathed it. Then I picked up the first guys body, took him around the back of the store, and lifted him into the dumpster. Then I jogged back around and grabbed the second body. I added it to the dumpster pile and made my way to the front door as I glanced into the town. It seemed my small fight had not attracted any unwanted attention, and I didn’t see anyone or hear an alarm.

The warehouse door was unlocked, and I made my way inside. There were more guns and ammo in here than I had seen in any one place since leaving the army. Thankfully only a small portion of their ill-gotten gains was military with the bulk of the firepower being shotguns, hunting rifles, and tricked out AR-15s. There were half a dozen frag grenades and twenty pipe bombs sitting on a shelf near the back. The gang’s whole arsenal was an organized pile of hardware that was barely contained to one side of the store.

I made my way down the small path left open between the guns and the alcohol. Then I went to the shelf of explosives, hung a couple grenades off my vest, and grabbed six pipe bombs. They would be the perfect weapon to trash some bikes and cause a scene. I also grabbed six bottles of high proof alcohol, removed the lid, and tore up a random T-shirt to use the cloth for wicks.

An explosion was good, but it would be over quick. Fire, on the other hand, was a threat that needed to be dealt with before it spread.

And when these guys dealt with the fire, I’d start killing them.

“Hey, is that blood,” I heard someone mutter, so I looked out and saw another biker out front. He stared at the ground where his buddies had died but his eyes were glazed over and I suspected he was drunk.

The biker, a younger guy with a thin mustache, grinned and shrugged. He took another drink from his beer and continued walking. “Looks like someone had fun. Hope they didn’t kill her, since I wanna have some fun too.”

I shook my head and waited until he walked away to continue my task of gathering supplies. I found some duffle bags and school-style backpacks and started to fill them with ammo. The more prepared I could be, the more stuff I could get to the truck before the bikers got the motorcycle situation under control.

I couldn’t find any bags large enough to hold the guns, so I found some rope and made a couple bundles of rifles. It was not a perfect solution, but at least it would allow me to move more than one or two at a time. I skipped over the alcohol since I was going to use it to start a fire, we already had plenty on campus, and I had no reason to risk myself for some comfort. I did, however, fill some paper bags full of cans and dry food.

I prepared about a truck bed worth of gear to carry, grabbed my first load, and headed back outside. The guy I had seen walk by was in an alley a couple blocks away emptying his bladder, but there was no one else in line of sight.

I sprinted towards the truck with my arms full of bags containing non perishable food. Thankfully no one was around as I reached the rusted vehicle, and I tossed my first load into the back. Three more loads should fill up the shallow bed of the pickup truck, and I didn’t think it would take me that much more time.

The area was quiet as I reached the warehouse. Not even the peeing biker in the ally was around any longer, so I slipped back inside the building and loaded up on ammo. I figured it was the next most important thing since we had quite a few guns already, but they would be worthless without ammo. Once I couldn’t fit anymore gear on me I went back outside and saw six guys hanging out in my usual path to the truck. The bikers all passed around a cigarette and a bottle of tequila, but they weren’t really looking in my direction.

I rolled my eyes and cut around the back of the building. Then I made my way through the dark ended streets and towards the truck in a less direction fashion. My change in route paid off, and I met no resistance. I quietly unloaded all the ammo in the bed of the truck, and then I covered it with the tarp so that any passerby wouldn’t easily notice my loot.

I followed the same route back to the warehouse, but when I came around the corner, I saw a single chubby biker stumbling towards the store.

“I want a bigger fuckin gun,” he muttered to himself. “That asshole won’t make fun of me if I get a bigger gun.”

I needed to be quick, so I pulled out my knife, ran up to him, and drove the blade through his temple. He slumped to the ground as I ripped the sticky knife free, and then I stopped at the body just long enough to peel off his vest and throw it on. The black leather vest stank badly of body odor, and was overly large on my athletic frame, but I figured it might give me a few seconds of camouflage in the chance that someone saw me.

I grabbed my first load of guns and the last of the ammo. After this we would have more than enough 5.56 to keep us training for at least a month, and I fought hard to keep the wide grin off my face.

This was going to work, and I was going to return to my women with enough supplies to train them into real warriors.

I peeked outside and saw that the bikers were still paying no attention to the warehouse. The six guys were still a little ways away, but I just slipped around the back again and made my way to the truck.

A couple bikers zipped past me on their motorcycles but the jacket fooled them, so I made it to the truck and started to load the gear into the back.

“Hey brother, what are you doing?” I heard a gruff voice ask me, and  I turned to see a broad shouldered, long haired man. He didn’t look drunk, but his eyes were narrowed at me suspiciously, and I wondered if he happened to see me moving down here from one of the dark windows of the nearby homes.

“I found something in the bed of the truck,” I said.

“What’d you find?” the man asked.

“Guns and booze!” I said as I forced a laugh to my lips. I wasn’t much of an actor, and my heart was hammering into my chest.

“Really?” he asked as he walked over.

As soon as he stepped close to me, I pulled out my pistol and rested it against his temple in one smooth, practiced move.

He didn’t even have a chance to flinch before I pulled the trigger.

His brain exploded out the other side of his head like a Fourth of July popper, and his body instantly dropped. I’d pressed the barrel into the side of his skull when I’d fired my shot, so the sound was as bit muffled, but it was still loud, and I guessed that someone would probably come and investigate the noise.

Unless everyone else was too fucking drunk.

I pulled the man’s gun out of his pocket pressed it into the hole in his skull to make the barrel bloody and then put it in his left hand. The action only took me a few seconds to do, but I hoped that it would mean that whoever found the body would think the guy committed suicide. It was a bit of a stretch, but they might find that easier to believe than someone sneaking into their base.

I checked to make sure the tarp on the truck covered my loot, and then I dashed over to the narrow alley ten or so yards away from us.

Then I waited.

I expected at least one person to come investigate the gunshot sound, but all I heard was laughter and shouting from the various other parts of the bikers’ base. I realized I was holding my breath, which was a bit unlike me, so I slowly forced it out and then waited another minute for anyone to come by. No one did, and I shook my head.

“Fucking amatures,” I sighed, and then I made my way back to the warehouse to get the last of my loot.

This package had the last of the guns, pipe bombs, grenades, and my molotov cocktails. I was now familiar with all the routes back to the truck, and I found that the body was right where I left it when I returned.

A few moments later all of my loot was secure in the bed of the truck and covered with the tarp. The first part of my plan was a success, and I took a deep breath as I prepared myself for the second part.

It was time to do some major fucking damage to these assholes.

I tossed everything but the backpack into the truck, covered it all with the tarp, and then went back to where their group of bikes were.

I used the bikes as cover to sneak into the gas station and grab a couple gallons of gasoline. Then I proceeded to cover all of the bikes with a liberal amount of the fluid. I had to stop a couple times and take cover as a group of drunk bikers walked by, but none of them bothered to look in my direction.

It took me about ten minutes to coat the whole area in fuel. Then I made my way to the edge, pulled out a spare strip of shirt I had leftover from making molotovs, lit it on fire, and tossed it into the bikes.

Then I retreated back to a nicely concealed spot twenty yards from the motor pool as the blaze started behind me.

I set down my backpack of explosives and pulled out the pipe bombs and Molotovs while I waited for the enemy to gather. Soon enough, the fire started to lick the gas station building, and someone let out a scream of alarm. A few moments later a dozen men were trying to bat the flames on the bikes out with their vests, and I heard more men screaming from the edges of the city.

I picked up my first pipe bomb.

They were crude homemade devices made with a six inch length of threaded metal pipe. There was a cap screwed on to each end, and a wick was shoved through a hole drilled through one of the caps. Industrial epoxy was used to hold the wick in place and create a tight seal where the hole had been drilled. I pulled out the zippo I had taken from the first biker I ran into a few weeks back and hoped that these things were built well enough to not just go off in my hands.

I crouched behind me cover so I was not exposed. I had chosen this spot because both the HQ, and the apartment complex were in front of me, meaning that I was more likely to stay out of sight when people came to investigate the commotion. I took a deep breath and flicked the lighter open.

As soon as I lit this bomb, there was no turning back.

“Fuck these guys,” I whispered under my breath, and then I lit the fuse and chucked the pipe bomb into the gangs motor pool as the fuse sparked and sputtered. If this thing did what it was supposed to this would create quite the bang.

There was a large metallic thud as the pipe bomb struck one of the bikes a couple rows in. A moment later there was an underwhelming pop, and two of the bikes fell over.

“Shit,” I hissed under my breath and lit another. I tossed this one in a different area and took cover as a couple nearby bikers started towards where I had thrown the first.

“Is someone shooting at the bikes?” one of them screamed.

“Just put out the fucking fire!” another one screamed over the chorus of their cries.

“I fucking am, you piece of sh--”

The man’s words were cut short as the second pipe bomb exploded. Unlike the first this one acted more like a proper explosive device and several smaller explosions followed as some of the bikes popped.

The air filled with panicked screams as a half dozen of the men were knocked away from the fire.

I grinned and lit another one as the bikers all began to jump away from the bikes. The men were split up into four clusters, but from the sounds of their panicked screams, it seemed like they just thought the gas tanks on the bikes were exploding.

It was time to change that.

I pulled out one of the actual grenades and flicked the pin out.

The device felt familiar in my hand, and I gently tossed it across the ground toward the largest pack in the middle. They were a good thirty yards away from me, and I was trying to keep the explosive closer to the ground so it wouldn’t be noticed, so I was a bit worried that it might have twisted on the ground too much. My throw ended up being true, though, and it rolled right into the boot of the man shouting for help.

He glanced down, and I saw his face twist with horror.

“Fuck, we’re under att--” a biker began to shout, but then the explosive went off, and everything turned into chaos.

The group of men next to the grenade were pretty much torn to shreds by the force of the explosion and the fragmentations inside. A few limbs flew through the air, but mostly it was just smoke and blood.

And screams.

“What the fuck is happening?” someone screamed, but I was already tossing my next grenade into the small cluster of men.

“Get this fire out!” someone shouted over the screams of the crowd, “We need to--”

His group was caught in the second explosion and all of them twisted away from the blast like broken crash-test dummies thrown from a speeding car.

I lit two of my Molotov’s, stood up and chucked them at the bikers as well. Several of them were caught in the resulting inferno. I crouched down, pulled up my rifle, and steadied it atop one of the aluminum trash cans as the enemy started to panic.

“Where the fuck are we getting hit from?” someone screamed.

That’s when I started shooting.

I took down the last guy who spoke as he stood backlit by firelight. The three guys next to him dropped next as they stood stunned at the sudden death of their friend.

These guys were completely unprepared.

It wasn’t quite like shooting fish in a barrel, but it was close enough. Some men tried to run away, but it was easy enough to track them, and each of my bullets found a skull or chest to burst through. It was complete chaos, but there way too many bikers now to take out, and I knew I’d have to run soon.

I quickly killed fifteen of them, but then I heard the metal ping of a bullet hitting my cover and saw two guys off by the burning warehouse popping shots off from behind a dumpster.

I shifted to aim at them and waited patiently for one of them to pop out and take a shot. A man wearing a cowboy hat exposed his entire top half as he leaned out to fire in my direction. I put two rounds through his chest and adjusted as his friend leaned out from the other side. He caught a single bullet to the skull.

“He’s over there!” I heard someone shout over the sound of the fire, screaming, and the adrenaline coursing through my body.

It was time to move.

But it wasn’t time to leave yet. I wasn’t done punishing these fuckers.

I looked over the fire lit base that swarmed with suspicious bikers. If I could find a good vantage point, I could easily pick off some of these search parties. I weighed my options for a moment, before I decided upon the apartment complex. Less of the gang was milling about that area, and from three stories up I would be able to see almost everything.

I readied my gun and ran for the apartment. I took out two guys along the way who were running toward the fire at the gas station. Neither of them saw me before it was too late, but I knew that the sounds of my rifle barking twice would probably draw attention.

I hit the building hard and fast. I kicked open the front door, did a sweep of the dingy red carpeted hallway, and once I was certain it was empty, stepped inside. The hallway ended in a T split, and I moved quickly towards it while I kept an eye out on the doors lining the hall around me. None of them opened as I passed. For a moment I was sad that I didn’t have the girls here for backup. Together we could have done a full clear of the building, but alone it seemed like a bad idea.

I reached the end of the hall and pressed myself up against the left wall, swung around, and checked the left hall. It took me only a moment to confirm it was empty before I turned to check the right. It was empty as well, but the end of the right hallway ended in a staircase.

I checked the left passage one last time before I jogged to the staircase in the right one. I looked up and saw that the rectangular staircase would take me all the way up to the third floor. I spun to check the passage behind me one last time before I ascended the stairs.

As I stepped onto the landing of the second floor bullets tore apart the wall behind. I flopped down on my stomach and spotted a man in the hallway with an automatic rifle. The line of bullets started to tear down the wall towards my prone form as I lined up my sight.

Then the world seemed to slow as I took a deep breath and squeezed off two shots that tore through the man’s chest.

An apartment door swung open and another biker leaned out with his pistol. He took a couple shots and ducked back into the doorway. I shifted to a kneeling position and waited with my gun trained on the open doorway.

“That was a bad idea!” I called out.

In response the biker leaned out to shoot at me again, but I put a couple rounds through the door and he collapsed to the ground.

I didn’t hear anything else besides the screams of the men trying to fight the fire, so I stood up and marched up to the third floor. This one looked worse than the floors beneath it. Almost every door in the hall was broken or pulled from its hinges, and the air was filled with the stench of rot and decay.

I sighed and shook my head. I could only imagine what I would find behind any one of those broken doors. At the end of the hall there was another small staircase that angled up.

I gave one last look down the stairs, and once I was sure I was not being followed I headed forward. As I stepped onto the red carpet of the hallway and found it soft and squishy underfoot. I kept my eyes forward as I passed by the broken doors as I had already seen more than enough horror for one day.

I ascended the stairs and stepped out onto the flat apartment roof. The shouts of the bikers were thick in the air, and the whole area was lit by the dim orange glow of flames since they had no real way to put out uncontrolled fires.

Now it was probably going to be like shooting fish in a barrel.

I setup my rifle on the edge of the roof and pulled my rope from my pack. After a quick search of the roof I found a section of exposed pipe that looked strong enough to hold me, and I tied the rope off on it before I tossed the other end off the edge by my rifle. Then I went about barricading the rooftop door. I jammed some rocks and bits of debris into the bottom to keep it from swinging open and used a small bit of pipe to jam the door handle. It wouldn’t hold forever but it would at least buy me a few minutes. I set out one of the two molotovs I had packed into my backpack. When they got through, I would be ready for them.

Now that the door was secure, and I had a quick exit in place, I crouched next to my rifle and started to look for targets.

There were really too many.

Scattered groups of bikers moved through the area using torches to light their way. From my vantage point the roaming packs were easy targets, and the 4x zoom of my sight made placing accurate shots just as easy.

There was a group of four roaming around the area by my new truck. I aimed at them first and opened fire. My first shot took down what looked to be a man holding a shotgun. The group froze which allowed me a second shot to take down the biker who had been at his side.

The last two members of the group panicked and ran for the nearest cover. The one with the torch slid behind a pile of rubble, but he realized too late that the light he held made him easier to target.

I put a bullet through his head as he tried to smother the simple light source and tried to find the fourth man. The darkness made picking out specific details difficult, and this last goon had been smart enough to separate himself from the light source.

There was another trio of men running out of the distant warehouse. I lined up my sight and sent my initial bullet through the chests of the first two men coming out, and then my second shot tagged the third man right in the nose, and his brain emptied into the room he had just exited.

I spotted another group of five running toward the bikes from the ten o’clock position a good sixty yards away. I could see them glancing at the rooftops in my direction, but they weren’t focused on my exact location.

Five shots later and they all had holes in their chests.

I heard two pops and a bullet whizzed past my head. I threw myself down, and a moment later, there was another pop and a second bullet broke apart some of the brick rim to my left. I took the opportunity to switch out my almost empty magazine with a full one, but I figured I was only going to be able to get a few more shots off before I had to get off the building.

That’s when I heard the first thud against the door behind me, but I was confident the door would hold for a couple more minutes.

I quickly glanced over the lip of the building and noticed some of the other groups had already started to head towards the sound of gunfire, but these men also didn’t seem to be looking up at my location. I figured I was just dealing with a lone shooter, so I carefully glanced around the town and waited.

I saw the muzzle flash a split second before I ducked. The bullet bounced off the brick on the lip of the building, and I leaned up again. The man shooting at me was behind a mailbox about a block to my right. he had a lever action rifle in his hands and his eyes were fixed on the rooftop.

I slid over a few dozen feet on the roof, pulled up my rifle, trained the sight on him, and feathered the trigger. My weapon gently kicked against my shoulder, and the thug crumpled to the ground as he let out a last shot from his lever action. His shot went wide of course, but I still ducked down low against the roof.

The pounding on the door behind me intensified as I continued to pick off new targets. Most of the groups had either headed towards me or taken cover, and I couldn’t help but smile as I trained my gun on two bikers who thought they had found a safe place to hide. They clearly didn’t know where I was shooting from because they were crouched down on the wrong side of a burned out sedan. I had a full line of sight on them as they stared out into the darkness opposite the apartments.

I shook my head and put two bullets through each of their chests. As they fell, their torch rolled along the uneven ground and started a small pile of trash on fire.

The door behind me burst open, and I spun, rifle in hand, to see half a dozen angry bikers flood out onto the rooftop.

“We have you corner--” The big man in the lead started to shout, but I was already shooting, and my bullets tore through the first group of men as if they were made of red paper.

Half of them fell to the ground twitching where they stood, but the other half tumbled back into the building and down the stairs. I could hear more screams of alarm behind the men I first shot, so I knew there were probably more waiting in the stairwell.

Nothing another grenade couldn’t fix.

I pulled one from my chest and flicked the pin and handle free as I ran toward my rope. I gave it to the count of two, and then I tossed the deadly baseball into the open door of the building.

I really didn’t have time to look, but I heard the explosion and the screams that followed right after.

I made it to the opposite side of the roof, scooped up my backpack, picked up the rope, and jumped over the edge. I heard more gun fire up above me and on the other side of the building, but I guessed that they still didn’t know exactly where I was.

And soon I would be gone.

“He’s getting away!” I heard someone yell from up above as soon as I hit the ground, so I turned around, raised my rifle to my shoulder, and took a shot. I actually didn’t expect to hit the man since I only had half an instant to aim and he was three stories up, but I got lucky, and the bullet gave him a bloody third eye.

“There he is!” someone screamed from the street to my right, so I spun and laid down some cover fire in that direction as I ran toward the truck.

“Stop him!” I heard someone else scream to my left, and I sent a couple of bullets that way as I heard a few gun blasts behind me. It was still dark out, and I was running fast, so I didn’t even hear the bullets fly past me, but I knew it was just going to be a matter of time until someone got lucky.

It was really time to get the fuck out of here.

Bullets whizzed past me as I reached the truck, and the roar of motorcycles engines filled the air. I tossed my backpack in through the open window and climbed into the cab. Then I kept low as I grabbed the wires and tried to start the truck.

Bullets tore through the thin metal body as the engine chugged, but refused to start.

“Oh, come on,” I growled. “Fucking work.”

As if it could hear my words the truck roared to life.

“Yes!” I exclaimed triumphantly as I stomped on the gas.

The tires spun for a moment before the vehicle lurched forward, and I drove with one hand while I grabbed a molotov from my bag.

I was tearing down the side streets of the town, and for a moment it looked like I would make a clean getaway, but then I saw lights flash in my rearview mirror and I glanced back to see eight motorcycles gaining on me fast. The gate came into view ahead of me, and I could vaguely make out two men on top of it working to lower a gate of scrap metal to block my path.

Well. Shit.

I clung to the steering wheel with my left hand and then flicked my lighter over the molotov. I didn’t know exactly how it would help me, but I figured throwing it on one of the fuckers would probably create a lot of chaos.

Birdshot tore through my rear window as my molotov wick caught flame. I slowed down just enough to let the group of bikers get right behind me before I tossed the flaming alcohol out of the window and sped up.

I watched with a grin as a wall of flame erupted behind me and engulfed five of the bikers. I put some distance between the last three as they swerved to avoid the flames.

“Oh shit,” I yelled out as I turned my attention back to the mostly closed gate in front of me. It looked like the truck still might fit under the gap that remained, but it was going to be close. I ducked low, slammed my foot down on the gas pedal, and prayed that I’d make it through.

The front of my truck disappeared under gate, and for a moment I thought I would just squeak by, but then there was a horrible screeching sound as the gate tore off the top part of the truck cab, and I was showered with bits of metal and shattered glass as the wind tore at my hair.

Then I came out the other side, and I let out a gasp when I realized I had gotten through alive.

My moment of triumph was cut short by the sound of approaching motorcycle engines, and I looked behind me to see that two riders had slid under the door and out onto the road after me.

My own motorcycle was two miles away, and I wanted to lose these creeps before I got there, so I shook my head, pulled my pistol, and stayed low as more birdshot tore at my ride.

The throaty sound of an unmuffled engine roared up my left side as my pursuers continued to gain on my ancient truck. The first one pulled up next to me, and he tried to angle his shotgun toward my face with his free hand.

I slammed on the breaks as he pulled the trigger, and then I put three pistol rounds into the back of the biker as he tried to swing around for another shot. His bike wobbled and veered off the road before it slammed into a tree.

The second biker shot past me while he fired wildly with a pistol of his own, but he only succeeded in putting a few more bullet holes in the truck body.

I pressed hard on the gas again, and the blue truck lurched forward with an angry groan. I got up to the truck’s max speed of fifty five and started to tail the last bad guy.

The biker slowed and went to spin around, but realized too late that I was already behind him. My front fender clipped his bike as he tried to turn, and he was thrown off like a flicked action figure. These guys weren’t wearing helmets or leather jackets, so I figured he was dead when his skull bounced off the asphalt.

Then I was free.

I just kept on driving, and two minutes later I pulled my mutilated vehicle off to the side of the road by where I’d hidden my motorcycle.

One quick inspection later and I had stepped out of my truck, stripped off my biker vest, did a quick check of my chest for injuries, and then tossed the vest into the cab. Then I entered the woods, retrieved my bike and rolled it toward the truck. Ideally, I would have loaded it into the bed using a ramp, but I didn’t have one, so I just heaved the front wheel of my motorcyle up on the bed with brute strength, deadlifted the back end, and then pushed it the rest of the way on with the rest of my loot. There was enough space for everything, but I gave all the contents of the bed a quick once over to make sure nothing was going to fall out.

“The girls are not going to like it when I tell them that I got into a fight,” I said with a chuckle as I climbed back into the glass covered front seat.

“Well, thanks for getting me out of there safely,” I muttered as I patted the dash of my new truck. “Now let’s go home.”

I pulled back onto the road and started out for the campus at a casual pace. As the adrenaline wore off, it hit me how tired I was, but the rush of fresh mountain air and thoughts about how happy the girls were going to be when they saw all the shit I’d brought them helped me to stay awake.

An hour into my trip I started to relax as the sky grew lighter above me. No more bikers came after me, and I smiled as I got to enjoy the sight of a perfect sunrise through the dense mountain trees.

It had kind of been the perfect night, all things considered. I’d killed a bunch of assholes who deserved it, stole their stuff, and got out alive.

Chapter 16

The campus looked empty when I pulled back into the parking lot with my unknown truck, and I was glad to see that they were still sticking to our hiding plan. The girls had been doing so well lately that part of me wondered if I shouldn’t have brought one of them along. Then I looked back to the torn up truck and thought maybe going alone had been a better idea.

“Hey guys!” I yelled out. “I’m back!”

Rolly poked his head out first, the hunting rifle in hand, to make sure it was really me. The moment he set eyes on me he grinned, slung the rifle over his shoulder, and disappeared back into the dorm building.

I leaned against the truck and waited as the group all filtered out a moment later. At first they were all smiles and laughter, but their demeanors soured as soon as they noticed the bullet holes and missing top of the truck.

“Are you okay?” Anna asked as she rushed to my side.

“Yeah, you aren’t hurt are you?” Paige said as she immediately started to inspect me for injuries. She frowned as she flipped over my hands and saw the raw red rope burns.

“I’m good,” I said. “Really good actually. You should see the other guy’s truck.”

“What happened?” Tara asked. “Oh my god, is that blood?”

“It looks like blood!” Bailey gasped.

“Are you hurt?” Paige asked as she grabbed my arm.

“He’s--” Anna started to say, but I raised my hand.

“Ladies, settle down,” I said with a laugh. “I’m alright.”

“Then what happened to this truck?” Rolly asked as he thumped on the hood. “Wait, don’t tell me, you found it like this?”

“Not exactly.” I admitted. “The rust was always there, but it had fewer bullet holes and a complete cab when I took it.”

“What happened to this just being a scouting mission?” Anna groaned.

“Things got complicated,” I said.

“So you got caught?” Bailey asked.

“No, nothing like that,” I replied.

“Oh good, so you decided to pick a fight then,” Paige groaned as she rolled her eyes.

“I thought you said you weren’t going to do that,” Tara pouted.

“Like I said, things got complicated,” I reiterated.

“Well, come on,” Paige said as she took my arm and started to pull me gently towards the firepit. “You can tell us all about it while I take care of your hands.”

“Someone grab my backpack,” I said to the others. “I have something in there for Rolly.”

“More bourbon?” The handyman asked with a raised eyebrow as he grabbed the bag.

“Something better,” I said. “Check the main compartment.”

Rolly unzipped the backpack and rummaged around inside for a moment before he pulled out a small orange pill bottle. His eyes went wide and he looked over at me.

“Heard you were getting low,” I said with a smirk.

“Who told you?” He asked.

“Paige and Bailey caught me before I took off yesterday,” I said.

“You’re welcome,” Bailey said as she gave Rolly a wide smile.

“Next time don’t keep this stuff from me,” I said.

“I just didn’t want to bother anyone,” the handyman muttered with a shrug.

“I know, but I could have looked into this earlier,” I explained. “We gotta take care of each other, old man.”

“Alright, alright,” Rolly said with a laugh. “I’ll keep you in the loop next time.”

“I appreciate it,” I said as Paige sat me down. “The same goes for the rest of you. If you have something important like this come up tell me immediately. This is the kind of stuff we need to stay on top of if we want to survive long term.”

“Will do, Tav,” Paige said as she grabbed her backpack and pulled out her first aid kit. The brunette grabbed the neosporin, burn cream, and some clean bandages.

“Is it story time yet?” Tara asked as she took a seat next to me and leaned on my shoulder.

“Yeah, please explain why you lied to us,” Anna said.

“Wow, angry much?” Tara said.

“Well he gave us his word,” Anna replied with a shrug.

“I am sure he has a good reason for doing what he did,” Bailey said.

“I didn’t mean to lie to you,” I said. “I honestly only planned for this all to be a scouting mission. Though there are gifts in my pack for the rest of you.”

“Oh?” Bailey asked as she raised an eyebrow and pulled my bag closer. She rifled around inside before pulling out several packages of birth control and a couple of the antibiotics.

“Yes!” Paige yipped as she pulled one of the packages from the bag.

“I know Tara doesn’t need the birth control,” I explained, “but I would rather be safe than sorry when it comes to the rest of you.”

“Great idea,” Paige said as she dug through the pack. “You got a ton. It should last us a long time.”

“How long?” Anna asked as she moved closer so she could see into the bag.

“There have to be four hundred packs,” Bailey said. “Split between the two of you, that will last a long--”

“Three, you mean,” Paige said as she pointed at Anna, then herself, and then Bailey.

“Uhhh,” Bailey cleared her throat, and her cheeks turned a bit red. “Tav and I actually aren’t--”

“Duh,” Tara laughed. “You should start taking some now so you are ready when Tav goes bareback with you.”

“You just say what you want to say, don’t you?” Anna rolled her eyes at the platinum blonde.

“Hey, if you bitches want to get pregnant, be my guest,” Tara scoffed. “But I can tell you from experience that it feels fucking fabulous when Tav comes inside of--”

“Leeeeeettttsssss just leave it at that,” Anna interrupted as she waved her hands to cut off the other woman.

“Thanks, Tav,” Paige said as she grinned at me. “I’ll start taking them. We won’t be safe for a month, but I’m looking forward to not having to worry about getting pregnant.”

“Yeah,” Anna agreed as she smiled at me.

“What’s this other stuff?” Tara asked as she picked up a bottle of amoxicillin.

“Pharmacy grade antibiotics. I figure it will be good to have in case one of us gets an infection or a really nasty cut,” I said.

“That’s awesome,” Paige said. “How many bottles of that stuff did you manage to snag?”

“Just four, but that pharmacy was pretty well stocked,” I said. “I bet you could pick out a lot of good stuff there with that medical knowledge of yours. Who knows what sort of stuff I passed over just because I had no idea what it was.”

“Next time we go that way I will look into it,” Paige agreed.

“Thanks for getting all of this stuff for us, Tav,” Tara purred. “You really do know how to take care of a lady, or four.”

“Tara, now is not the time,” Anna said as she rolled her eyes. “I, for one, would still like to know why Tav went all Rambo on those bikers.”

“Yeah, what happened?” Paige asked as she spread neosporin on my wound.

“I met our enemy,” I started. “The bikers have a home about a half a day’s drive from here. It is right where Paige said it would be. Almost every town between them and us is a charred husk. These guys have a real thing for arson.”

“So the smoke we saw while we were on the mountain was the bikers then?” Anna asked.

“Yeah, sure looks that way,” I said.

“What did their camp look like?” Paige asked.

“They took shelter in a small town about half a days drive from here. Unlike us these guys don’t worry about sustainability as they seem to just raid the surrounding area and take what they need.”

“That doesn’t seem like a good long-term plan,” Rolly said. “The area is bound to run out of supplies, eventually.”

“Yeah but these guys are too busy reveling in the chaos of this new world to really care,” I said. “You should have seen how many bodies they had thrown out onto the outskirts of town. It didn’t look like the people who lived there got to leave nicely.”

“Oh god,” Bailey muttered as she put a hand over her mouth.

“They decorated their gate with anyone wearing a uniform too,” I said. “These guys really hate any reminder of old world authority or anyone still trying to maintain it.”

“Is that why you got in a fight?” Tara asked.

“No, but while I was sneaking around their boss came out and gathered the idiots,” I said. “This guy got his gang all worked up and talked about going on the warpath again.”

“Oh,” Bailey said.

“That’s why you did then, isn’t it?” Anna asked.

“Yeah, they were heading to Lanceton first,” I said. “They were going to burn it to the ground along with anyone they found in it.”

“But we aren’t in Lanceton, so why should we care?” Tara asked.

“My guess is that they didn’t plan to stop there,” Rolly mused.

“Exactly, these guys were going to torch every place they could find,” I said. “Plus, Lanceton is still full of valuable supplies, and I would rather it not burn down.”

“Good point,” Paige said.

“So what’d you do then?” Anna asked as she cracked a smile. “Did you make them rethink their plan?”

“Hell yeah,” I said with a grin. “There were about eighty guys there when I first arrived, but if I had to guess I would say there are not more than forty of them left now.”

“Holy shit,” Rolly said.

“Yeah, that is huge,” Paige agreed.

“Well I didn’t just tank their numbers,” I said. “I torched some of their bikes, stole some of the weapons and food, and burned down their bunkhouse.”

“God that’s badass,” Tara said. “Is it weird that hearing about this turns me on? I’m like super wet right--”

“Tara,” Anna groaned.

“What?” the platinum blonde laughed. “I bet you are too.”

“Maybe I should put myself in danger more often,” I said as I looked at Tara and raised an eyebrow.

“Don’t you dare,” Tara growled at me as she narrowed her brown eyes.

“Please don’t,” Anna said with a laugh.

“Don’t worry, I doubt we will need to worry about those bikers for a couple weeks,” I said.

“Man, did you really set them back that much?” Paige asked as she started to bandage my palms.

“Yeah I did,” I confirmed with a nod. “We should get all the loot out of the back of the truck.”

“Well I think we should celebrate first,” Tara said. “It sounds like Tav saved us a world of trouble.”

“Agreed,” Rolly said before he groaned and pushed himself to his feet. “Let’s make this guy some breakfast, and then toast to his victory.”

My stomach grumbled at the mention of food. It had been several hours since I had taken the time to eat, and a real meal sounded glorious. There was no way I was going to be able to stay awake after I was done eating though.

“So what, do things just go back to normal then?” Bailey asked as she helped Paige repack her medical bag.

“Pretty much,” I said with a nod. “We will keep working on your firearms training though. The bikers are gone for now, but I would bet money they will show up again. We all need to be prepared.”

“Well, when they get their shit together and find their way here we’ll be ready,” Anna said as she started to build the fire.

“Damn right we will,” I said with a wide smile as I slid the rifle free of my shoulder for the first time in almost twenty-four hours. I let out a sigh and relaxed onto the plain, but comfortable, wooden bench.

Rolly and the girls got to work on breakfast while I tried to keep myself awake.

“I think we should all take it easy today,” I suggested.

“Really?” Tara asked as she raised an eyebrow.

“It’s a nice gesture, but you don’t have to let us off easy just because you had a long day,” Anna said.

“You have all been working hard lately,” I said. “Things are starting to shape up, and I think we could all use a rest day or two.”

“What about our traps?” Paige asked. “We set up a new batch while you and Anna were away.”

“We still need to check our traps, but after that you guys can do as you please,” I said.

“Oh man, I don’t know what to do,” Bailey said as her eyes went wide. “It has been forever since we have had any real free time.”

“I guess it has,” Anna said. “Well, I think I am going to go for a run. Anyone who feels like enjoying the nice weather can join me.”

“Pass,” Tara said. “I was thinking of heading up to the stream. It’s warm enough that the cold water might feel nice for once.”

“Ooh, I’ll join you,” Paige said. “I would love to stretch out next to the water and read for a while.”

“Can I do both?” Bailey asked.

“I don’t see why not,” Anna said with a shrug. “A cold bath would be the perfect way to wind down after a nice run.”

“I think I might follow Paige’s example and sit out here and enjoy a good book,” Rolly said.

“What about you, Tav?” Paige asked. “What are you going to do with your free time?”

“Sleep,” I said with a laugh. “For some reason I didn’t manage to get any during the past twenty-four hours.”

“Oh shit,” Anna said. “I didn’t think about that.”

“Why the hell are you staying up for breakfast?” Tara asked.

“We just pulled off a big win,” I said. “The mission was a success, we got the meds for Rolly, and our biggest threat is crippled for a little while. I can stay up a little while longer to celebrate all we have accomplished in recent days.”

“Always a team player,” Rolly chuckled before he tossed a slab of meat onto the cast iron pan. He seasoned it with some salt, a bit of pepper, and some fresh oregano.

“I don’t suppose anything exciting happened while I was gone,” I said.

“Not really,” Bailey said with a shrug. “Our garden is starting to look good though.”

“Yeah, I spent a lot of time reading on what sorts of stuff will grow well in a given area,” Paige said.

“What kinda veggies are we gonna grow then?” I asked.

“Tomatoes, cabbage, carrots, potatoes, and garlic to start with,” Paige said.

“That’s about all we have seeds for,” Bailey added.

“Make me up a list of what we can grow so I can check for those seeds when we go on scavenging trips,” I said.

“Do you think we could grow some fruit?” Anna asked. “I miss shit like oranges, and bananas.”

“You’re outta luck when it comes to oranges,” Paige said. “We don’t have the climate for such a tropical fruit, but we could probably start a couple berry bushes. I think, if we can find some seeds, we could ever start a pear tree.”

“You know that would take, like, forever, right?” Tara asked.

“Well yeah, but I mean there is no reason we can’t at least plant the seed,” Paige said with a shrug.

“Man, there are some things I never realized I took for granted until I lost them,” Bailey muttered. “Like I never thought I would have to worry about getting stuff like oranges.”

“It’s funny what happens when global infrastructure falls,” I said. “It’s a quick way to realize how much of what we use and consume comes from other places.”

My stomach growled again as the meat started to sizzle and brown in the pan. I licked my lips as I watched grease bubble up around the edges of the slab of meat. I knew it was deer by the dark red color of the meat and the smell it gave off as it fried.

“I’m proud of you guys,” I said as I pulled my gaze away from breakfast. “You have shown tremendous courage, growth, and adaptability in these past few weeks. I could not have asked for a better group of people to spend the apocalypse with.”

“I am sure there are a lot more capable people out there than us,” Anna said.

“Yeah, but I doubt they look as good as we do,” Tara teased as she winked at me.

“You guys are loyal and listen when I tell you to do something,” I explained. “That makes you better companions than some of the guys I knew in the army. Though Tara is right, none of them were as easy on the eyes as this crew.” I grinned.

“Thanks,” Bailey muttered before she went a bright red and quickly looked away.

“Of course,” I said. “Plus, I am proud of Rolly just as much as the rest of you, and I don’t even have an interest in sleeping with him.” I shot Rolly a grin.

“But I thought we had something,” Rolly joked. “You can’t just toy with my heart like this.”

“Sorry babe, it’s over,” I said.

Everyone laughed as I smiled and shook my head. It was nice to be back. I hadn’t even been gone long, but seeing what the outside world was like had helped me to understand how good we had it here. The campus was safe, still beautiful, and free of the destruction that the bikers had inflicted on the surrounding area.

My gaze drifted to the sky as I listened to the idle chatter of my companions around me. I started to drift off to sleep as a flock of birds flew through the clear blue sky above me. Darkness obscured my vision as my eyelids drooped.

“Don’t go to sleep yet,” Rolly said as he took a seat next to me and nudged me with his elbow.

I blinked rapidly for a moment and realized I had started to slide off the bench. I shook my head to help me wake up, took a deep breath, and sat back up.

“We thought we lost you for a moment there,” Anna teased.

“Yeah, you were starting to snore,” Paige said with a smile.

Rolly handed me a plate of food. There was a large chunk of meat, some corn, and a small handful of fresh mullberries.

“Sorry,” I said. “Guess I’m more tired than I realized.”

“Well eat up,” Tara said as she sat down on the other side of me with a similar plate of food.

“Yeah, we wouldn’t want you to wake up hungry,” Bailey said before she smiled at me and tore into her meat.

“Thanks guys,” I said as I picked up my fork.

Ten minutes later I groaned and rubbed my stomach as I looked down at the empty plate on my lap. “I should not have eaten all of that.”

“Yeah, I know the feeling,” Anna moaned. “I don’t think I will be going on that run for a while.”

“Don’t forget you guys have to check the traps,” I said.

“Not it,” Tara said.

“Look at that, we have our first volunteer,” I grinned.

Tara groaned, rolled her eyes, and threw her head back in dramatic fashion.

“I’ll go with her,” Paige said as she bounced to her feet. “Unlike the rest of you I didn’t stuff myself.”

“Ugh, fine,” Tara said. “But don’t expect me to move fast.”

“Nah, I think we can take our time,” Paige replied.

“Well, it’s been fun, but I think I am going to waddle my way to bed before I pass out here,” I said. Then I grunted and stood up. My whole body was heavy, and I had to fight just to keep my eyes open.

“You need an escort?” Anna joked as she watched me stumble towards the dorms.

“Nope, just sleep,” I said.

“Rest well, Tav,” Bailey said.

“Yeah, see you when you wake up, badass,” Anna added.

“Try not to sleep in tomorrow,” Paige teased. “We still have lots to do.”

“Roger that,” I said with a wave. “See you guys later.” I stopped when I reached the door to the building and turned to look out across the courtyard. A grin spread across my face as I looked at what we had done, and I knew that if we continued to work hard, great things were in store for us.

I headed inside and trudged up the stairs to my room. I pulled off my boots, stripped off my shirt, and plopped, face first, onto the bed. It was good to be home, but I knew that we’d only have a day to relax. Eventually the bikers would find us and attack.

My friends and I would be ready. I would make sure of it.

End Notes

Thank you for reading Without Law. If you enjoyed the book, please leave me a nice review here. Reviews really help attract readers to new series, so if you think others should read this, the best way to let them know is by leaving a positive review.

Amazon doesn’t update readers when an author comes out with a new book unless you follow that author on the store. Make sure you click this link and then click on the follow button. Then Amazon will update you a few weeks after my next book comes out.

If you want to get notified of my books the day that they come out, make sure you follow my Facebook author page and join my Facebook fan group. If you don’t follow me on Amazon or join my Facebook page, you’ll never get alerted that the next Without Law is out.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Copyright © 2019 by Eric Vall

Table of Contents

- ERIC VALL
- Chapter 1
- Chapter 2
- Chapter 3
- Chapter 4
- Chapter 5
- Chapter 6
- Chapter 7
- Chapter 8
- Chapter 9
- Chapter 10
- Chapter 11
- Chapter 12
- Chapter 13
- Chapter 14
- Chapter 15
- Chapter 16
- End Notes