Without Law 18 by Eric Vall (most difficult books to read .txt) 📗

I hit the hood of his jeep a couple of times, then I walked back to mine, climbed in the driver’s seat, and started her up.

We weren’t too far from the beach, and I knew logically that the MiG was far enough away they’d never see us right then, but I still felt my stomach turn as I pulled onto the road and continued toward the water.

My nerves were fried after seeing that MiG. It had come out of nowhere, and if it had seen us, we’d all be dead right then. I shuddered to think what would’ve happened if I hadn’t heard it when I did.

We got to the beach, but instead of parking where we had the past couple of times, I stayed near the road and parked under the trees so if the MiG came back by we wouldn’t be easily spotted.

Granted, they could assume the jeeps were just random vehicles, but since they were military, there was a chance the NK soldiers would recognize them.

Once we parked, we all hopped out and headed down to the water.

Even as my mind was clouded with thoughts about the impending battle and the MiG we’d just seen, I had to take in the sight of the ship in the morning light. The dark metal reflected on the deep water, and there, with the beach in front of it, it could have been a picture on a postcard. The old ship had a certain beauty to it, especially with the light blue of the new day.

“Tav, come in,” Rivers said through the walkie as we all made our way down to the water.

I pulled the device off my hip and spoke into it. “What is it?”

“A fuckin’ MiG just flew overhead not ten minutes ago,” he said.

“We saw it,” I told him.

“You did?” he asked. “Jesus.”

“We’ll be there in just a few minutes,” I told him.

“Yeah, alright,” he answered, and I hung the walkie back on my hip.

“He sounded freaked out,” Bailey said. “I feel like that MiG really gave everyone a good scare this morning.”

“It was pretty terrifying,” Paige agreed.

“How many do you think they still have?” Bailey asked.

“We did some damage when we were in Boston,” I said. “But I’m sure they still have a couple.”

“Well, we know for sure they have one,” Tara said with a shake of her head.

“Right,” I tried to chuckle, but it fell flat with the seriousness of the situation.

We were all quiet as we used the rafts to get out to the ship. Once we were on board I gave everyone their tasks, then I headed down to the hold with Paige and Minji to finish tallying up all our supplies.

Paige and I had sorted through pretty much everything the day before, but it all still needed to be counted and a master list needed to be made.

I tried to be of some help, but I couldn’t focus right then, so instead, I took the maps from Paige’s bag and went to the deck to look them over.

I sat down near the edge so I could see off into the ocean, then I laid the maps out in front of me and went over all the places Paige had marked. Most of them I already knew weren’t going to work, and I kept coming back to the one we’d gone to the other day. That small peninsula was exactly what we needed. The enemy would be surrounded by water on three sides, and surrounded by us on the other side.

We had thought the Boston troops were headed to Norfolk to form a pincer attack, but after finding the orders, it seemed the Captain’s group here wasn’t considered enough of a threat to be a problem. Instead the Boston troops were headed down to Atlanta, and the Norfolk troops we’d taken out were supposed to meet them there, but we didn’t know what their ETA was supposed to be.

“Hey,” Anna said as she walked over and sat down next to me. “What are you doing?”

“Just trying to formulate our plan,” I sighed.

“What’s wrong?” the redhead asked, and her eyebrows furrowed together with concern.

“I just need to reach them,” I said. “We need to make contact and get an ETA and location from them. Otherwise we have no idea where they’re actually at.”

“We have Minji,” Anna reminded me.

“Right,” I agreed. “She’s down in the hold with Paige right now, but we’re going to need her to stay here in case the Boston troops try to reach us.”

“That MiG encounter this morning really got under your skin, didn’t it,” she said with a nod. It wasn’t a question so much as an observation. “Is it because of Tara?”

“Partly,” I admitted. “We had a close call this morning. If I hadn’t heard that MiG we’d have been in deep shit, and while I love all you girls, the thought of something happening to Tara when she’s pregnant with our baby, that’s just too much to bear.”

“I get it,” Anna told me with a smile. “And I don’t think I officially said it before, but congratulations. As much shit as I give Tara, I know she’s going to be a great mom.”

“Why don’t you tell her that?” I asked with a laugh.

“Never,” Anna chuckled. “And you can’t tell her I said that, either.”

“You two are ridiculous.” I shook my head. “I swear, if I didn’t know any better I’d think you were actual siblings.”

“She is pretty much like the sister I never had.” The redhead shrugged, then she looked at me seriously. “I hope you know I’ll do whatever I can to protect her. All joking aside, I don’t want anything to happen to her, either. Especially now.”

“I appreciate that,” I told her.

“There’s no way we can