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

Vehicles are probably the most valuable commodity in society now.”

“Right.” Bailey frowned. “But we can’t exactly storm in there, they would have the advantage.”

“You’re right about that, too,” I told her.

“We should try and call out to them,” Bailey said. “See how they respond.”

I looked around while I thought about what Bailey had said.

There was a large tank to our left, and if someone was able to get over to it, that could give them a good vantage point to see through the store windows.

“Alright,” I said. “I’m going to call out to them. Anna, Paige, wait for my signal, and if they respond with hostility, I want you to get over to that propane tank. We’ll give you cover fire.”

“Got it.” Anna nodded.

“Alright,” I said, and I took a deep breath and raised my voice. “We know you’re in there! You can come out, and we can talk, or you can fight and end your life right here. The choice is yours.”

I waited a couple of seconds, but I didn’t hear anything.

Anna caught my eye and nodded.

I was about to nod back, which was the signal for her to go, but just then a frail male voice called out.

“Wait!” he hollered. “We’ll give up. You can take whatever you want, just let us go.”

My eyebrows pinched together. The logical part of me told me I had to remain on edge, this could be a trick. However, my gut told me he was being authentic. Something about the terror in his voice sounded incredibly real.

“They sound scared.” Bailey mirrored my thoughts.

“I know,” I said. “But it could be a trick.”

“Tell them to come out,” Anna suggested.

“Come out and place your weapons on the ground,” I called.

“We’ll come out,” the voice said. “But we don’t have any weapons. Just a few pocket knives from the gas station.”

This was becoming more and more real each second, but I glanced over and saw Tara hidden behind the back tire. I couldn’t risk anything, not with her carrying my child.

“Okay,” I hollered. “Come out first, then we’ll do the same.”

“Alright,” the voice said, and a minute later I heard the sound of the door opening.

I waited a moment, then I carefully peered over the hood of the jeep.

There, just outside the store, were five very thin looking individuals. One was a tall dark-haired man with a stained gray T-shirt and pants that were much too large.

There was also a shorter dark-haired man who looked like he could be the older man’s son. He wore a Nirvana shirt and blue jeans.

There were two older women. One with dirty-blonde hair down to her shoulders, the other with red hair that had grown out black at the roots.

The final survivor was a younger woman in a terribly stained white collar blouse and dark-blue slacks.

I did a quick glance over of everyone, but I didn’t see any weapons. They all looked scared, and I immediately knew my gut had been right.

I stood up and held my gun at my side as I walked toward the group.

“Hello,” I said calmly. “I’m Tav.”

“Um, hi,” the man said, and his eyes went wide as he glanced down at the plasma gun in my hand. “Are you with the NK troops?”

“No,” I assured him. “I stole this from them.”

“Oh.” He breathed an audible sigh of relief, then he leveled with me. “We really don’t want any trouble. We’re just trying to survive here, you can take what you want, just leave us alive.”

“I’m not going to kill you,” I said, and I put my plasma gun back in its holster. “Girls, you can go ahead and come out.”

The girls slowly made their way over to us, and they put their weapons away when they saw that mine was holstered.

“What are you all doing here?” I asked. “This area is incredibly dangerous. You obviously know about the NK troops and that they’re in the vicinity.”

“We do.” The male nodded. “We were here when they attacked, and we were too terrified to try and leave. They were patrolling the area all the time. And then, even after we hadn’t seen them for a while, we didn’t want to start walking and run into them.”

“I understand,” I said, and I pursed my lips. “You all need to go, though. We took care of the troops in this area, but there are more on their way down here.”

“We have nowhere else to go,” the man said, and I could see his eyes glass over with emotion. “You know what it’s like out there. Everything we had before is destroyed.”

I looked at the man for a moment. I felt his pain. He only wanted to take care of his family.

The rest of the group looked just as scared as he did, and I could tell they hadn’t been eating well. Sending them off with no place to go was a quick way to ensure their deaths.

“Excuse us for one moment,” I said, and I turned to the girls and ushered them back over to the jeep.

The man looked confused, but he didn’t say anything, he just looked at the rest of his group and nodded to them to assure them it was okay. I was already starting to like this guy. He was clearly in charge, and he was doing what he thought was best under the circumstances.

“I think we should send them to campus,” Bailey said as soon as we were over by the jeep.

“What?” Paige whispered. “Are you crazy?”

“Look at them,” Bailey countered with a frown. “We can’t just send them off to die.”

“They are definitely malnourished,” Paige agreed, and she pursed her lips and glanced over to the group.

“What about Rolly and Betty and everyone else?” Tara