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

explosions. For all we knew, they could have created another substance that was just as deadly.

I turned and walked over to where Hammer and the girls stood.

“Did Minji say he doesn’t know what all the weapons are?” Paige asked when I walked up.

“That’s right.” I nodded.

“But they have tanks and helicopters equipped with plasma cannons,” Anna said with a shake of her head. “Shit.”

“And more MiGs,” Tara added dryly.

“Right, the MiGs, how could I forget about the MiGs?” the redhead asked rhetorically, and she put her hand on her forehead and gave it a good frustrated rub before she opened her eyes and looked at me. “What are we going to do here?”

“Is there anything else we need to know?” Paige asked.

“We could ask him where exactly the troops are located,” Bailey suggested.

“That’s a good idea.” I nodded.

“We could ask how they’re communicating with them,” Hammer added. “If any of their radios still work, we may be able to figure out a way to speak with the troops down there directly.”

“These are all great,” I told my group.

“Okay, but still, what are we going to do with them?” Tara asked. “We can’t just keep them around while we head to Atlanta, can we? They’re just dead weight.”

“They’ve surrendered,” Paige pointed out. “So technically, we’re not supposed to kill them.”

“They’ve violated the Geneva Convention a hundred times over,” Hammer said through clenched teeth. “I can’t count the number of civilians they’ve killed just because they were in the way.”

“Wait, it’s illegal to kill civilians?” Tara asked.

“It violates international humanitarian laws.” I nodded.

“Well, then, fuck these guys,” the platinum-blonde scoffed. “Why is this even a discussion?”

“It’s not,” I said.

“I guess I hadn’t considered they’d violated the treaties already,” Paige whispered.

“I know you’re trying to follow the laws here,” Hammer said. “But we’re past that now. This is the worst war I’ve ever seen. These assholes have come onto our land, killed our citizens to try and take it over, and had zero regard for the innocent people they’ve slaughtered. As far as I can see, killing them is the only way to deal with them.”

“Hammer’s right,” I said. “This is the worst war I’ve seen, too. You girls saw Washington on our way down here.”

“It was just rubble,” Bailey said softly, and she looked down and bit her lip.

“I was expecting the white house to still be standing at least,” Anna said with a shake of her head.

“The whole drive down was terrible,” Tara said. “Everywhere is destroyed. Even after this war is over, it’s going to take years to rebuild everything.”

“Probably closer to decades,” Paige corrected, and she closed her eyes for a second, then she looked at me. “I’m with you. We need to take these assholes out.”

I smiled softly at Paige. She was always the good girl who followed the rules, but this was not the time for that, and I was glad she was able to see that. The brunette’s eyes were hard as she looked at me and nodded.

Anna caught my eye, and the redhead’s jaw was set with anger. I couldn’t blame her, though. Thinking about the drive down got my blood boiling, too. Every city we’d come across had been reduced to virtually nothing.

Bailey’s eyes were pricked with tears as she stared at the ground. I knew my hippie girl was thinking about all the lives that had been lost in this war, and from the looks of her clenched fists, she wasn’t only sad about it, she was angry. Honestly, I had been surprised she hadn’t sided with Paige and tried to get us to follow the Geneva Convention, but I think she was more concerned about the lives we’d lost than the lives of these traitorous assholes who’d given up so easily. Not to mention, none of the girls had seen their families in two years now, and that was because of the NK army. As much as I hated to think about it, my girls’ families could all be dead at the hands of these motherfuckers.

My eyes landed on Tara last, and I couldn’t help the anxious feeling I got when I saw her. The platinum-blonde had her arms crossed over her chest  and her eyes were narrowed past me at the soldiers we had lined up on the ground.

I couldn’t help but think of the child of mine that was growing inside of her. The United States had been turned to rubble, but I wasn’t going to allow that to be my baby’s future. I was going to win this war.

I turned around and walked back over to where the men were on their knees.

“Is everything alright?” Minji asked quietly.

“Ask him where the troops are at,” I said.

Minji didn’t push the issue, she just nodded and translated for me.

“He says he doesn’t know their exact location, it hasn’t been given to them yet,” the Korean woman said.

“How are they communicating with each other?” I asked, and my eyes narrowed on the shirtless man in front of me.

“He says they were too far away to use their radios directly,” Minji translated. “There was a ship that came from Georgia up to Boston to relay messages, but that stopped when they were told to move out.”

“Minji,” I said. “Did you all ever see a different ship around?”

“Yeah,” the Korean woman said, and her eyes widened with realization. “But only once, maybe a month or so before you all showed up.”

“That was probably the only time it stopped at Norfolk.” I nodded. “To let those assholes know that these assholes were headed south, and they should head down, too.”

“I never really thought about it.” She shook her head. “I’m sorry, I should have told you.”

“It’s alright,” I assured her. “Ask him if