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

“Well, we have all day today to get our shit together,” I said with a smile as I looked up at the bright morning sky. “We may as well leave tomorrow.”

“Fuck, that’s quick,” Tara said.

“We don’t have any time to waste,” I said grimly. “If the last stand is in Atlanta, we need to get there.”

“Right.” The brunette nodded.

“So, it’s settled.” I clapped my hands. “This morning we’ll split into teams. Some of us will head back to the attack point from yesterday and go through the debris to see if there’s anything else valuable while the rest of us start to pack up all the supplies here.”

“We can handle the debris, right, boys?” Rivers asked, and the rest of the SEALs nodded in agreement.

“I appreciate that,” I told him with a smile and a nod.

It was amazing the difference in attitude the SEALs had now that I was their leader. They clearly respected the hell out of me, and part of me thought it was because I pushed them to live up to their potential instead of trying to keep them in the shadows like the Captain had. Either way, they had become team players, and I was happy to have them as we headed down to the next, and hopefully the final, battle of this war.

Once the jobs were all assigned, the girls and I headed over to the ship to work on transporting items to and from shore, and tallying them as we went.

Paige kept a master list of everything we brought onto the ship, and the rest of the girls and I made sure to organize things properly.

“So, what did the Captain want to talk to you about earlier?” Tara asked as we carried boxes down to the hold.

“Actually, Hammer and I talked to him,” I explained.

“Is he alright?” Bailey asked, and I could hear the frown in her voice.

“He’s fine,” I chuckled. “We’re sending him and some of the civilians back up to campus.”

“I think that’s a good idea,” Anna agreed. “I’ve been worried about some of them.”

“Me, too,” Bailey said, and I turned to see her flash me a smile. “Most of them haven’t been in intense battles before. I’m glad you’re sending them back home. And the captain, too. He’ll like it there.”

“Anybody would like it there,” Tara laughed. “We have it made.”

“We do,” Bailey chuckled. “But I meant that I think he’ll get along with Rolly and Henry and Betty.”

“Because he’s old?” Anna asked with a playful smirk.

“Well… yeah.” Bailey shrugged.

“You’re probably right,” the redhead agreed.

“You think you bruised his ego a little bit by telling him to retire?” Paige chuckled.

“Maybe,” I said with a small smile. “But I think he’ll live.”

“Yeah, we’re basically giving them the keys to Alanis here,” Tara scoffed. “A bruised ego isn’t going to hurt him.”

“Did you say Alanis?” Anna asked, and she narrowed her eyes on Tara as we set the boxes we were carrying down.

“Yeah, the lost city of Alanis,” Tara said, and she cocked her hip out to the side and put her hand on it. “You don’t know about that place? It’s, like, supposed to be super secret but super awesome.”

“Oh, I know what it is,” Anna laughed. “But it’s the lost city of Atlantis. Not Alanis.”

“The lost city of Alanis,” Paige giggled. “Like Alanis Morriset.”

“Right!” Anna laughed.

“Fuck you guys.” Tara glared at the two of them. “Anna thought that the phrase was the popcorn kettle black, anybody remember that?”

“Oh, we all remember.” Paige nodded. “And we’ll remember this, too.”

“Whatev.” Tara sniffed, but then she joined in the laughter. “I do love Alanis Morriset, though.”

The rest of the day was spent packing up the ship and the jeeps with the cargo that needed to go down to Atlanta with us.

The SEALs returned from the attack site with quite a few plasma guns that were still intact, plus a few larger tanks from the tops of the weapons. A lot of the plasma liquid had been wasted, and the ground was coated in the stuff, so I could only hope whoever came by with a plasma gun wasn’t dumb enough to shoot anywhere near it, but otherwise, we’d gotten everything we could from the mess.

Our weapons consisted of the ones the Navy had stocked up, the ones my crew had brought with us, and what we’d found on the ship and scavenged from the NK troop massacre. We had one hell of a stockpile built up. Whoever was in charge down south was going to have to take us seriously when we showed up with the crazy amount of weapons we had.

I hoped our boys were holding up alright, but the NK soldier we’d interrogated had said there were at least thirty-thousand troops down there, so I knew it had to be one hell of a battle going on.

Whatever the case was when we showed up, we’d be ready for it.

After we finished with packing up everything for the day, Tara made us dinner, and Anna pulled out some of the jugs of vodka Renee had sent with us and passed them around.

It was a quiet evening while everyone contemplated what was to come.

I looked around at the civilians, and I could see the determination and anxiety on their faces. The SEALs had the determination, but not the anxiety. They’d been trained for situations like this, and they knew what they were getting into when they chose this career path.

I had to admire the civilians, though. They hadn’t undergone the same training us military folks had, and they had no obligation to put their lives on the line for their country, but here they were anyways.

I was proud to call them my team.

The next morning