Bad Men

The three of you are about halfway back to your building when you hear voices, men’s voices. You make eye contact with the girls and bring your finger to your lips. They don’t need to be told as the three of you quickly and quietly make your way to some heavy brush between two houses on the street you’re walking down. You unsling the rifle from your shoulder and quickly make it ready for action.

You are all safely hidden away when four men round the corner. All are dressed in camo, and they are all carrying versions of the rifle you have pointed at them. They looked like soldiers on patrol. Were they men from the Colonel?

“Be alert, shots were heard last night coming from somewhere in this area,” one of the men said.

“Well there’s a lot of buildings here. It could have come from anywhere. We haven’t seen anything all day.”

The older man who was wearing sergeant stripes on his sleeve said, “Just quit bitching dickhead or I’ll put you on work duty. The Colonel wants it checked out so that’s what we do. Is that where you want to spend your day, with the other assholes on work duty?”

The man shut up and grunted his assent in a way that made it clear the last thing he wanted was work duty.

The older man talked again, “Let’s get this wrapped up so we can get back for the burn tonight. That’s going to be quite a show.”

You wonder what he’s talking about, but can make no sense of it right now. You move back deeper into the brush where the girls are waiting for you. You whisper quietly, “Let’s get into the backyards and make our way back through the back way. We need to give these guys a wide berth. If we get separated for any reason let’s meet at the house we got all the stuff from yesterday. I don’t want to chance leading these guys back to our base.”

The girls give their assent and you make you way over the fence at the back of the house. The men keep walking by and as they duck into a house across the street to search it you help the girls up and over the fence in the backyards. You all quickly move a couple of blocks away and duck into a house to gather yourselves.

You say, “They’re looking for us.”

“No shit genius,” Tomi spats back at you.

Ignoring her bad attitude you say, “I know I was stating the obvious, but this means we have to move.”

“Move to where?” says Grace.

“I’m not sure. I think we need to find where these guys have their base and move in the opposite direction as fast as we can. I think we're safer in the city where there are more places to hide, and if we run too far out into the countryside we might just run into another group of assholes like this bunch.

Just then you hear something in the basement of the house you are in; the one you thought was abandoned. It sounded like a box falling.