Without Law 18 Eric Vall (reading well TXT) 📖

reached out and flipped the on switch.

The machine didn’t whirr to life with any spectacle, but I did hear a small hum, and a smile cracked my mouth in response.

“Is that a noise?” Anna asked, and she leaned down to get a better look. “Is that a fucking noise?”

“Fuck, yeah, it is,” Paige chuckled, and she stood up and high fived the redhead. “That’s a fucking noise!”

“It’s working?” Bailey asked, and she bounced up and down on the balls of her feet.

“I think so,” I laughed.

“We should test it,” Tara said.

“Test it?” Paige asked, and her brown eyebrows pulled together with confusion. “What do you mean? That’s what we’re doing right now.”

“Yeah, but just because it turns on doesn’t mean it actually works,” the platinum-blonde pointed out, and my heart sank.

She was absolutely right.

Just because the machine turned on didn’t mean it would fire properly. Aside from that, we needed to find some ammunition for it in order for it to be of any use to us.

I glanced around to see that Tara’s comment hadn’t only affected me. Everyone was quiet as they looked at the machine in front of them with near horror on their faces.

“Tara’s right,” I said. “We need to test it.”

“How do we do that, though?” Anna asked. “We don’t have any ammunition for it, either.”

“I know.” I nodded. “But we’re going to find some.”

“That’s going to take too long,” Paige said with a frown. “This base is huge.”

“It is,” I agreed. “But this is a display, there’s got to be information about it nearby.”

“Right.” Paige nodded. “Like a placard or something that talks about it. There might be some ammunition there.”

“Why would there be ammunition there?” Anna asked.

“A lot of times things like that go on display,” Paige answered. “People just like to look at them.”

“Alright,” the redhead said. “So, where would this placard be?”

“In the commissary you think?” Bailey asked. “It’s the closest building to us.”

“Maybe,” I said. “But it’s not the only one.”

I gestured across the field from where we’d parked. There was a small brick building that I recognized as the Military Postal Service.

“The post office.” Paige nodded. “I bet you’re right. It’s got to be in there.”

The brunette and I rushed across the grass with the other girls in tow. We didn’t have a moment to spare. It had already been at least twenty minutes since we arrived at the Air Force Base, and we still had other shit to do in a short amount of time.

“Is it me, or did it not seem obvious that this placard would be in the post office?” Tara asked as we ran.

“Yeah, I wouldn’t have guessed that,” Anna admitted.

“I can see it,” Bailey said.

“Am I missing something here?” Tara asked.

“I don’t think so,” Bailey said. “You probably just haven’t been to a lot of post offices.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” the platinum-blonde asked. “Why would the post office have placards about random shit like this?”

“Post offices always have the most random things in them,” Paige explained as we got to the door, and she yanked it open. To my surprise, it opened right up, and I gripped my plasma gun and moved in to clear the small building.

It only took a moment for us to clear the place, and once that was done, we started to look around for the placard.

“I found it,” Anna called, and I rushed to where she stood near the front door.

I’d gone up and to the right when we’d entered, so I hadn’t focused too much on what was by the door on my left, but there was a large case full of pictures, folded flags, pins, and other military paraphernalia.

On the bottom row of the case was a set of three pictures of the skysweeper, as well as a plaque detailing the weapons use, where it had been, and anything notable about its time in operation.

Most importantly, though, there was a box of ammunition next to that plaque.

“That’s it, yeah?” Anna asked me with a grin.

“That’s it,” I laughed. My whole body felt lighter all of the sudden. We hadn’t tested the weapon yet, but at least we had everything we needed to do so.

“You found it?” Paige asked as she, Tara, and Bailey rushed over and crowded around us.

“Dang, there’s like ten shells there,” Bailey said as she looked at the box.

“There’s plenty,” I said. “We have to get them out, though. Everybody stand back.”

The girls did as I commanded, and I quickly looked around to see if there was anything to use to break the glass that would work better than my M9.

I hadn’t brought my rifle with us, or I would have used the butt end of it. Bailey had hers, but it was all the way back in the jeep. I’d send her back to get it if I needed to, but I didn’t want to have to do that.

I spotted a small metal stool set up near a computer, and I figured it was my best bet, so I quickly retrieved it. I held the stool with the legs out, then I swung it like a baseball bat so the metal legs collided with the glass of the trophy case.

Glass shattered everywhere with a loud clattering sound, and I instinctively closed my eyes to shield them from the spray of tiny glass slivers.

“Alright,” I said after the coast was clear, and I opened my eyes and looked at the now exposed items in the trophy case.

“That was more intense than I thought it was going to be,” Bailey whispered.

“Let’s go,” Paige said, and she rushed forward and grabbed the box of shells before I even had the chance to reach for them. They were