Free Justice by Gillian Zane

fine,” Lani whined.  

    “Just take the bed, Lani, Murphey and I are used to sleeping on the ground,” I tried to reassure her but her frown in the dim room told me I had done the opposite.  

    “I know you guys think I’m soft, but I’m not, I can handle this,” she said but her voice was high-pitched and whiny not sounding capable, only child-like. I knew exactly how she felt. My first two years in the military were a constant battle against men and other women who thought because of my size, how I looked, and my voice, that I couldn’t do the job. It wasn’t until my first tour, even after going through Ranger school, that I finally began to earn the respect I deserved.   It wasn’t until after I had taken out nearly a dozen enemy combatants in one of the most horrendous fire fights I’d ever experienced that I became one of the “guys.” I still had nightmares about that day. I didn’t want Lani to have to go through something like that.  

    “I think it’s more that we want you to be soft, or to stay soft,” I argued.  

    “That’s unfair. I don’t want to be soft, soft people die. You and Romeo think you’re protecting me by shielding me, but I don’t want to be shielded.”  

    “Give it time, Lani, you’ll be as fucked as the rest of us,” Murphey yawned. “Might as well enjoy not having PTSD while you have the luxury.” She laughed, her dark humor too close to the truth for comfort.  

    “Y’all aren’t, fu–fucked,” she stumbled over the curse word as if she wasn’t used to it.  

    “Yeah we are, we just know how to hide it well. Get some rest, Lani, we have a neighborhood to invade and some bikers to kill, gotta be well-rested for that,” Murphey joked again and Lani took the hint, throwing herself on the bed with a sigh.  

    I couldn’t let myself slide over into sleep until both of their breaths evened out and I knew they were out.  

THIRTEEN | Going in Hot

    It was dark as fuck as I got into the back of the vehicle. We had one of the troopers driving, an older man by the name of Nigel. He had his partner in the passenger seat and Murphey and I took the backseat. We were packing M4s and had them converted to fully automatic.  

    We were going in guns blazing.  

    We were flanked on both sides by two crotch rockets, with modified mufflers to suppress the sound, and one four-wheeler. They had mounted a rifle on the handle bars of the four-wheeler with a shit-ton of duct tape. It looked ridiculous and dangerous. If that came loose, he could do some serious damage to himself or the soldiers around him. Glad I wasn’t on that post.  

    “We’re going in hard and fast. Team One is going up Robert E. Lee and taking out the watch at the Orleans Canal, Team Two is going up Filmore and taking out that watch there. Three is coming up the rear behind One after they take out the first watch, and Four is coming up from the Jefferson side and taking out the watch at Bucktown,” Poche reiterated the plan we had gone over a million times.  

    Team One was Zach and Blake’s team, Team Two was Romeo’s team and ours was Three. There was a fifth team which was basically clean-up and manned by the civilians and Poche who was acting as our Napoleon. Isaiah, our compound’s doctor, and Lani were also in the fifth team, their job was to help secure the females and children. They wouldn’t come in until we gave them an all-clear and were ready to go in and get the hostages.  

    Nigel started the vehicle and we pulled out, following closely behind Blake’s vehicle. We weren’t using headlights, we wanted to surprise them.  

    We pulled onto the main street that would take us into Lakeview. The street was a two-lane expanse separated by a wide neutral ground with overhanging trees that were being overtaken by bush killer vines. There was a full moon tonight but the area was still pitch black and I could barely make out anything in front of us. The anxiety from not being able