by SD Tanner
GIFT FROM GOD
(HUNTER WARS BOOK FOUR)
SD TANNER
Gift from God
Copyright © SD Tanner 2014
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by law.
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Dedicated to Mousey.
Who helps in so few ways but one.
Table of Contents
PROLOGUE: Looking for redemption
CHAPTER ONE: Did you miss me? (Ip)
CHAPTER TWO: Lost in hell (Pax)
CHAPTER THREE: Heaven is a place on earth (Lydia)
CHAPTER FOUR: Live to fight another day (Gears)
CHAPTER FIVE: Who pays the ferryman (Pax)
CHAPTER SIX: Star light, Star bright (Mackenzie)
CHAPTER SEVEN: Through the eye of the needle (Wolfie)
CHAPTER EIGHT: Heaven gets another angel (Nelson)
CHAPTER NINE: Dealing with the Devil (Hull)
CHAPTER TEN: A Horseman unleashed (Gears)
CHAPTER ELEVEN: A loss too hard to bear (Pax)
CHAPTER TWELVE: A future foretold (Mackenzie)
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: The truth be told (Gears)
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: In silence there is no peace (Gerry)
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: I see with my little eye (Hull)
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: Another future is foretold (Lydia)
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: Friends like these (Pax)
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: A friend in need (Mackenzie)
CHAPTER NINETEEN: Needle in a haystack (Captain Ted)
CHAPTER TWENTY: Raising the dead (Ip)
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: Hell has no friends (Captain Ted)
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: Where angels fear to tread (Gears)
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: Unlikely allies (Captain Ted)
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR: Dead before their time (Lydia)
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: A bond greater than blood (Gears)
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: Stuck in the middle with you (Pax)
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN: Is this star quality? (Gears)
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT: Every way but loose (Gears)
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE: There’s no place like home (Gears)
CHAPTER THIRTY: Let the games begin (Gears)
EPILOGUE: Taking the Empire (Ruler)
PROLOGUE: Looking for redemption
The metal toilet was a single, shiny bowl suspended in the air with no base, appearing to float from the wall. Against another wall was a matching silver metal sink, also utilitarian, with faucets worn a matt grey through years of constant use. Above the sink, was a highly polished sheet of shiny metal that offered a warped reflection, much like a mirror in a carnival house of horrors. The wall of bars made it obvious this was a maximum-security prison cell. The row of rigid heavy metal rods were only six inches apart, and somewhere in the middle was a door to the cell. At the bottom was a small slot, a foot and a half wide and just six inches high. It was designed to push trays of food, mail, and sometimes a book to a lonely prisoner.
This cell had an occupant. A man with sandy colored hair was sitting on the thin mattress lying over the plain metal framed bed. He had his legs spread, his feet planted firmly on the dull grey concrete floor, and he wore an air of desperation. His right elbow jerked convulsively, and he muttered to himself as he used a sharpened shiv to rip open his left wrist. Between the man’s feet, a pool of blood began to spread across the floor of the cell.
Suddenly the man looked up. For a moment, his craggy face changed from an expression of intense insanity to one of complete surprise. While his blood continued to pump from his shredded left wrist, his mind seemed to accept what he was seeing, and looking earnestly at something that wasn’t there, he opened his mouth to speak.
CHAPTER ONE: Did you miss me? (Ip)
Voice speaks: Hello you. Remember me? It’s time for you to set me free.
She wasn’t asleep, but she wasn’t awake and she could still vaguely sense the bodies around her. Logan was snoring behind her and TL was sprawled on a large over-stuffed chair in front of her. She was wrapped around Gears with her head on his chest and his heart was beating slowly and steadily. She wasn’t talking, but she wasn’t telepathically linked to the voice in her head either. It seemed to come from deep inside her own mind, and it had a slight musical lilt, but it wasn’t a voice she recognized. With its addled fragmented images and emotions, her mind was an odd thing she didn’t entirely feel at ease with, and the addition of a new voice in her head didn’t please her.
Within her mind, she replied, “Who are you?”
Voice speaks: I am the reason you exist. It is time you left. I must insist.
It wasn’t the answer she was expecting, and feeling a tingle of alarm, she asked, “What do you mean by leave?”
Voice speaks: I am you and you are me. You cannot stay. I must be free.
In her mind, she said, “I do not understand.”
Voice speaks: The child has come. It needs me now. It is my time to rule, and you must allow.
The voice wasn’t making any sense, and setting aside her anxiety, she said sternly, “Make sense or go away.”
Voice speaks: Do not fear my rule for I am you. But you must step aside, and let me be true. For I am Death and my time has come, to rid the world of the foolish ones.
Feeling annoyed, she asked, “If you are Death and you are me, then who am I?”
Voice speaks: You are the one that walks the earth. You are me and I am you. But your skills are just a few. Judgment has been cast and you must go. My skills are needed and blood must flow.
Exploring the voice and tasting the words with her mind, a deep realization struck her. The voice wasn’t lying. She didn’t understand which part of her mind was talking to her, but she knew it was her and she was telling her the truth. The message was real, that was a fact, and she said plainly, “You speak the truth.”
Voice speaks: Look in your mind. What do you see? Do you see the star that glows to me?
Exploring the stars in her mind, she scanned the familiar landscape. Like looking up at the sky on a clear night, the stars were scattered. Some were beautiful and bright, and others were dim and dark. If she reached with her mind, she could touch the stars, and they would vibrate and open like flowers in the sun. Once opened, she could join the star and they would share their minds. The dark stars were super hunters that obeyed Ruler, the darkest star of all. The brightest star was Mackenzie, but he spoke to no one. The other bright stars were those like her and infected with the designer virus. As she wandered the landscape of the stars, a new star had appeared. It was bright and golden, but it was small, almost hidden amongst the others. She touched the golden star, but like Mackenzie, it didn’t vibrate, and stayed silent and still.
Now curious, she sought out the voice in her mind and asked, “Who is it?”
Voice speaks: It is the one our judgment calls. We must protect the child or all will fall. Now step aside the time has come. I must walk the earth and call man to rule.
The voice had said she was Death and surely that meant she would kill people. H
orrified at the thought of killing humans, she asked, “If we are Death, are we going to kill man?”
Voice speaks: The choice to kill is not ours to make. The Horseman of War dictates our gait.
She remembered Gears asked her about a dream he had when he was dying. In that dream her former self told him they were the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. He was the bringer of war, TL spread the word, Pax created wealth, and she was the one who brought death. Did that mean Gears would command her to kill?
She asked, “Is Gears the Horseman of War?”
Voice speaks: I am Death and he is War. I belong to him forevermore.
With those words her mind filled with memories of times she didn’t know she knew. Like a cascade through the life of mankind, she was there and so was Gears. They stood side by side on battlefields, surrounded by the dead they’d made. As the memories became solid and fixed to the fabric of her mind, she knew they were hers, and this was the part she played. She had been on earth for as long as man existed. It was her role to be by his side, and it was his role to direct her hand to kill.
Now more curious than anxious, she asked, “And what of his brothers?”
Voice speaks: They do not know who they are. Until they ask, they will not travel far. But the child has come, and we must rule. Protect the child. I know that is true.
Her mind filled again with a message from somewhere she didn’t know. It wasn’t in words, or even images, but the message was an awareness of an undeniable truth. It was not about the child, but of an event the child’s existence made possible. Without the child the moment wouldn’t happen, and if it didn’t, then the world would end forever.
Understanding the importance of the child, she asked, “Who is the child?”
Voice speaks: The child is hidden even from me. But to find the child, you must set me free.
She thought pragmatically, I cannot argue with myself. I must step aside and be who I am. There is more to me than I did know, and I must let the true me flow.
Accepting the gravity of her own advice, she said firmly, “I will set me free.”
CHAPTER TWO: Lost in hell (Pax)
“It’s not right,” the scruffily dressed young man complained.
The older man next to him shook his head and said, “Nah, you’re wrong. Enough of us have died.”
“But there are survivors there too,” a tanned woman replied firmly.
He closed his eyes. The warmth of the truck combined with the droning of the engine was making him sleepy. His combat team were inexperienced and they couldn’t be left unsupervised. He knew he shouldn’t fall sleep. Adjusting his position until he was leaning forward in his seat, with his elbows on his knees and his gun tucked by his side, he tried to stay alert. He ran his hand through his untidy mop of sandy, grey speckled hair that stuck out at all angles, and caught sight of himself in the mirror. Clean-shaven, he had a large rounded lower jaw, and a craggy, heavily lined face that had spent too much time outdoors, and too little time being cared for. He was a bulky man, built like an ape, with large, heavy knuckled hands and a strong muscular build.
He was on a long-range scavenger mission with a new team. Despite losing over twelve hundred people at the Marine supply base and the Naval base, they were getting desperately short of supplies. Since Hull attacked the bases over four months ago by dropping half a dozen hunters and super hunters at each, another sixty thousand people flocked to the four bases they had on the mainland. The story the new arrivals told was harrowing. Armed gangs were roaming the land looking for any survivors, and they captured anyone they found. People were being loaded into transport trucks and driven away. The gangs wore black uniforms, were armed and organized, and appeared to be part of some sort of government group. Everyone who was captured was never seen again, but there were stories of what happened to them. Many believed they were being fed to the hunters to keep them docile, but no one could confirm the truth.
They knew Ruler had a refugee camp near Hopkinsville, Kentucky, and the scavenger team he was with were having the endless argument about whether they should attack it or not. Some of their people wanted revenge against Ruler for ordering Hull to attack them, others wanted to shore up the defenses at the bases and hunker down. Right now Gears wanted neither option. His plan was to move people away from the mainland and treat their country as enemy territory. According to Gears, they needed to stop wasting their limited supplies defending bases and set up somewhere secure. Once their people were safe, they could attack Ruler in their own time and on their own terms. Their main issue was they didn’t have enough space or supplies for the growing number of people seeking refuge with them. The overcrowding at the bases and on the islands was rapidly spiraling out of control and he knew it. With limited farming land, and the availability of supplies on the mainland dwindling, access to food was fast becoming a major problem.
The hunters were created from the virus that instantly infected most of the world. As hunters, their once human bodies became lean, muscular and hairless, and their heads vibrated manically when they were excited by the thrill of the kill. Impervious to pain, their only weakness was their inability to see properly in daylight, but even that wasn’t an issue once they were under the telepathic control of a super hunter. The hunters lived to hunt any living prey, and the super hunters obeyed Ruler. The self-named Ruler had set up a fake refugee camp, complete with a bogus POTUS and his own human army to work with his army of super hunters and hunters. At great cost to their people, they’d learned that even though they’d killed Ruler once, he could bring himself back in another body. He was ruthlessly determined to destroy everything they’d achieved so far.
They’d done a lot over the past eighteen months. With nearly ninety thousand people, at least half of them trained in combat and scavenging, they had four bases, two islands, and a CDC continuing their research into the counter virus. To date the CDC had successfully infected over fifty people with the counter virus. There were about forty people who were immune to the hunter virus and able to kill hunters with a touch. Pop, foster father to himself, Gears and TL, rebuilt the Ranch after Ruler destroyed it. The Ranch, that was once their home, was now home to the Infected. Sharing the Ranch with the Infected were humans who chose to help them, and in return the Infected kept them safe from the hunters.
One of the people they infected was their young leader, Mackenzie, but he developed precognition. It was his vision of their future that led him to kill Ip, but she returned to them in the body of another infected person that had been in a coma at another CDC. In her new body she could finally speak and was a super hunter, but she didn’t remember who she was or who they were.
Looking sideways at the woman who was driving the truck, he growled, “Shaddup, people. We’re in enemy territory. Stay focused. Never forget where you are.”
Giving him a guilty glance, Ruth said, “Sorry, Pax.”
With an understanding nod, he replied, “It is what it is. We’ve got bigger problems to worry about.”
Trying to induct the newly arrived sixty thousand people in four months was proving impossible. Every new person had to be assessed, and if considered vulnerable, was moved to one of the two islands. Everyone else was trained to scavenge, and if they were good with a gun, they were also taught to work as a combat shooter. Tripling the number of people at the bases had stretched them to breaking point in all ways. Trying to train so many people with dwindling supplies was impossible, and he was travelling further afield looking for anything useful they could bring back to the bases.
Having a small fleet of twenty helicopters helped with their searches, but even that was being hampered by the increasing problem of finding reliable supplies of fuel. With so few people left after the outbreak of the virus, originally finding food and fuel had been no issue. Back then their only problem had been gaining access to sites the hunters used to hide in during the day. He sighed and hoped Gears knew what he was doing. Despite tormenting him from the day they met as
foster brothers when they were ten years old, he trusted his brother in all ways. He thought if Gears told him to jump off a cliff, he probably would.
The site they were heading towards was a central distribution center for several large supermarket chains, and being remotely located, it appeared to be untouched since the outbreak. He wasn’t optimistic, but thought it was worth a look. If it was full of supplies they would bring a convoy out to collect the goods. He’d decided it might be worth driving the road rather than fly. In his view, air recon never provided quite the same sort of insight as travelling the land did. Ruth, Andy, Matt, and one of the Infected called Chelsea were in the four-wheel drive with him. With her ability to kill hunters with a touch, he needed Chelsea to help them get past the hunters he was likely to finding hiding in the distribution center.
After his stern words the five of them fell silent, and he looked out of the window while they drove across a long four-lane bridge. It was a tall bridge stretching over a wide, churning, deep river. Ahead, over half way across the long bridge, were two large transport trucks and several cars that almost blocked their way. There was a small gap between the trucks, and he figured they should be able to get past the crush of vehicles. Drawing closer to the jack-knifed trucks and broken cars, Ruth slowed their vehicle to a crawl.
Matt commented, “That’s weird.”
Peering through the windshield at the trucks, he had to agree. Aside from a single rusted car at the start of the bridge, the rest of the road was empty of any other vehicles. He glanced down at the road and there were drag marks as if something heavy had been pulled across it, leaving paint and deep grooves. It worried him. Why would anyone clear the bridge of vehicles, but leave it blocked? Shaking his head, it dawned on him they’d driven into an ambush. If they were lucky, it was an old one and no one was waiting for them. If not, then they’d better get ready to fight their way out.