by SD Tanner
Izzie called out, “You’re back earlier than expected. Is everything okay?”
Her question dragged his mind away from his thoughts of Ip and back to the reason they returned so abruptly. “No, we think Pax has been captured and we need to go get him.”
“Ted left to look for him about three days ago. Last I heard they found his vehicle surrounded by blood and they’ve headed to the refugee camp to see if he’s there. Ted sent a convoy of three hundred shooters to Wolfie’s base and Wolfie put together another three hundred shooters. They’re all headed to the camp. In fact they’re probably already there.”
Listening to Izzie’s briefing, TL asked, “Is Ted planning to attack the camp?”
“Well, I don’t know for sure, but I think he is.”
Ted was a good soldier and a great guy in a crisis, but he wasn’t experienced enough to lead an attack on the camp against Ruler and his super hunters. Then again if Pax and his team were being held at the camp, it would only be a question of time before Ruler would kill them all, and the sooner they got them out the better.
His mind began to buzz with worry. “Can we get him on the radio?”
Izzie shook her head. “I don’t think so, Gears. They don’t have that kind of equipment with them.”
Without satellites the communications didn’t always work, particularly if they were on road and moving. Feeling his relaxed state of mind leave and his stress levels rise, he sighed and rubbed the scar on his face. “Then we’ll have to head straight to the camp.”
Ip speaks: I do not think the noisy one is there. His wife is here filled with despair.
“What are ya talkin’ about, honey?”
Ip speaks: The noisy ones wife is over there. She worries how her husband fares.
Looking around the airstrip, he asked, “What? You can see BD again? Where is she?”
Ip looked at an empty space next to him and reaching out, he waved his hands at the air. TL rolled his eyes. “What are you trying to do, Gears? Mess her up?”
Ip speaks: Follow her or lose one of us. Call it now and do not fuss.
Groaning, he asked, “Can’t ya jus’ ask her where he is?”
Clearly deciding his question was stupid, she huffed and looked away sulkily.
Looking at the delicate pattern that travelled from the edge of Ip’s top, up her neck and side of her face, Izzie asked, “What’s happened to her?”
With a dismissive wave of his hand, he muttered, “She’s always been like this. Bad-tempered and uncooperative.”
Izzie sighed deeply. “I’m asking about the markings on her face and neck.”
Not wanting to explain something even he didn’t understand, he said irritably, “It’s a hunter thing.”
He needed to make a decision. Did he trust Ip and her world of ghosts and demons, or did he rely on logic? If he went by logic, he would join Captain Ted and they would take down the refugee camp. If he went by the rules of the weird, he would allow Ip to follow the ghostly BD to lead them to Pax. If he made the wrong decision then Pax and his people probably would die.
Slowly rubbing the scar on his face, he pondered his choices. It was a decision he couldn’t afford to get wrong. If they found the truck then Pax was most definitely in the hands of Ruler and he didn’t intend to lose him. If he believed Ip then his brother was still alive and he’d kill anyone to get him home safely. Walking away from TL and Izzie, he stood facing the inlet of water and wished he knew what to do.
Silently he asked Ip, whatdaya think, honey? He could feel her steady calm and thought it was an odd response to the crisis.
Ip speaks: If he dies he will not be gone, but it is a loss to be borne.
“Whatdaya mean he won’t be gone?”
Ip speaks: We do not live, so we cannot die. But if one is lost we do not fly.
There was a lot he didn’t like about her answer. For one thing, he was pretty sure he could die, and for another, she was implying they couldn’t win against Ruler if Pax died.
“Do you mean we can’t beat Ruler without all four of us?”
Ip speaks: We are one of the same. If one is gone we are lame.
“Whatdaya mean about us not bein’ alive, so we can’t die?”
Ip speaks: We are a force, not a life. You cannot kill what is natures will.
Becoming frustrated, he asked ‘So, you think Pax can’t die anyway?”
Ip speaks: He cannot die, but he can be lost. If he is lost it will cost.
“Then bein’ lost and bein’ dead don’t mean a lot difference to me, honey.”
TL walked over to them and sounding frustrated, he asked, “Why are you being so stupid today? You cut our recon short because Ip told you she’d seen BD and Pax was in trouble. We land and find out Pax is in trouble. Now BD wants to lead us to Pax and all of a sudden you’re a disbeliever again. Make up your damned mind, Gears. You either believe Ip or you don’t, and if you don’t, then why are we even here now?”
Realizing TL’s argument was a winning one, he said irritably, “You’re gettin’ really mouthy.”
“Don’t get on my case just because you’re wrong, and maybe now Pax isn’t here, I can get a word in between you two idiots for once.”
Ip speaks: The kind one is smarter than you. You should follow his cue.
Giving Ip a friendly, but dirty look, he walked back towards Izzie muttering, “I keep gettin’ my ass handed to me today.”
He, TL, Logan, Ip, and four shooters used the bird at the Navy submarine base to search for Pax, but it was a strange flight. Ip would indicate a direction and he would instruct the pilot where to go, but they were flying blind. He wasn’t sure what Ip could see or how BD was directing her. She was guiding them to fly in short segments and he was continually telling the pilot to make minor course corrections. He felt he was placing a lot of trust in a mind and a world he didn’t understand.
“Are ya sure you know what you’re doin’, honey?”
Giving him a baleful look, she returned to staring out of the window. They were flying over Arkansas and he guessed they were heading west, but he had no idea how long the flight would take. She knew nothing about fuel and distances, and he hoped they had enough to get them where they needed to go, or he would be dealing with a very different sort of problem. He returned to staring out of the window with her. The land below them was becoming increasingly barren and devoid of greenery and life.
TL was sitting on the edge of the platform and he shouted, “It doesn’t look right down there.”
“No it doesn’t. Whatdaya think the problem is?”
Logan glanced at them from the opposite door. “Ruler. He kills everything.”
Ip speaks: The noisy one is very near. The path to him is not clear.
“What does that mean, honey?”
She pointed to a large sprawling building surrounded by a high wall. There were sharp spikes on top of the wall, making it impossible for anyone to climb it. Behind the walls was a large, barren-looking building with small rows of tiny windows. At each corner of the building were small towers clearly used to watch over the site. On the ground were fenced areas that looked like miniature basketball courts. The main gate into the site led to a large driveway, and it looked like an old prison from the 1950’s or 60’s.
“Radio Hatch, tell him where we are and then take us in closer, but watch out for shooters in the towers.”
Ip speaks: The problem here is hidden well. Down in the dirt the foolish ones dwell.
“What are you sayin’, honey?” When she didn’t reply, he ordered, “Bring us down about a half mile from the prison.”
Ip speaks: Listen to Death, I tell you now. The foolish ones will cause a row.
Grabbing her by the hand, he said earnestly, “You need to make more sense than that, honey.”
The pilot was hovering about fifteen feet above the ground and preparing to land. She tore her hand from his grasp, scampered across the platform and disappeared out the open door.
<
br /> Ip speaks: Do not follow. Watch me now. The foolish ones and I will row.
He watched her land gracefully on her feet and said, “Don’t land yet.”
With a grace and strength that surprised him, she was running nimbly towards the prison with her sword drawn. The earth beneath her feet was brown, slick and slimy and looked like clay. She skipped lightly over the muddy earth, barely touching the ground with each step. As her feet bounced over the lumpy terrain, the earth began to move around her. It was as if it was heaving to vomit. Large muddy globules spewed upward and then grew arms and legs. The muddy lumps grew taller and the outline of hunters emerged. Not just a few hunters, but hundreds of them were erupting from the slimy ground. Filthy and fierce, they were covered in mud and they blended with the color of the land. Even as they rose to stand tall, they were still hard to see against the brown earth.
“Holy shit!”
They’d almost landed in a hornets’ nest of hidden hunters. Ip was spinning happily, sweeping her sword left and right, as she called the hunters under her command. Once she’d formed a ring of at least two hundred hunters to create a safe circle, she waved her sword towards the bird.
Ip speaks: Now come War, the battle can start. I will kill until we depart.
Appreciating her will to kill, a wicked grin split his face. “Take us down.”
Standing on the muddy land and surrounded by their hunter guards, the pilot took off again. As they walked, sliding in the mud, more hunters were unearthing around them. It looked like the ground was giving birth to a never-ending litter of the undead. Their hunters formed a barrier of bodies between them and any possible enemy shooters in the towers. He felt safe from the shooters, but he wasn’t happy to be surrounded by merciless killers.
“Where are their super hunters?”
Ip speaks: Inside the tower, they wait for us to be still. They will fight, but we will have our fill.
You will have your fill, honey, he thought with some satisfaction. She’d always a keen killer of hunters, but now she’d evolved again and he almost pitied anything she set her mind to kill. Death, as she now called herself, seemed to have no conscience about killing and saw death as her friend. That’s gotta be some bad company, he thought distractedly, but he admired her single-mindedness. He wouldn’t consider death his friend, but he’d never been one to flinch from it either.
***
Ip speaks: Noisy one are you willing to hear. Your rescuers are drawing near.
Inside the prison Pax sat up straight and looked around this cell. “Jus’ who the fuck are ya and get the fuck outta my head.”
Ip speaks: I cannot do both you foolish one. Listen or not, here we come.
From the cell next to him, Mackenzie called. “Pax, who are you talking to?”
“I dunno. Someone keeps sorta talkin’ in my head.”
Mackenzie waved his hand around the wall separating their cells. “What does it sound like? Is it male or female?”
“Quit wavin’ at me Mac. I know where you are and I dunno, female I guess.”
“Well, what’s she saying?”
“That someone is comin’.”
“You should ask her who’s coming.”
“How the hell am I supposed to do that?”
“Just think it.”
Ip speaks: The Horseman of War comes for you. What else could be true?
“Horseman of War? What the hell does that mean?”
Ip speaks: We are one and they are your brothers true. Why else would we come for you?
“Stand ready, Mac. Gears and TL are here.”
“How do you know that?”
“’Cos Ip said so.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: Unlikely allies (Captain Ted)
Cutter peered through his binoculars. “I don’t know about this, Ted. It looks too easy.”
The camp looked quiet and desolate, and based on the size of their barracks, they couldn’t have more than a few thousand troops. Concealed behind a low, muddy hill, they were lying flat to the ground, trying to decide the best way to attack the camp.
“They have fuckin’ super hunters and hunters. Maybe they don’t think they need a big army.”
Lowering his binoculars, Cutter replied, “Maybe they have a point. The hunters aren’t easy to kill.”
“We’ll need to bomb the buildings and kill as many super hunters as we can upfront. It’s daylight and with enough firepower they’re easy to kill.”
“We can’t bomb the buildings, Ted, there are people in there.”
“I don’t care about bombing their barracks and I know the warehouse is empty. We’ll take out both sites and leave the refugee buildings.”
“Yeah, alright,” Cutter replied. “I guess we can do that, but how confident are you Pax and his team aren’t in the barracks or the warehouse?”
“I can’t be sure he’s not in the barracks, but I know he’s not in the warehouse.”
“Then how can we bomb the barracks?”
In disbelief, he said, “We’ll check the fuckin’ barracks first by taking in a small team. We’ll do a sweep, and if they’re not there, we’ll call an airstrike on the way out.”
“Oh, right,” Cutter replied, looking sheepish. “How are we gonna do a sweep?”
“We’ll bomb the warehouse and once they leave to deal with that we can get into the barracks. If our people aren’t there, we’ll bug out and call an airstrike. Then we’ll head to the refugee buildings and meet up with the convoy there.”
Having agreed on a plan, he and Cutter headed back to the convoy that was three miles from the refugee camp. Nelson and Isaac would be with Cutter to help him manage the convoy, and he chose three men and one woman to infiltrate the barracks with him.
He and his team headed to the barracks in a four-wheel drive. He intended to call an airstrike on the warehouse and then drive straight to the barracks. He was hoping they could infiltrate the barracks, look for Pax and his team, and leave without anyone knowing they’d been there.
Cutter was moving the convoy to be less than half a mile away from the refugee buildings, and would be ready to drive into the camp as soon as they’d bombed the barracks.
He was about half a mile from the barracks and radioed the bird. “This is Ted to lead bird. Go. Go. Go.”
The birds flew overhead and there was the sound of explosions. He figured it would take a few minutes for the troops in the barracks to react. Trucks began to pour onto the main road through the camp, heading towards the warehouse
“It’s all a go-go,” Lily said with a tense grin.
Lily was a plain faced woman with freckly skin and red hair, and although she wasn’t an attractive woman, she had some fire about her. She was driving and her boyfriend was sitting behind her. He was a big German guy called Heinrich who arrived with Philip’s flotilla and everyone called him Rich.
Rich said in his heavy accent, “Is very good.”
The other two guys were Mike and Darren. Both were unremarkable, but reliable. He didn’t really know much about either of them other than they were good with their guns, and kept their heads down when they needed to. It meant he didn’t have to worry about them.
They reached the barracks, and as he expected, most of the men were gone. No one paid much attention to their arrival, but he supposed the sight of five people dressed in ACUs was a common sight. Watching the men moving around the parking lot, he realized he’d made a very simple mistake. The troops were all men and Lily would stand out in the crowd. They might be able to get into the building, and even move around undetected, but they wouldn’t be able to if they had a woman with them.
Twisting in the front seat of the vehicle, he said, “Lily, you can’t come with us. They’re all male and you’ll give us away.”
Tugging her baseball cap even lower on her head, she said, “Yeah, I worked that out already. I’ll sit low and wait with the vehicle.”
“Is alright,” Rich said calmly. “Is good to have driver waitin
g.”
Lily drove to the main doors and they climbed out of the four-wheel drive. Walking by her driver’s window, he said, “Park somewhere safe and keep an ear on the radio. I’ll let you know when we’re coming out.”
“Roger that.”
It was a three-story building. The main entrance had double glass doors that led to a reception area with stairs to the left. He thought they’d probably keep prisoners on the third floor where it would be difficult for them to escape. Walking through the entrance as if they owned the place, Mike and Darren kept moving to check the ground floor and look for a basement, while he and Rich turned to the left and headed up the stairs.
The stairs were painted grey, but chipped and pitted with heavy and rough use. Listening intently, he couldn’t hear much. There was the occasional voice and echo, but the barracks appeared to be fairly empty. He supposed most of them had left to defend the warehouse. In the distance there was sporadic gunfire, but he had no idea what they were shooting at. Their birds had bombed from them from the air and their convoy wasn’t anywhere near the warehouse.
Climbing to the third floor, they planned to work their way down floor by floor. He glanced out of the window in the stairwell and smoke was billowing from the direction of the warehouse.
Finally arriving on the third floor, he and Rich gave one another a quick glance before walking confidently into the room. This level had a large collection of bunk beds, one after another, with lockers in between. The place was a mess. Boots, ACUs, guns, towels, and empty bags of various types of junk food, were scattered on the floor and the beds. The room wasn’t just messy, it smelt like a men’s urinal. There were toilets and showers to their right and he suspected they were filthy.
Unimpressed he was about to tell Rich the floor was clear when someone shouted. “Hey! What the fuck are you doing?”
Looking around for the source of the voice, there was a man lying on the bottom of a bunk bed. While he struggled to sit up he glared at them suspiciously.