by SD Tanner
Giving the driver a quick glance, he said sternly, “Step on it. Isaac, you need to stay with the vehicle. Nelson, you and I need to sort out whatever’s left on the ground.”
“Who do you think is in the house?”
“Someone hiding from a super hunter.”
The bird was circling ahead of them and he said to the driver, “Find your way to where the bird is.”
“We’ve got them pinned behind their vehicles,” a voice said in his ear. “Two dead, three alive, but I think we got the super hunter. Do you want us to take down the other three?”
Without a super hunter controlling the hunters, their enemy was as vulnerable to them as they were. “Not yet. If they cause any problems, we’ll let the hunters have them.”
The house was only a few streets away from the main road they were driving on. Unlike the area they’d driven through earlier, these houses were made of painted wood, with low metal fencing separating them from the house next door. Seeing two heavy military style trucks in the distance, he assumed they’d found the house. There was the occasional burst of gunfire from the bird, while they continued to keep the remaining enemy shooters pinned behind their trucks. There didn’t appear to be any return fire from the house, and he was convinced whoever they were attacking was probably unarmed. Their driver pulled their truck behind several abandoned cars no more than fifty feet from the military trucks.
Climbing out of the truck and crouching behind it, he called to the shooters, “Who are you?”
“Might ask you the same question, asshole!” A voice shouted back.
Turning to Nelson, who was now crouched with him, he asked, “Why is everyone so goddamned unfriendly these days?”
“Is that a serious question?” Nelson enquired, with exaggerated politeness. “You did just shoot two of them, and now you’ve got them pinned behind their vehicles. If anything, I feel your skills as a communicator and a negotiator are…eroding.”
“Shaddup, Nelson.” Turning his attention to the house, he called, “Who’s in the house?”
“None of your fuckin’ business. It ain’t got nothin’ to do with you.”
Tired of arguing with the disembodied voice, he called, “I’ll kill the rest of you if you don’t step out with your hands on your heads.”
“We ain’t doin’ that.”
“Then you’re gonna die. That bird has Hellfire missiles and I will not hesitate to blow you and your trucks to hell, so do as you’re damned told. I’m not in the mood for bullshit.” There was no sign of movement from the vehicles. “Don’t make me count to three. This isn’t school and I’m not your Mom. I’ve got so much innocent blood on my hands now, a little more won’t bother me none. I’ll kill you first and work out whether I should have later.”
Nelson gave him a surprised look. “You’re getting to be a bit of hardass, TL, and that worries me. If you’re not the reasonable one out of the four of you, then there’s nobody reasonable left.”
“I’m just fed up with this shit. If Ip’s right and we’re the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, then it’s time we finished our mission and left.”
“To go where?”
Since he’d begun to develop the same markings as Ip, he wondered if she was right and they were here to judge and enforce their ruling. It certainly fit with every decision they’d made since the outbreak of the virus, but until he, Ip and Pax developed the markings, he would have been willing to assume they were men doing a job they were trained to do. The markings were a sign he couldn’t ignore, and it forced him to acknowledge that maybe Ip understood more than they did. If everything she believed was true, then not only did they need to complete their mission, they were the only people who could. He believed once their mission was done they should leave, but he had to admit, he didn’t know where they’d go.
“Wherever the fuck it is we’re supposed to be. I’m just not sure we’re meant to be here anymore.”
While they’d been talking, three men emerged from behind the trucks with their hands on their heads. They were wearing jeans and t-shirts, with boots and baseball caps. With his weapon trained on them, he walked across the road and he didn’t think they didn’t look like much. Daylight was slowly fading, and he decided he needed to conclude the situation quickly, or they would all be exposed to the hunters.
“Who are you?”
“I’m Ron,” one of the men replied. Flicking his head slightly left and then right, he added, “This is Mickey and Doug.”
“Who were the other two people with you?”
Ron shook his head uncertainly and said, “We didn’t really know them, but my wife and kids are in that house.”
Looking skeptical, Nelson asked, “If she’s your wife with your children, then why hasn’t she come out of the house to meet you?”
“She’s pissed off with me. Stupid bitch ran off.”
The men in front of him looked unremarkable. Skinny with forgettable faces that at any other time he wouldn’t have remembered the moment he wasn’t looking at them, but he detected a meanness in Ron. Even with his hands on his head, Ron glared at him, and he’d no doubt, when he felt in control, he was a bully and a braggart. Sighing inwardly, he thought, it’s always his type that survive, they’re so willing to take what they think they need, and they’ll sacrifice anyone to get it. He suspected more of Ron’s type survived than the decent people they needed to rebuild their world. Only the mean survive he thought unhappily, it’s the way of the jungle.
Unable to hide his contempt, he said, “I can understand why she won’t come out of the house. You’re an asshole.”
“That’s fuckin’ harsh. You’ve only just met me.”
Leaving Nelson and their driver to cover the men, he walked towards the weatherboard house and called, “Hey! You can come out now! It’s safe out here.”
There was no answer from inside the house, and stepping around the body of what he assumed was a super hunter, he walked up to the front door. “I’m coming in! Don’t shoot me!”
Opening the metal screen door, he pushed open the wooden door behind it, and peered into the gloomy interior. The inside of the house was a mess of broken furniture, beaten walls and torn carpet. The pervasive stench of stale vomit still lingered inside, and it’d clearly been a home to hunters. He couldn’t see anyone or any movement, and was beginning to doubt anyone was there. Unclipping his flashlight from his belt, he lit up the lounge room and stepped inside the house. It was a small house and there was nowhere much for anyone to hide. Playing the flashlight around the lounge, he saw it was empty. He walked through to the kitchen behind the lounge, and looked for an entrance to a basement. He figured if anyone was trying to hide from a small, but well-armed group of men, then it would be their best option. Once he was in the kitchen, he saw a door in front of him. Cautiously opening it, there was a narrow and steep flight of stairs that led underground, and still standing at the top of the stairs, he shone the light down. Caught in his flashlight was a woman with two small children. The children were no more than three or four years old, and they were clutching her tightly by each leg. Dressed in jeans and a baggy shirt, with her dark hair in knots, the woman looked exhausted and terrified. Shaking badly, she held out her hand, and he saw it was curled into a fist around an object.
Staring up at him wild eyed, she sobbed, “Go away! I have a grenade and I’ll kill us all.”
Setting his gun down, he raised his hand and said soothingly, “Don’t do that. I’m not going to hurt you.”
The woman glared at him. “That…man said he didn’t want the children. I won’t let you hurt them. I’d rather we all die than let you have them.”
Continuing to play the light into the basement, he studied the panicked woman closely, and decided she meant every word. Clearly she’d been pushed beyond her limits, and she’d choose to die rather than submit to an eternity in hell.
Despite the immediate danger to himself, he admired her courage. “Okay, I understand that, but
I’m not with whoever you’re talking about. Did you hear the gunfire? That was my people taking out the guys who were chasing you.”
As he spoke, he stepped down one step. The woman pulled away, while the children continued to cling to her. Closer now, he could hear their muffled sobbing and he took another step. “There’s three of them left out there, but we’ve got guns on them. You need to tell me what’s going on.” The woman didn’t reply, but continued to glare at him. He took another step down. “I’m TL, what’s your name?”
With tears streaming down her face, the woman replied fiercely, “Don’t push me. All I have to do is open my hand and we all die, including you.”
He knew she was right. The stairwell was narrow and any blast would kill her and the children, and most likely kill or at least severely injure him as well.
“I know, but I don’t want you to kill the children. We have bases and between them there’s five thousand kids under the age of twelve. We do everything we can to keep them safe, and it goes against everything we’re doing to allow someone to kill kids, even if they’re trying to protect them. You and your children still have a chance at a good life. Please don’t throw their lives away like this. You need to hear me out.”
Sounding deeply distressed and confused, the woman asked, “You have five thousand children at your bases? Where are these bases? Why haven’t I heard about them?”
Keeping his flashlight trained on the woman and her children, he continued to walk slowly down the stairs. “They’re in Florida and we’ve also settled people in the UK and on islands where it’s safer.”
He reached the last step and stood just three feet from the woman. Shining his flashlight, so she could see his face, he smiled warmly. “You don’t have to die today. Come with us and we’ll take you and your children to our main base right now.”
As his words sunk in, the woman’s face crumpled. Her dark eyes shone with tears and she asked timidly, “Really? You’re not lying? We don’t have to die?”
He fixed her with steady eye and smiling even more widely, he asked, “Do you think a bad guy would be standing here ready to die with you? Like you say, all you have to do is open your hand and we’re all dead.”
The woman shook her head, and as she did, more tears spilled down her cheeks. Turning and putting the flashlight on a step so he could still see her, he wrapped his hand around hers, and slowly eased the grenade from her tight grip.
With the grenade firmly in his own hand, he kept the safety lever depressed. “I need to get rid of this.”
Turning, he carefully walked up the stairs and to the back door. Opening the door, and looking into the darkening gloom, he shouted, “Frag out!” Hearing no reply, he hurled the grenade into the garden and listened to blast.
Through his earpiece, he heard Nelson ask calmly, “What the hell was that?”
“Never mind. I’ve got a woman and two children here. She’s really scared of those guys, so keep them well covered.”
“They’re not going anywhere.”
He turned back to the kitchen and saw the woman and her two small children were standing at the top of the stairs. Retrieving his gun, he indicated she should lead the way back to the front door. Outside, the bird was still circling low, and Nelson and the driver had the three men in the small front yard on their knees, with their hands on their heads. On seeing the men in the yard, the woman flew past him and began to hammer her fists at the man called Ron, while screaming incoherently at him. He fell over under her assault and lay on his side, making no attempt to defend himself.
Grabbing the woman by the arm, he hauled her from Ron. “What the hell are you doing?”
The woman didn’t reply, but with her face contorted in rage, she continued screaming and lashing out with her arm at Ron, who was still lying on his side and moving feebly. As the woman lifted her arm again, he saw she was holding what looked like a kitchen knife, and he realized she hadn’t been punching Ron, but repeatedly stabbing him.
Reaching his arm along hers, he squeezed her hand tightly until she dropped the knife. “Why?”
Still breathing heavily, she said angrily, “He was going to trade our children…his children…to save his worthless ass.”
Looking unconcerned by Ron’s injuries, Nelson asked, “Trade with who?”
With tears streaking her face, the woman replied, “I don’t know…some man called Hull. If it wasn’t for the other man called Gray and that hunter, he would have done it too.”
Feeling equally unconcerned about Ron’s fate, he turned to the two men still kneeling next to his prone and bleeding body. “Is that true?”
One of the men replied nervously, “It was all Ron’s idea. Hull was really pissed she got away, and said we couldn’t join ‘em unless we got Annie and the twins back. He couldn’t work out how she escaped, and he wanted her back so he could find out.”
Pulling his mouth into a disgusted grimace, he asked, “So you’re with Hull?”
Swallowing anxiously, the man whined, “No…yes…I don’t know. We were just doing what Ron told us to do.”
“That was a really stupid thing to do.”
“But…why?”
“Because Hull’s our enemy.” Pulling his Beretta M9 from his holster, he fired a single shot into the each man’s upper thigh, and they each grabbed their leg howling in pain and cursing. Ron was still bleeding into the grass and he looked like he’d gone into shock.
He saw Nelson was staring at him with a mildly surprised expression, and ignoring the look, he said, “Get the bird down here. We gotta go. It’s getting too dark.”
The bird landed on the clear area of the road about a hundred feet away, and he ushered Annie and her children toward it. Walking with him to the waiting bird, she asked, “What about them?”
With his hand firmly holding her elbow, he pushed her forward towards the bird. “It’s almost dark. They’re hunter bait now.”
With a wild-eyed and anxious look, Annie asked, “Are you sure? I need to know Ron’s dead. I don’t want spend the rest of my life looking over my shoulder. He’s crazy and he won’t stop trying to get us back.”
Once they were on board, he said to the pilot, “Put a spotlight on those assholes down there.”
The bird hovered over the front yard of the house and the pilot shone a searchlight on the three men. Ron was still lying as they’d left him. The other two men were stumbling on their injured legs, trying to make it to the door of the house. Hunters were edging around the bright light, clearly eager to reach their prey, but blinded. One hunter quickly darted into the light, and grabbing Ron by his leg, dragged him into the growing gloom. The pilot flew lower still, until even in the dusk, they could see him disappear under the bodies of a dozen hungry hunters. With their frantic movement, it was obvious Ron was dying a slow and agonizing death. Meanwhile the two men had almost reached the door to the house, when it burst open and several hunters launched themselves at them, knocking them to the ground.
Watching impassively, he thought anyone who’d rather kill herself and her children than be caught by a man, told him everything he needed to know about that man. Reaching across to the woman, he gently took her hand. “Seen enough?” She squeezed his hand and nodded.
“Let’s go,” he said to the pilot.
Nelson, who’d been watching the scene below, turned to him. “That was cold.”
“War is cold.”
CHAPTER NINE: Succession planning (Gears)
“Ghosts?” He echoed stupidly. “Whatdaya mean there’s ghosts in the UK?”
He was sitting in the briefing room at the Marine supply base with Pax, TL, Captain Ted, Nelson and Mackenzie. Mackenzie had just flown in from the Ranch. TL and Nelson returned early from their mission to enlist more survivors to their bases, and Captain Ted, Pax and Ip arrived back from the UK earlier than he expected. He was relieved to see Ip was safe and he very happy to have her by his side again, but he’d left her in their quarters with BD. Pax and
Captain Ted were briefing him about the strange events happening in the UK, but he didn’t understand what they were telling him.
Rolling his eyes dramatically, Pax asked sarcastically, “Are you hard of hearin’, or just plain stupid? I’m tellin’ ya, I saw ghosts and demons walkin’ out of a hole in the earth at Stonehenge…’
“Well, they weren’t exactly walking, Pax,” Captain Ted interrupted. Waving his hands for effect, he added, “They were more sort of floating…drifting…’ Looking thoughtful, he said, “Though that does make you wonder why they didn’t just fly.”
Pax gave Captain Ted a wry look, and as if stating the obvious, he said, “Then they wouldn’t be earthbound if they was flyin’ about, now would they? Plus, it’d look dumb.”
It sounded dumb enough to him, and rubbing his eyes tiredly, he asked, “What do the British think of that?”
Shrugging, Pax replied, “I don’t think they cared. They seemed to think ghosts were kinda normal, but they were upset about all their animals’ dyin’.”
He hadn’t heard about the animals and asked incredulously, “Whatdaya mean all their animals died?”
“Jus’ that. They woke up one mornin’ and all their livestock had been slaughtered. They said no one heard anythin’.”
Nelson shook his head and said unhappily, “That’s not good. It means the Devil is getting stronger.” Looking over at him, he added, “You have to do something, Gears. Our situation is deteriorating rapidly.”
Frustrated at once again being asked to solve a problem he couldn’t comprehend, he asked, “What the hell do you expect me to do about ghosts and goblins, Nelson?”
Before Nelson could answer, TL said, “You should also know that Hull’s recruiting. I assume Ruler’s building himself an even bigger demon army.”
“Well, of course he is,” he boomed sarcastically. “We didn’t expect him to do any different. Did you manage to a get on fix on that little shit?”