Dead Alive: Eden Lost Book Two (Hunter Wars 8)

by SD Tanner

  “Do you think this is how the hunter virus always worked?”

  “What do you mean?” Troy asked.

  “When the virus first hit, people became shambling wrecks. It wasn’t until after the first few weeks they evolved into hunters, but we’ll never know if all of the shamblers turned, or if there was always a failure rate.”

  “True, we can't know how many there were. There seemed to have been a lot, but we’ll never have the exact number. The country had over three hundred million people, so even with a thirty percent conversion rate there would have been tens of millions of them.”

  “It’s screwed our plans a bit.”

  Ruler wanted him to set man against one another. It wasn’t enough to simply kill them, he needed them to fight. He wanted them to choose a side, preferably his. If man thought the hunters were back then fear would rule, and once it did, the wars would start. When the hunters turned up last time people had chosen their side. Some went with Ruler, willingly or otherwise, and others joined Gears at his bases. Many more people simply hid, hoping it would all go away. A new emergence of the hunters would force people to choose again, only this time he had the most viable army. Marching strongly under the mandate of God’s Crusaders in Eden, more people were likely to go with the muscle and join his growing army. For long as Gears didn’t have an effective army, he didn’t believe anyone would choose to go with him.

  According to Faith, Gears was far from having a real army. Through Ruler, she’d told him Gears was struggling to find people, and to motivate the ones he had to fight. Despite the opposition from the town leaders and the weakness of their own army, neither Gears nor Pax were prepared to stand down, and Faith believed they would eventually succeed. It was a question of time before they put together a viable army, and he needed to act quickly or lose his advantage. Five hunters wasn’t enough, but he had a plan to fix that. He was still puzzled by the high failure rate of the virus, and assumed it was inbuilt into the nature of the disease.

  Troy was studying him intently. “Why don’t you wait until we have more hunters? Even with a high failure rate, we still have a lot of people we can infect. We can take a seventy percent loss and still end up with more than five hunters, considerably more.”

  “I agree, but there’s no reason not to have them in position now. It’s no loss and a possible gain.”

  “But what if the towns catch them? The demon super hunters might be effective in hell, but here on earth…” He trailed off, raising his eyebrow cynically.

  “They know the super hunters are around. If they catch one, they’ll only learn some wear contact lenses, and only that town will know. Our super hunter can call his hunter in and destroy them.” With a dismissive flick of his hand, he added, “It wouldn’t matter anyway. The towns don’t have communications, and half of them are fighting with one another. Word wouldn’t spread quickly, it can’t, and by the time it reached anyone useful, it’d only be an unverifiable rumor.”

  Troy nodded. “Fair enough. How quickly can we get more hunters?”

  “It shouldn’t take long. I’m heading out shortly. In the meantime, I need you to get four super hunters and hunters in position.” With an almost warm smile, he added, “Try not to get yourself killed this time.”

  Troy’s furrowed brow only accentuated the baldness of his head. “I wasn’t killed last time.”

  “No, but we lost a thousand Crusaders when Gears attacked the convoy.”

  Sighing deeply, he asked, “Do you care?”

  Snorting derisively, he replied, “Of course not. There’s more fools where they came from.” Leaning forward slightly, he added, “But I genuinely don’t want to lose you. I need your skills and…we’re friends.”

  Tory nodded. “I know, which is why I wonder if we need to take this step.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Leaning into the table, and clasping his muscular hands in front of him, he asked sincerely, “How much more do you need, Cain? You have tens of thousands following you, and you can kill as many as you want, whenever and however you wish. You’ve convinced many you’re the Son of God, and equally as many follow you knowing full well you’re not. You have power. What difference does a little more power make when you have so much?”

  Sitting forward, and also clasping his hands in front of him, he stared intensely at Troy. “I understand, my good friend. You’re worried I’m taking a step too far and I may fall, but it’s not what you think. I’m not simply a man wanting just a little more, another zero on the bank balance, or an extra house by the sea. If it were only that, I wouldn’t bother. What’s at stake here is much higher.”

  “You’re talking about Ruler.”

  He nodded. “It’s not a simple problem. The creature, whether it’s an alien, the Devil or a demon, is powerful. A monster like that can take what it wants and, whether I like it or not, it won’t leave just because I turned down its offer to join forces.”

  “Are you saying if you didn’t strike a deal with it then someone else would?”

  Nodding again, he replied, “Precisely, and better it’s us than someone else.”

  Troy leaned back against his chair with a look of understanding. “I see. It’s either dance with the Devil, or become to slave the man who does.”

  “I knew you would understand,” he replied, with genuine admiration. “You always see what I see. The Horsemen will never support me. Let’s face it, I’m not a good guy.” With a self-depreciating shrug, he added, “I strap people down and remove their organs while they’re still conscious. I mean, it’s a skill, but it isn’t…politically correct.”

  Troy gave a slight wave of his hand as if to dismiss his modest honesty. “A man needs his distractions in life. You work hard.”

  “Both Ruler and Gears are two sides of the same coin. Ruler will push to take control of man, and Gears will push equally as hard to oppose him. Theirs is a fight neither will stand down from, and they’re both immortal, so they have all the time in the universe to act it out. Despite claiming to be in opposition, they’re as bloody-minded as one another. This isn’t a question of whether I should side with the Devil, as much as it’s a matter of being with the one who loves me. Gears most certainly will not love me. With or without me, those two will bring it to war until one side conclusively wins. I’m teaming up with the side I need to be on because the other side won’t have me.”

  Nodding, Troy replied, “I understand. A war is inevitable and, with your…nature, you belong to one side by default. And if you don’t step up now, Ruler would simply find another and possibly weaker partner, then he could lose to Gears.”

  With no need to answer, he merely smiled and spread his hands with their palms facing upward.

  “You’re a very smart man, Cain.”

  CHAPTER FOUR: Leo

  Ever since the first meeting of the Council of Eden on the cruise ship, he’d been trying to set up the second one. Without comms, it was almost impossible and even using his considerable influence as the largest manufacturer of ammunition, the town leaders had stalled and sidestepped him. Studying the dissatisfied group, he didn’t think they looked like the leaders of their own asses much less towns.

  “Settle down,” he shouted.

  No one listened and they continued to argue amongst themselves. Why was he bothering? His job before the outbreak was as a technical analyst for a company producing aluminum foil bags for crisps. Guns were only a hobby for him, but he enjoyed it so much he made his own bullets, more to pass the time than anything else. During the outbreak, he’d survived with a small group in the hills of North Georgia. Food had become scarce, but so had the people. As their supplies and ability to get more dwindled, so did the head count of their small group. When Eden arrived, he was caught off guard, and they’d emerged from their hidey-hole into a whole new world.

  Using his skills as a technical analyst, he went looking for a town with a reasonable base of existing factories. He reasoned natural raw materials
might be easy to come by in Eden, but he knew better than most they weren’t useful until someone made them into something else. He also figured if he built something useful, then someone else would want it, which naturally led him to manufacturing his own bullets. Guns were still reasonably plentiful, but he needed a wide range of different calibers to fit all the guns he’d found. His ammunitions factory produced a range of bullets and small mortars. Being a man with a plan had attracted people to his side, and to his surprise, he seemed to have natural leadership skills.

  The noise level in the room of the meeting hall was growing. Deciding it was as close to neutral as they were going to get, they’d agreed to meet at what was once Axe’s army base. Right now, they weren’t following his lead and he wasn’t sure how to get them to shut up and pay attention. Sighing, he looked across the podium at Axe and TL.

  Taking the hint, Axe stood, but he twisted the mike awkwardly, and it let out a loud screech of feedback, startling the people into silence.

  “We’re hosting a dinner after this meeting. There’ll be plenty of time to talk then. In the meantime, we need to get on.” Smiling indulgently, Axe added, “The sooner we start, the sooner we’re done.”

  He gratefully took the mike from Axe. “We have some things we need to discuss. We clearly have an enemy in this Cain guy.”

  “Do we, Leo?” A man asked loudly. “He was after the bases in Florida.”

  “Maybe so, but he wiped out every town in his path.”

  “They were just crap at defendin’ themselves. If Cain’s lot comes for our town, we’ll fuckin’ kill the assholes,” another voice declared defiantly.

  “How?” He asked aggressively. “They have military level weapons and vehicles, and they’re trained like an army. Do you really think a bunch of soft suburbanites, who can barely handle a shotgun, stand a chance against an invading army?”

  “Don’t talk shit to us. We survived the fuckin’ apocalypse. There ain’t no pussies left, man,” Another voice declared derisively.

  “What about everyone else?” TL asked reasonably. “Some towns genuinely believe in turning the other cheek. Don’t you feel any obligation to protect them?”

  “Why the fuck should we?” A woman called. “You make your bed and you lie in it.”

  A man complained bitterly, “You’re a fine one to talk, buddy. Your attack scattered the Crusaders and we’ve had to deal with the fallout.”

  TL stared intently at the group of over a hundred town leaders, clearly looking for the owner of the voice. “That’s not our fault. We don’t have a functioning army yet, and we don’t have a mandate to defend you. Until we’re your army, you’re just as likely to shoot us as not.”

  “What are you saying? You’ll let us die unless we employ you as our army? Do you expect to be paid or something?” A woman asked in disgust.

  Wincing, TL replied, “No, but an army needs resources. It takes people and supplies to make it work. You have to help us by recruiting people and supplying weapons and other essentials.”

  “No way. Who’s to say you won’t use the army against us? I don’t like it. I’ve already got problems with neighboring towns,” a man declared decisively. Turning to another man in the group, he said, “Yeah, I’m lookin’ at you Nick, ya fuckin’ dick.”

  A man he assumed was Nick the dick stood up and shouted, “You fuckin’ started this shit fight. You knew we were usin’ that land. You just wanted the lake, so you extended your borders.”

  “There’s no fuckin’ borders, ya dick,” the other man shouted back.

  “Of course there’s borders,” a woman yelled from the back of the room. “It’s ridiculous. It’s a big country, so why the hell can’t people stay on their own side of the fence.” She seemed to be glaring at someone else in the group.

  “It’s not just the borders,” another man shouted. “People are raiding every town for anything that’s left. We still need parts for cars and other stuff. Empty towns are being ransacked, but there’s usually small groups of people living there, and the larger towns are just riding in shotgun, taking whatever they want.”

  He knew everything they were saying was true. In the five years since Eden appeared, supplies of anything other than naturally occurring materials were becoming scarce. Eventually everything would be recycled until there was nothing left, and it was the reason he’d started manufacturing in the first place. It took years to get his factories producing, and even now he was running short of some raw materials. He needed the other towns to set up manufacturing of chemicals and other baseline materials to supply towns like his. Very soon, they wouldn’t even know how to make metal. They needed mines, but no one wanted to become a miner in Eden. Civilization was eroding.

  Raising his hand, he said, “We’re collectively falling apart. If we don’t pull together and start the full supply chain from raw materials to consumer products, we’re not going to have any of the things we rely on anymore. We won’t have cars for transport. We won’t have chainsaws to cut down trees to make anything. Hell, we won’t even have the metal to make a fuckin’ axe. If we keep going the way we are, we’re gonna turn into monkeys again.”

  “I didn’t come here to be insulted,” a man declared angrily. “I just want people to stay off my damned land.”

  He gave TL and exasperated look, but he shrugged in reply. Axe had been standing back from the front of the low podium and now he stepped forward.

  “All of your problems are valid ones, but not one of them can be solved individually. You’re right, we do need recognized and enforceable borders.” Turning to him, he added, “And we do need a full supply chain in place.” He looked at TL. “And we do need an army to defend us against people like Cain.”

  Turning to face the group again, he said sincerely, “None of you are wrong, but if you try to solve your problems from your own backyard, we’ll lose everything in the end. I know you’re resistant to central government, but you shouldn’t be. Maybe we’ve used the wrong word. This is about consolidating skills, and putting in place a logical system we can all live by. It’s about making sure we build a future for generations to come, and don’t lose everything to some asshole like Cain.”

  Before anyone could speak, Axe raised his voice. “You need to understand whenever there’s a power gap someone will fill it. Right now, no one owns our country. There’s no leader, no one we will all follow. In the absence of leadership, Cain has stepped into the breach. He sent a thousand men to two different locations, the refinery town and the bases in Florida. I’m betting that wasn’t anywhere near his whole army, which means he has at least ten times that many armed soldiers spread across the west coast.”

  There was a rustle of voices, and Axe raised his hand to quieten them. “And that’s just his soldiers. Those soldiers have families, so his total population must be at least fifty thousand people. In other words, Cain is bigger than our towns, better armed and he wants things we have. While you all argue over who owns which piece of perfect land in Eden, Cain is coming up behind you and he’ll take it all.”

  It was a compelling argument and he was impressed by Axe’s ability to put reality in their faces. He hadn’t analyzed the numbers the way Axe had, but now it was laid out, he couldn’t deny the truth of it.

  TL stepped forward. “We’ve already interrogated Cain’s Crusaders, and we know they’re a sizeable and decentralized army. They’re spread across multiple prisons, and it wouldn’t be easy to attack them. Cain is formidable enemy on your doorstep, and he’s already attacking, but I doubt this is his main assault. We have yet to see his full capabilities. He’s cunning and he’s testing our strength. He isn’t going to throw everything he has at us just yet. He doesn’t need to and he knows it.”

  When nobody spoke, TL said somberly, “Each of you needs to make a choice. If you’re smart enough to understand the bigger problem, then bury the bullshit, and let’s talk sense to one another. For those of you who can’t stomach teamwork without an enemy with a
gun in your face, you really oughta leave ‘cos you’re wasting our time.”

  Seeing nobody move, he boomed, “The man has made your choice clear. You either stay and we work together, or you know where the fuckin’ door is.”

  The room seemed to be suspended in time, and then slowly some people rose and walked towards the door. He, TL and Axe stood in a row on the platform, and waited while more people made their way to the exit. After ten minutes, there were about eighty people left out of the one hundred and fifty he’d started with.

  Nodding to the group, he said, “Okay, people, let’s get to know one another. We’ve got a lot of problems that need solving.”

  CHAPTER FIVE: Mac

  “Fuck off.”

  “Nah, I don’t think I will. You possessed me, asshole, but it’s a two way street. You can see what I see, you know what I know, but it cuts both ways.”

  The demon that possessed him the day he flew to the Ranch to rescue Max was still with him. He’d walled it up in his mind, and it hadn’t caused him a moments trouble ever since. Most of the time he forgot it was even there.

  When Gears and company had shown up, he’d truly believed he was living in the RV in southern Mississippi with Max and baby Mac. In retrospect, life had felt a little repetitive, much like a happy Groundhog Day. He hadn’t questioned it at the time, it wasn’t as if he had a calendar to mark off the days, or even wore a watch. He’d drifted from one day to the next in the contented daze of a man in love with his wife and newborn son.

  Ip had put an end to his happy place when she’d stabbed his son in the chest and he’d turned into a demon. At first, he was angry she’d destroyed his dream until he realized his real son was five years old and safe. Since then, he’d been wondering what to do. He hadn’t spoken to the stars he could see in his mind for what seemed like months, but it must have been years. Ip’s star was still there, shining like an overwhelming beacon of white light. There were new ones he hadn’t seen before, and he’d begun to explore them.