by SD Tanner
He hadn’t thought about it that way, and he gave Max an admiring look. “It’s true. He wouldn’t have bothered otherwise. He must still see me as a threat, but I’m only a threat to him if he has another plan.”
“Yeah, okay, so what do we do about it?” Benny asked.
“We do what we were trained to do,” Max replied decisively. “We might be dead, but we’re still here and we still have a job to do.” Smiling confidently, she added, “We go back to our posts. It’s what Pax would expect us to do.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: Gears
“What the hell has been going on? I was only away for ten days.”
Once they’d boarded the ship, Ip had read him the riot act, as only she knew how. Being yelled at in person, while she was also telepathically connected to him made her impossible to ignore. The gist of her complaint seemed to circle around him always missing the point, and being too stubborn to listen. Unwilling to be trapped on board with an angry wife, once they were less than a thousand miles from the Marine supply base, he used one of the long range birds to fly back.
On landing, Pax had hustled them into the meeting room in the warehouse, and he was confronted by a sight he didn’t expect. Benny, Mackenzie, Lucie, and another hunter he’d never seen before were waiting for him.
“Things have changed, bro.”
“Where’s TL?”
Pax shrugged. “Dunno. I asked Gerry if he could hunt him down, but no one’s seen him. Faith told BD he cleared off after she told him Cain killed Izzie.”
He didn't know it was Cain who killed Izzie, but it seemed gossip was alive and well in Eden. Annoyed Faith had opened her mouth about something he thought was best left alone, he grimaced. “We need to find him.”
“We have bigger problems than TL missing. He can take care of himself,” Mackenzie said bluntly.
He stared at the three hunters sitting politely at the table. “I can see that. Why am I havin’ a meeting with three hunters?” He nodded at Benny. “I know you don’t act like one, but ya are one.”
Benny shrugged by way of reply and Mackenzie continued, “The hunters are back. Cain used Lucie to create more, but they’re not the same. Once they die and are reanimated they decide what they are.” He touched Luke’s arm. “This is Luke, a boy Ted saved and raised. He was infected with Lucie’s blood and he chose to be with us. He can’t talk, but Lucie can communicate with him.”
“Only Ip can talk to Lucie.” Turning to Ip, he gave her a quizzical look.
Benny raised his hand. “Actually Mac and I can both talk to Lucie, but Ip has the best channel.”
Still looking at Ip, he asked, “Can ya talk to her now?”
Smirking back at him, she replied, “She leads the army of the weird, between she and I they will be feared.”
Army of the weird was a phrase he’d coined before they’d been buried. Originally, the weird referred to the people infected with the counter virus, only it failed after Ruler repeatedly attacked the Ranch and killed most of them. Thinking of the counter virus reminded him Mackenzie was infected. “How can you be in physical contact with Luke without killing him?”
Pax was sitting back from the table with his arms crossed over his chest. “That’s another new development. The counter virus doesn’t work on these new ones.”
It wasn’t the sort of news he wanted to hear. The hunters were back and their best weapon against them didn’t work anymore. “Is there any good news?”
Leaning forward at the table, Pax placed a small bottle of the Water of Life in front of him. “This is the only good news. The Water of Life is like acid to the new type of hunter.”
The bottle of water he’d thrown into the gates to hell had caused a massive explosion, as if he’d thrown a bomb into the hole. “I threw that into the gates to hell and it literally blew it up. Why would it have the same effect on the hunters?”
Ip replied in her musical voice, “The soldiers that fought knew their purpose well. It was to rid the earth of hunters and hell.”
She’d said the same thing in the UK. The lake was in the exact place tens of thousands of their troops had died, and he guessed it proved it really was their last and final gift to man. It was a water that healed the living, but could also be used to kill their enemies.
“Where are the towns at?”
“Not good,” Pax replied dourly. “Last I heard we got about eighty of them to unite, but at least a hundred and twenty of them walked out. That’s well over half a million people we don’t have onside.”
“Why? What the hell is wrong with ‘em?”
“I dunno, but they voted you in as Commander in Chief.”
“What! How am I supposed to protect eighty towns spread across the country? That’s impossible. I’d burn too much fuel just transportin’ troops, and that’s assumin’ I had enough of them anyway.”
“Axe is the new POTUS and a guy called Diesel is his Chief of Staff.”
For a scout leader, he thought Axe was a pretty good guy, but he’d never heard of Diesel. “Yeah, well, he’s the President of squat right now. For as long as they’re scattered across the country, we can’t protect ‘em. He might find his empire shrinks real fast.”
“They’re sendin’ people here now. Cutter has his hands full receiving them and setting up trainin’.”
“Where’s Ted?”
“At the Ranch. I think he needed shore leave.”
“Now’s not the time.”
Pax sighed and waved his hand dismissively. “I know.”
“Get his ass back here.” On reflection, he added, “In fact, I’ll do it. We need to move the young Horsemen, and Angel will just have to shut up and put up.”
“Why?”
“The gates to hell are open and that little shit, Ruler, is out in force in the UK. He’s captured tens of thousands of people and they’re headed to Stonehenge. I’m guessin’ he has a plan to fully open the gate.”
“Oh, that explains a lot,” Mackenzie remarked. “Max says there’s been a lot more ghosts and demons wandering around. She and a living woman called Maxine have been monitoring the situation.”
“You spoke to Max?”
Mackenzie grinned at him. “You can speak to her if you want. She’s standing next to you.”
Knowing he wouldn’t be able to see her without Ip’s help, he gave her a plaintive look, hoping she wasn’t still angry with him. When he turned around again, Max was standing next to him, still bloodied from her death.
“Hi Max. How’s death?”
“Very funny, Gears. You might not be laughing when you realize how serious this is. If Ruler gets the gates to hell open, then you’ll be fighting a human army, hunters with super hunters, and ghosts with demons. Just how well prepared are you for that problem?”
He wasn’t prepared at all. Their human army was a shambles, and even if the towns sent them potential troops, they still had to be trained. Even once they were ready to fight, it didn’t sound like he’d have enough of them to protect eighty towns scattered across the country. He supposed if they had friendly hunters they could use them in much the same way the super hunters did, but he didn’t know how many he had to form any sort of army. As for the ghosts and demons, he never did have a solution for that problem, and it was their arrival last time that made him force the final battle.
It all hinged on how fast Ruler was planning to get his armies working for him. If he had time, he could prepare in some way, but the Devil was already a few steps ahead of him. Perhaps Ip was right to shout at him, he’d clearly abandoned his post before the war had really ended.
Briefly closing his eyes to think, he opened them again to find everyone was watching him. “Okay, we need to break this down. Pax, you need to help Cutter process the people. Find Jack to help you, and use that guy Marcus. He seems to have a brain in his head. Mackenzie, you and Max need to keep me in the loop about how many ghosts there are wanderin’ around. I’ve gotta plan for that problem. Pax, once you’ve sor
ted the training, I need you with me. We’ve gotta mission in the UK to do. In the meantime, I’ll head out to the Ranch. We need the young Horsemen back under our protection. I’d leave them with Nelson, but if the ghosts are out then I don’t think anywhere is safe anymore. They need real bodyguards.”
“I need Maxine,” Max said firmly. “She’s living on Nelson’s island. She and I can talk, and she can talk to the living. Benny and Mac will be busy, so she can be my…medium.”
“Why will Benny and Mac be busy?”
Ip laughed. “Slow to follow, but first to lead. There are hunters to be called now they are freed.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“It means there’s more hunters like Lucie and Luke,” Benny replied. “Ip’s right. We need to call them to our side.”
“How many are there?”
“Hundreds.”
Hundreds of friendly hunters they could use to fight against Ruler. It sounded like an even match, but he wondered how many Ruler had. “Do ya know the strength of Ruler’s hunters?”
Benny shook his head. “No, but it doesn’t work the same way anymore. Once a person is infected, they don’t all come out as mindless killers. For every person Ruler infects, he might not get a hunter willing to fight for him, and they could just as easily join us.”
“Ghosts work the same way,” Max added. “Most ghosts are lost souls and they don’t do any harm. I’m hoping I can work out a way to communicate with them. They might be able to help us against the condemned souls leaving hell.”
“A third army? Are you suggestin’ we have a living army, a hunter army and a ghost army?”
“Why not?” Max replied. “It’s the situation we’re in, so we might as well accept it and form armies to fight back with.”
Despite realizing their situation was becoming more dangerous, he found himself grinning at Max. “Given the three of you are dead, I thought we’d lost our young leaders.”
Pax nodded appreciatively. “Apparently not.”
“You made us what we are, right down to getting us all killed,” Max replied bluntly. “Maybe everything happens for a reason.”
He harrumphed. “Maybe so, Max, but we’re not in a strong position if Ruler unleashes his armies too soon. If the UK is anything to go by, it looks like he’s using human collaborators to do his dirty work, and there’s not a lot we can do about that.”
“Why not?”
“Nobody gave us any super powers. I can raise the Immortal Army, but I can’t use it against man. The day I do that is the day I’ve lost faith in mankind. I’ll only raise the Immortal Army against man to kill them, and that’s a change in our current ruling.” Giving Pax a smug look, he added, “And Pax and TL haven’t even got any super powers.”
“You don’t know that. BD thinks I have some awesome super powers.”
“Shaddup, Pax, nobody wants to hear about that…ever.”
Max shook her head and seemed to sigh. “Do you guys ever stay focused? What’s your plan for the gates to hell?”
Still looking at Pax, he grinned. “Well, the way I figure it, the gate had a shit fit with just one bottle of water.”
Grinning back at him, Pax asked, “Really? What happened?”
“Fuckin’ exploded. Flames everywhere. Small tornado. Damn near killed us all. I wonder what it’d do if we dumped a slingshot full of water on it.”
Laughing gleefully, Pax declared confidently, “We gotta do that, Gears. Count me in.”
“Yeah, and we need to take some troops to the UK to clear out the collaborators…or at least get ‘em to change their minds.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR: Demons
Marine supply base
“Where are you from?” The woman asked, while idly playing with her long dark hair.
The body he’d chosen was tall, and with his meaty diet, he was lean with prominent abs. He flicked his thick, wavy brown hair out of his eyes. “North.”
His only interest in the woman was as a potential meal, otherwise her extensive assets were wasted on him. He’d been ordered to join the base and wait for his next instructions. The base was full of men and women dressed in ACUs, and as soon as he arrived, he was assigned to a container with five other people. Apparently they were going to teach him to shoot at things, but he already knew how to do that. The soul living inside of him was well versed in weapons, and when they’d handed him an M4, he’d quickly checked it was loaded and flicked the safety off. His trainer, some guy called Marcus, told him to put it back on and to stop fucking around. His preference would have been to tear the man’s throat open and have a meal of fresh pumping blood, but he obediently did as he was told.
The Devil was bothering him for updates, and he never had anything to say. The gates to the base were always open, and the hunter waiting in the surrounding forest could wander in any time it pleased. There was no security, and even he was surprised when offering to join their army didn’t raise any questions. He’d simply said he was here to help, flashed a winning smile, and was told to join a queue collecting gear and being assigned to containers. Supposedly, all the people in the container with him were now his squad. It all seemed far too easy.
After they’d lost the battle, he’d assumed they’d all be sent back to hell. He didn’t mind hell, there was always something to do, which was more than he could say about living topside. They were always sent out to win souls, but most humans didn’t agree to being possessed, and he could do nothing if they didn’t. The rules of the game were quite simple, if a human said, ‘no’, then no meant no and they mostly said ‘no’.
The woman persisted. “So, are you here alone then?”
He gave a look he knew she would like. “Yes.”
While the woman continued to smile at him, he tapped the star of his hunter. Its mind opened to his, and it was mooching around the forest equally as bored. The minds of the hunters were interesting. This one wasn’t too bright, but he had a vicious streak. When he scanned through its memories, he’d found a murderous intent that had never been acted upon. It was an angry little beast and he quite liked it.
“Do you want to check out the base?” She asked brightly. “We’re not due to report in until tomorrow morning.”
Her offer made him wonder if he might get his snack after all. The other members of his squad were busy investigating their weapons, and talking excitedly to one another about their new job. From what he’d managed to gather, they’d all been ordered by their town leaders to join a new army. The towns had banded together to form a group and they were building an army to defend themselves. He wasn’t entirely sure why the young men and women sounded so happy. If anything, there was a good chance they’d die, and it’d be sooner and not later.
Giving the woman what he assumed was a warm smile, he replied, “Sure, why not?”
***
Refinery Town
“So, what can you do?” The large, hairy and muscular man in overalls asked.
“I can handle a gun.”
“Then you don’t belong at the refinery. You need to go to the town.” Pointing south, he added, “It’s that way.”
Sighing to himself, he followed the man’s arm towards a thick forest that was only fifty yards from the cleared land around the refinery. He’d been told to infiltrate the town, but no one had said which bit. This site had oil fields several miles away, a refinery and a town center. It was annoying when they didn’t make his orders clear, and he sighed impatiently.
Seeing his frustration, the man said kindly, “You look like a fit sort of guy, and we’ve always gotta use for someone who can handle a weapon. It’s not been safe around here lately, so you’ll be welcomed.”
“Oh, it’s not that. It’s just no one told me where to go.”
“You mean someone sent you here? Who was that?”
Not wanting to answer his question, he shrugged vaguely. “Not really. I’m just looking for somewhere to live.”
After leaving the recept
ion building at the refinery, he made his way into the forest. There was a road between the town and the site, but he wanted to find his hunter. The creatures were incredibly stupid, and he didn’t want to lose track of it. Like an idiot puppy delighted by its master, it bounded up to him with its large, dry tongue practically hanging out of its rubbery mouth.
Fearful it might actually lick him, he pushed it back. “Down, boy.”
If it was possible, the weird animal looked wounded. With its head hanging low, it gave him a soulful stare, as if he might decide he loved it after all if it looked sad enough. Ignoring the hunter, he continued to push his way through the bushes, annoyed that the sandy colored canvas trousers he’d stolen were getting covered in green stains. It wasn’t often he got to possess a human, and he liked to keep it looking nice. His job usually involved frightening the living on the off chance one might be agreeable to possession. It almost never happened, but since he’d been in control of this body for five years, he’d come to enjoy the pleasures of the flesh, and he wasn’t ready to give them up.
Finally breaking through the forest, he ordered his hunter to stay hidden, and walked down the well-kept main road. There were three and four story buildings on each side, vehicles parked along the road, and people were busy carrying bags and boxes of items. Passing by a small wide shop, men and women were talking loudly and drinking from large mugs.
Attracted by the noise, he joined the group and someone called, “Can I get you a beer?”
When he nodded dumbly, a woman thrust a cool, tall mug into his hand. “What’s your name?”
“Err…” Having spent the past five years living in Alaska, he couldn’t remember the name of the body he possessed.
“I don’t care what your name is, I just need to add the beer to your tab.”
“What’s a tab?”
The woman looked him up and down. “Have you just got here?” He nodded nervously and she gave him a warm smile. “Then don’t worry about it. It’s on the house, but once you’ve finished it you need to go to the town hall. That’s the big building about five doors down. They’ll register you and assign you somewhere to live and a job.” Seeming to enjoy the sound of her voice, she asked, “My name’s Pam and I run this joint, so what’s your specialty?”