The Collapse Trilogy (Book 1): Free Fire Zone

by Rod Carstens

  Cat looked at her and smiled. They had bonded in the short time Cat had known her. Cat had instructed and protected her.

  “Sweetie, it’s going to take a lot more than these guys to kill me. You go with Nikki. You’ve proven you’re a good soldier. She needs you.”

  Morgan looked from Nikki to Cat. Then, impulsively, she hugged Cat and turned toward the kitchen. Nikki came up to Tanner.

  “I rigged an IED in the entrance to the storm drain. I won’t blow it. I leave that to you.”

  “But…” Tanner began.

  “No, you don’t leave somebody with no way to escape. Besides, we’ll be long gone and they’ll never find us in that maze.”

  “How will we find you?” Matos asked.

  “Don’t worry. We’ll find you.”

  With that Nikki turned and led the rest into the meeting room and then down to the basement.

  “Good. Everyone upstairs to the mezzanine.”

  They all grabbed their weapons. Tanner and Cat ran up the wide curving marble stairway that led to the mezzanine. Matos limped behind. Tanner stopped them at the top of the stairs.

  “We give them the lobby. By the time she figures out we’re gone, we’ll be set up. She’ll have to go for the basement. Rule is getting away and he knows it. Rule is still his first priority. We hit them when they try to go down to the basement.”

  “She’s not that dumb,” Cat said.

  “She doesn’t have a choice. She’s got to get Rule.”

  “Tanner’s right,” Matos interjected.

  “Okay. I sure hope you got this figured right,” Cat said.

  Tanner turned to Matos. “Old buddy, you and I are going to get a chance at the Spec Act Team. I’m tired of running. Have you still got your gas masks? I think we’ll need them,” Tanner said to the other two.

  “Yeah,” Matos said. “I am really tired of running.”

  They reached into the small pouches on their vests and pulled out their masks. Tanner carefully took the last of his magazines from his vest and carefully laid them close to hand. Cat and Matos did the same. Then Cat and Matos laid out their grenades and flash bangs; there were only two grenades and one flash bang. Tanner glanced at the magazines and grenades carefully lined up. There wasn’t nearly enough, but it would have to do.

  “Make every shot count.”

  “No shit there, Sherlock,” Cat said.

  Matos lay down next to him. He groaned as he got ready.

  “That must feel good,” Tanner said.

  “Oh, yeah. Even with good dope, this thing hurts like shit.”

  Now all they could do was wait.

  CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

  Special Action Team

  Hotel Lobby

  0300 hours

  Anke flattened herself against the front wall of the hotel. She and the rest of the squad were finally in position just outside of the lobby. The third squad was on the other side of the entrance waiting.

  “Now,” she said quietly into the radio.

  The lead men of each squad threw gas into the lobby, while the remainder of the second squad opened up on the lobby itself. Explosions tore through the hotel as gas quickly spread through the lower floors. If there were any civilian types with Tanner, they would be of little use now. The explosive rounds were tearing up the lobby, but there was a main desk made of marble taking the rounds. If she were Tanner, that was where she would be.

  “Cease fire,” she snapped. The second squad’s firing stopped.

  “Now move out.”

  The men and women of the second and third squads rushed through the smoke, dust, and gas. Guns up, they spread out through the lobby. Nothing. Everything was quiet. He must have slipped away again. How could he have gotten away? Then she saw the stairs and looked up. There was a mezzanine! Two grenades come flying over the railing.

  “Grenades!” Anke screamed and threw herself to the floor.

  The grenades exploded in the air almost as one. Troopers went down all over the lobby as shrapnel tore into them from above. They went down hard with force of the grenades slamming them to the floor were they lay still. As Anke tried to get up she saw three figures in black stand and start firing down into the lobby.

  Explosive and regular round tore into the remaining troopers. A trooper next to her was able to get off a shot before an explosive round blew his head off. Around her regular 96 rounds were ripping into the floor throwing chips of marble like shrapnel into the air. Explosive rounds added to the carnage as they tore limbs off and created gaping chest wounds. It was a hell she had created more than once but had never been on the receiving end of bloodbath. A woman trooper was spun around by an explosive round that ripped her arm off before she was dropped by a accurate headshot.

  “No!” Muller screamed in frustration and fear.

  Then she felt a tremendous blow to her chest, and the last thing she saw was the black-clad figures standing on the mezzanine, firing down at her.

  CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

  Resource Security Force

  Team Sixteen

  Basement

  0305 hours

  Tanner, Cat, and Matos continued to fire until none of the Spec Act Team moved. They grabbed their last ammo and moved down the stairs to the lobby their weapons trained on the downed troopers. One trooper tried to sit up and Cat fired into his chest, he fell back dead. Another grabbed Matos’s leg and he fired into the back of her head. Each went from body to body and stripped of all the ammunition and usable equipment. When they were all carrying as much as they could manage, Tanner said, “Let’s get out of here.”

  He stopped by the woman lying next to the computer. She would be the team leader. They were the only ones to carry combat computers.

  “I was surprised she was a woman for some reason,” he said.

  Cat walked up next to him. “She’s pretty.”

  “Was,” Tanner said.

  The three of them moved quickly through the meeting room and down the stairs to the basement. The once well-organized room looked as if a hurricane had hit it; in their haste to leave, the settlers had not been neat about loading up their supplies. Tanner looked around and saw some cans of peaches, and apples. His stomach was rumbling at the sight of the food. Between the adrenaline rush of the firefight, the green monster wearing off, and the fact he had had little to eat for the last week, if he didn’t get some food in him he was going down anyway. He was as empty and out of gas as he had ever felt.

  “You two go ahead. I’m going to grab us some food for the trip. If I don’t get something in my stomach, I’m not going to make it.”

  “For Christ’s sake, Vin, come on,” Cat snapped as she and Matos stepped through the opening to the sewer.

  “I’m serious. You two go on. I’ll be right behind you.”

  Tanner went over and picked up the can of peaches. There was some jerky too. He began to load his pockets with food.

  CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

  Special Action Team

  Hotel Lobby

  0308 hours

  Anke groaned as she came to. Her ears were ringing from the explosions and her chest felt as if she had been kicked by a mule. She had been shot before, but never by a military-grade weapon. It made a difference. The armor had held, but she thought a couple of her ribs had been broken by the round. She slowly sat up to find herself in the middle of the bodies of her platoon. No one was moving. The floor was covered in their blood, and the red stain spreading wider as the men and women of her team bled out. She reached for her rifle, it was a twisted mess. She reached for her pistol; it was still intact on her MOLLE. She looked around—nothing but more dead team members. It was so quiet after the firefight. It was hard to believe so much had happened in such a short period of time.

  Then, as her mind cleared, she remembered Rule. He was getting away. She tried to stand but slipped on some blood and fell. Moving slowly, she was able to get up. Once standing she began to take small tentative steps. She had moved a few fee
t when she heard a sound. She couldn’t recognize it. It didn’t seem to fit into this new world or blood and death. It sounded normal like it came from a different world. She shook her head trying to clear it so she could figure out what and where the sound was coming from.

  Anke stumbled over to the main desk. She had to grab it with her hand to steady herself. She didn’t move and listened carefully. The sound was coming from behind the wall in back of the desk. Anke, using the desk as a crutch, moved around to the service hall and then into the room beyond. The sounds were louder now. She saw a door at the back of the room with stairs leading down. Probably the entrance to the basement. Moving from one piece of furniture to the next to steady herself, she limped to the door. Leaning against the wall, she carefully took one step at a time. When she was halfway down, she saw a figure searching through the canned food scattered on the floor.

  The figure wore the black utilities of an RSF member. He was bent over with his back to her as he went through the cans. He had a MOLLE on, and his rifle was slung across his back.

  It couldn’t be him. Then she saw the single stripe on the back of his helmet that designated him as a team leader. It was him. It was Tanner. Rule might have gotten away, but Tanner wasn’t going to.

  She raised her pistol, needed both hands to steady it. She took careful aim at his exposed neck between his helmet and his vest. Try as she might, she could not keep the sight steady on that small a target. She was too shaky. So she moved her aim down to his back below his vest. Anke took a deep breath, held it and slowly pulled the trigger. She was surprised how loud the pistol sounded in the basement.

  CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT

  Resource Security Force

  Team Sixteen

  Basement

  0308 hours

  Tanner had just found another can of peaches when it felt as if he had been hit in the back with a baseball bat. Pain shot through his body as the force of the round drove him to the ground. He lay facedown, his right hand bent under him. He could feel blood streaming from his back. He knew he’d been shot, but by whom? All of the Spec Act Team were dead. He tried to move, but the pain was too much and he could only groan.

  “Well, you are turning out to be one hard son of a bitch to kill. I will give you that,” a female voice said.

  Tanner heard unsteady footsteps slowly coming his way.

  “You know, you should have been dead a long time ago. You cost me Rule, and that is going to hurt when I go back. So I want to see your face when I kill you.”

  It was the Spec Act Team’s leader. He had looked at her and thought she was dead. He was getting sloppy. He should have checked closer. She was way too good just to give her body a quick glance. He tried to move again, but the pain was too much. His right hand was on the butt of his nine-millimeter, but he couldn’t move. He damn sure couldn’t move fast enough to roll over and fire. She had him. She had him over a can of peaches after everything. He was going to die because he was hungry. It was a stupid way to die. He had never thought he would die stupid.

  The footsteps got closer, until she was standing over him.

  “Look at me, you son of a bitch. I want to see your face.”

  Tanner didn’t move. His head was between two cans, and she couldn’t see his face. If she turned him over, when she did it might free his right hand. If he could get his pistol out. If he had a round in the chamber. Those were a lot of ifs to string together. Maybe he should just go ahead and accept it. He had fucked up, and now he was going to die because of it. He had always tried to learn from the deaths of other operators. He had studied the lessons-learned reports, and they had always made mistakes. Little mistakes, but ones that cost their and sometimes their teams’ lives. Now he would be one of those lessons learned. People would say that would never happen to me. No way, I’m not that stupid.

  “You know, if you won’t move maybe I can help you a bit.”

  The Spec Act lieutenant kicked him in the side hard enough to half turn him over. The pistol was in his hand, and his finger was on the trigger. Maybe he could roll over on his back—but before he could move she kicked him again. Harder this time, turning him all the way over. As his body rolled, his hand came free. He began to pull the trigger. The first round caught her in the leg. The next hit her MOLLE, but the last round put a round hole in her cheek. She had a surprised look on her face as the round blew the top of her head off and she was thrown backward by the force.

  Tanner lay on his back, breathing hard, trying not to think about the pain. He lay there taking inventory. He could move his legs and arms. It must have somehow missed major organs. So maybe there was a chance. Lying on his rifle hurt like hell, but he had to get to the medical kit on the front of his left thigh. He bent his knee and unzipped the kit. He always wore it upside down so he could use it without taking it off. He tore open the Blood Stop package and pulled out the square bandage. He took several deep breaths before he tried to move, because he knew it was going to hurt. He took a last deep breath and began squirming around so he could get his vest up and the bandage under his uniform. He managed to press it against the wound in his back even though moving almost made him pass out.

  He lay there, breathing hard from the amount of effort it took to move and the pain. He needed to get pain meds on board before he tried anything else. He pulled a syringe from his pouch and jabbed the autoinject into his thigh. Then he grabbed another and did the other thigh. He lay there and let the pain meds and the Blood Stop do their magic. He passed out for a while—he didn’t know how long. When he woke he could feel the Blood Stop had adhered more to his back as it reacted to the blood. The pain meds had done their job, so he could move without passing out. Slowly, limb by limb, he managed to sit up. He unslung his rifle and that felt much better.

  Using the rifle as a crutch, he slowly stood. He looked down at the Spec Act lieutenant. A large pool of blood had formed under her head. He had been matching wits with her all night, and now seeing her dead gave him no satisfaction. It was just another death that hadn’t really had to happen. If Rule was right, maybe just maybe, they might be able to stop all of this fighting each other and instead concentrate on fighting the guys who were directing all of this.

  Using the rifle as a he worked his way across the basement and through the hole in the wall into the storm drain. He found the IED trigger. It was crude but it had a timer on it. The timer could be set for half an hour. Well, he would have to see how far he could get in half an hour. He set the timer, turned on the headlamp on his helmet, and started staggering down the pitch-black storm drain in the direction of an arrow drawn on the wall with Cat’s sign under it. As he took each agonized step, he tried to think how he was going to explain to Cat how breaking the Stupid Rule had almost gotten him killed. He would never hear the end of it, he was sure.

  Sure enough, after what seemed to have been a very long time, he saw two lights bobbing as two people ran toward him. As they got closer, he could see it was Cat and Matos.

  “What in the fuck happened?” Cat said as she grabbed him.

  “Uh, I got shot,” Tanner said.

  “No shit. But by who?” Matos said.

  “The Spec Act lieutenant. She came down after me. Apparently she wasn’t dead.”

  “You think?” Cat said as she looked at his wound.

  Tanner was waiting for it.

  “You dumb son of a bitch! You scared the shit out of me and got yourself shot over a can of peaches. If that’s not breaking the Stupid Rule I don’t know what is,” Cat snapped as she added bandages to his wound.

  She had just tightened the bandage when there was a tremendous explosion. Cat and Matos dove to the floor. Tanner just stood there.

  “I forgot to tell you it was about time for the IED to go off.”

  Cat stood, looked closely at his face, then smiled and said, “How many of the pain shots have you had?”

  “You know—I don’t know. How many do we have in our kits?”

  Cat s
hook her head and laughed. “Great. Matos, can you go up ahead and get the trailing car to come back for this idiot?”

  Matos stood and hobbled down the storm drain. Cat eased Tanner down into a sitting position and then let him lean back against her.

  “Cat, I intend to get those sons of bitches. You know.”

  “Yes, I do.”

  “This is not the pain meds. Payback is going to be a motherfucker,” Tanner said.

  CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

  City-State of New York

  Resource Security Headquarters

  Shift Operations

  0345 hours

  Colonel Steiger was sweating like it was noon on a hot day as he stood behind his desk trying to get the courage up to call Mr. Rand. What was he going to say? He had lost a whole Spec Act Team and he didn’t have Rule. Rand had been keeping a close eye on this operation despite the fact he had a number of other operations in progress. This was his primary interest. Finally, he pressed the call button.

  Rand’s face appeared. His tie was off and he was sitting with a drink in one hand. “It took you long enough, Steiger. Report,” Rule snapped.

  “Sir, I regret to inform you we lost the entire Spec Act Team. They were ambushed by Tanner and the settlers, apparently.”

  “That’s unfortunate. Where is Rule now? That’s the important thing.”

  “Uh, sir, he escaped during the firefight. I, uh…”

  Rand’s normally cool and composed manner changed in an instant. His face was contorted with anger, “You stupid fool. You have no idea what you’ve done. You had one job, and one job only. That was to capture Rule.”

  “Yes, sir. I know. If I had another Spec Act Team I could send them in now and I’m sure they could find Rule and Tanner.”

  “No, I’m not going to waste any more resources with you in command. I will give this to someone competent. I made a mistake giving such an important mission to an RSF officer. No, I will have a Special Action commander take over.”