Right to Rule: Hunter Wars Book Five (The Hunter Wars 5)

by SD Tanner

  CHAPTER TWO: Crossing the line (Hull)

  He listened while their shattered minds spoke to one another in an endless chatter that was both disturbing and distracting. He believed what he was about to get was worth waiting for and stood silently, allowing their noise to wash over him. Over eighteen months earlier, a virus erupted simultaneously across the world that turned most people into shambling killers. The shamblers then evolved into lean, hairless creatures that were strong, fast, with heads that vibrated manically when they hunted. These creatures, known as hunters, seemed driven to eat people alive. Impervious to pain, their internal organs disintegrated to a black viscous goo, and their only weakness was an inability to see well in daylight. They were almost impossible to kill and could only be stopped by destroying their brain stem, but even then a hunter would continue to move. Without the brain to drive it, their movement was uncontrolled and they were unable to attack. Only the people infected with the designer virus could kill a hunter. Once soldiers in the U.S. Army, Gears and his foster brothers, Pax and TL, set up bases in Florida, and were protecting the living from Ruler, his super hunter demons and the hunters. In addition to four bases, he knew they also had two islands and a CDC in Yulee. Their CDC was infecting people with the designer virus that was developed to counter the hunter virus. These infected people were telepathic and able to kill a hunter by touching them. Since Gears and his brothers destroyed their last camp in Hopkinsville, Ruler had taken over New York.

  He’d been Ruler’s right hand man for months and he’d promised to make him a super hunter. Having spent a lot of time with them, he’d learned they were actually demons possessing the living, and they appeared to be infected with a different strain of the hunter virus. He was told it was difficult for a demon to possess a healthy human, so they would infect a human with the super hunter virus, and then possess the body with the human still trapped inside. It was disgusting, and on the occasions when he spoke to the human sharing their body with a demon, he realized it was a terrifying way to exist. With their telepathic abilities, these demon super hunters could control the millions of hunters and turn them into a murderous and undefeatable army. As a reward for his loyalty, Ruler promised to give him a new body and the powers of a super hunter without being possessed by a demon. He told him he’d found him a new body, and to meet him at the luxurious hotel where they now lived in the Financial District of New York. Along with the two irritating demon super hunters, he was waiting for Ruler to join them and fulfil his promise.

  “I wanted one with a baby,” the tall handsome man whined.

  The busty brunette with the pert behind, pouted and replied sulkily, “But I haven’t tasted one yet.”

  The subject of their argument was huddled on the floor curled into a tight fetal position. With her knees drawn to her chest and her head tucked tightly into her knees, she was visibly trembling. The woman was crying and praying in a monotone voice that was edged with madness. She was so frail her blue veins showed through her skin, and her hair was hanging limp and dirty. Were it not for her obvious shaking, she might have been mistaken for one of the newly dead.

  The woman looked up at him with pleading eyes. “Please don’t let them eat me alive.”

  Ignoring the woman’s fear laden request, the busty brunette said, “You had one last week. Don’t be such an asshole.”

  The handsome man replied archly, “So what? That was fucking last week.”

  With her hands on her hips, the busty brunette pouted. “What was it like?”

  With a shrug, the handsome man casually replied, “Dead baby. What the fuck else would it be like?”

  Another demon super hunter walked into the room, and rudely interrupting their argument, he asked, “Why the fuck am I here?” With a scornful look in his direction, he added, “And what’s he doing here?”

  The demon was in the body of a man who’d been one of his human army and he remembered him well. Now the man was possessed by a demon and unable to control his own body. The blue on blue eyes of the super hunter were the only outward sign that the body was possessed. These days he knew better than to travel without a gun, and he placed his hand on the grip of the pistol he carried in a holster on his side.

  Glaring back at the demon, he said, “Fuck off, asshole.”

  The demon snorted, but then his face transformed into that of a frightened man, and he said desperately, “Shoot me, Hull. Please, jus’ fuckin’ shoot me. Do it!”

  Pulling his gun from its holster, the demon once more resumed control of his possessed body, and his blue on blue eyes widened in surprise. Showing no concern, the demon asked, “Really? You’re going to shoot me?”

  “No.” Flicking the safety off, he held the gun in both hands and turned to the woman huddled on the floor. “I don’t want you.”

  The woman looked up at him in horror and he pulled the trigger. His bullet tore through the front of her forehead and exploded out of the back of her head, creating a splatter of brain and skull fragments across the floor behind her. Her head and torso snapped back and she was left lying on her back facing upward.

  With a slight frown, the busty brunette demon turned to him and asked casually, “What did you do that for? They’re not as good dead.”

  “Don’t be so fussy,” he replied dourly, then he put his gun back in his holster and walked out of the room.

  Behind him the demons fell onto the prone body of the woman, eager to feast on her while she was still fresh. As he left the room, he saw Ruler striding down the corridor towards him. Ruler had taken New York with an efficiency that convinced him they hadn’t needed humans to help them at all. He’d trained two thousand men as soldiers, but without his knowledge, Ruler had them possessed by demons and they were all now demon super hunters. Under the control of these demon super hunters, a million or more hunters had swarmed through the city. There were fifty thousand people hiding in Manhattan. The demon super hunters sent hunters into every building, basement, underground tunnel and bunker, and the living were torn from their hidey-holes and hauled into the daylight. Some fought back, but it was futile. The hunters were hard to kill and there was an almost endless supply of them. When one hunter fell, there were another ten to take its place until eventually there was no ammunition left to fight back with. He’d stood by Ruler’s side and watched, what he believed, was the last of his kind being dragged out and thrown into Battery Park to be guarded by an undefeatable enemy.

  People had stood, clinging to one another as their worst nightmares became reality. The super hunters joined the hunters to feast on the living, while those yet to be chosen for slaughter watched in terror. Hell had reigned and he was there to witness it. It took only five days and five nights to tear the city apart. By the last night, Ruler had over fifty thousand remaining living inhabitants to use as he saw fit. Supplies to feed the living were limited and it was only then Ruler found a use for him. If he hadn’t, he believed he’d already be dead.

  “So?” Ruler asked happily. “What did you think, Hull?”

  “She’s dead.”

  With a shrug, Ruler replied, “Oh, not much then.”

  “You ain’t putting me in the body of a woman. I’ve got nothing to lose, so find someone better for me or fucking dispose of me. I don’t care.”

  After those five nights of hell, he didn’t care about anything anymore. At first he’d been shocked, disgusted and horrified, but after witnessing the death of the children, the pregnant women, the young and the old, he became numb. He didn’t quite know when it happened, but he remembered watching a bleeding woman screaming long after she should have been dead, and realized hell had won and this was his future. The rules of life no longer prevailed. There was no escape into death, only endless suffering as people who should be dead, continued to be tortured by the demons who now owned the earth. Walking down the corridor of the hotel with Ruler, he entered the executive lounge area for the floor and looked out across the city.

  Ruler followed hi
m into the room. “Are you backing out of our deal?”

  I’ve got no options left, he thought. Ruler and his demon super hunters ruled the city, and the ease with which they’d taken it meant there was no way to stop them taking the country and eventually the world. Gears and his brothers were on a futile quest to save the last of the living, but he didn’t believe they could defeat Ruler and his demon super hunters. He either became one of them or he would be one of their pleasures. Staring out of the window, he saw a building on fire in Chinatown. Not good, he thought, if they burn the city to the ground, we’ll have to move and that’ll be a nuisance.

  “That’s why I want you, Hull,” Ruler said, as he walked up and stood next to him. “You think so practically. Same cannot be said for my demon children. The demons are mine to use and amuse, but they can be so impractical. They’re driven primarily by their pleasures.” With a twisted smile, Ruler added, “It makes them good company, but poor managers.” Sighing deeply, Ruler sat down at a table that overlooked the spectacular city.

  Turning to Ruler, he said, “I agreed to join you, but not as another one of your toys.”

  With a nod of his head, Ruler indicated the chair opposite him. “Sit, Hull. Let’s deal.”

  He walked to the glass-topped table and sat down in the chair opposite Ruler. Ruler nodded to him and for the first time since he’d known the Devil, he seemed genuinely contemplative.

  “I have a problem that won’t go away.”

  He replied bitterly. “I was getting rid of that problem when you sent me on that wild goose chase to the Ranch.”

  Hull’s Army, as he’d liked to call it, were supposed to attack the four bases that Gears and his brothers set up in Florida and Georgia. Having failed in his first attempt to take the bases, he’d built his two thousand strong army to work with the demon super hunters, and the hunters they controlled, to try and take the bases a second time. He was within weeks of making the strike, when Ruler diverted him from his mission and ordered him to destroy the Ranch. The Ranch was the home of the people infected with the virus that killed hunters, and Gears used them to keep the living safe from hunters. His attack went badly wrong. Although they’d killed almost everyone there, Gears had shown up with the super hunter they called Ip and rescued the baby. To make matters worse, they’d failed to kill everyone at the Ranch, and while they were distracted, Gears and his soldiers destroyed their camp in Hopkinsville. As a punishment, Ruler took his human army and all his men were now possessed by demons. With over two thousand demon super hunters and a million hunters, Ruler took control of New York and set up his base of operations in a five-star hotel overlooking the Financial District. He was still angry with Gears and he wanted to finish the fight he’d started.

  Ruler nodded and said, “I know, but I had my reasons. There’s a golden star and I believe it’s a child that has to die. You know I’ve sent my demons to infiltrate the bases and find that brat.”

  Ruler sent three women and three men to possess people who were already infected with the designer virus so they could look for the child. With their odd blue eyes they would stand out, but in the bodies of the Infected it was unlikely they’d be questioned.

  “Who’s the child?”

  “I don’t know.”

  He was genuinely surprised by Ruler’s admission. “I thought you knew everything.”

  “Balance of power, Hull, is a delicate thing to maintain. It’s the basis of any good sport. Equally capable competitors never results in a conclusive winner, but every so often the pitch is changed to favor one over the other, and that’s what happened when the hunter virus destroyed most of mankind. When the bulk of the human race became shamblers and then hunters, it changed the playing field. For the first time I can remember in a long time, the pitch has played in my favor and I want to capitalize on that.”

  Ruler was telling him more now than he’d ever known before and he was intrigued. Ruler was the Devil and he’d brought hell to earth, but he could only do that because mankind was so badly weakened by the hunter virus. Ruler controlled his demons who walked the earth as super hunters, so as far as he was concerned, he controlled the earth which he was slowly, but surely, turning into hell.

  I am alive in hell, he thought absently. My life is nothing.

  “It’s not quite as simple as that, Hull. The balance of power has yet to be entirely tipped.”

  Gears, he thought. The last bastion of mankind was under the control of Gears. He’d expected to die the day he failed to take the Ranch and lost their camp. Ruler warned him if he didn’t kill everyone at the Ranch, he would skin him alive. Unexpectedly, he hadn’t delivered on that threat. To his complete surprise, Ruler had now decided to draw him closer and explain the real game at hand.

  “There are more forces at work than you understand, Hull. The power of the universe is not so easily harnessed and if I am to win conclusively, I will need to do more than cheat my way to the finish line.”

  Narrowing his eyes, he asked suspiciously, “What does that mean?”

  “It means the universe is smarter than you think. There’s an intelligence inbuilt into the fabric. Gears and his brothers are not merely men with a grudge and a lot of luck.”

  That was the first time he’d heard Ruler refer to Gears by name and it surprised him. He usually referred to Gears, Pax and TL as dogs. Gears and his brothers had a weapon Ruler only ever called imp, but Gray told him Gears had named her Ip. She was one of the people the CDC had infected with the counter virus and the first they knew who could kill hunters with a touch. When she was found, she didn’t know who she was and couldn’t talk. Later Ip died and was reborn as a super hunter. It was knowing of her existence that led Gears to create an army of Infected, who were able to kill hunters with a touch. Although they’d killed almost all of the Infected at the Ranch, he was sure Gears could and would infect more people with the counter virus. He’d watched Ip that night at the Ranch, and she seemed more capable at killing than their own demon super hunters. There was something odd about the woman and she killed efficiently and without effort. He thought she ruled death in a way he’d never understood it could be ruled.

  Ruler laughed. “She is Death, you fool. Gears, Pax, TL and Ip aren’t truly human, they just think they are. Well, Death knows she’s Death, but the other three haven’t understood their purpose yet, but when they do, all will be lost.” He leaned forward at the table. “The game is reaching its final quarter and I’m running out of time to seal the deal.”

  Puzzled that something as powerful as the Devil could need him, he asked, “What do you need from me?”

  “The Horsemen can’t be killed, but they can slowly lose everything until there’s nothing left to be won. But to do that I need to get rid of the golden star and then I need to get rid of the Horsemen. When all is lost, they’ll have no reason to be here and then they’ll be gone.”

  “And where do I fit into this plan?”

  “I need you to be immortal whilst retaining your skills as a soldier. You can’t be possessed, so I need you to become a super hunter, but still be who and what you are.”

  It sounded like a good deal to him and he smiled. “How will you do that?”

  Reflecting his smile back at him, Ruler said mischievously, “I’m going to make a little devil out of you.”

  CHAPTER THREE: Hollow man (Pax)

  Not wanting Gray to have any chance of escape, they were holding him in a prison on the larger of their two islands. After being held prisoner in Arkansas by Ruler and then Gray, Gears handed him over so he could gain intelligence about Ruler and his operations before they left for New York. With her odd ability to read minds, he brought Ip with him to help him with the interrogation. Since Ruler sent his mind back into the memory of witnessing his father kill his mother, he’d changed and he knew he was still changing. Just as she could communicate with Gears, Ip could now see into his mind, and he was still trying to come to grips with her telepathic link to him. For as fond
of her as he was, he wasn’t sure he liked her poking around his brain.

  Ip speaks: We are the same you and I. You have no secrets I cannot pry.

  “Thanks, Ip,” he replied sarcastically. “Knowin’ that makes me feel so much more relaxed about you.” Sniffing derisively, he added, “Now, get the hell outta my head.”

  Ip huffed and he was sure, if it weren’t for the fact her eyes were blue on blue, he would have seen her rolling her eyes at him. They’d arrived by bird just ten minutes earlier and he was grabbing a coffee before he went to see Gray. Originally the island had about eight thousand residents, and the small town had a local police station with several holding cells. Since they’d taken over the island, about fifteen thousand people now lived there to farm the land and send fresh food to the mainland. The island barely produced enough food to feed the residents, and it wasn’t proving to be a viable solution. They were struggling to scavenge for supplies on the mainland, and any fresh food was always gratefully received. Captain Ted had already been to the UK after Gears and TL cut their recon short to rescue him from Ruler. With so many resources, they were rapidly moving through their plans, but it was hard to keep track of how everything was going, so he wasn’t entirely sure of the latest state of play. His job had always been to maintain supplies and he felt like he’d failed. Sighing, he wished he could join Ted to set up their UK bases, but agreed with Gears it was time they dealt with the problem of Ruler once and for all.

  Ip speaks: Trust the Angels, their course is true. It is not all on me and you.

  He took a sip of his sweetened black coffee. “What did I jus’ say about stayin’ outta my head, Ip?”

  Ip speaks: I am not in for I am never out. It is not fun for me to hear you spout!

  It hadn’t occurred to him that maybe she didn’t have a say about whether she tuned into his mind or not. Must be annoying to have to listen to my brain, he thought with some amusement.