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

by SD Tanner

  Dale shrugged, and rolling his eyes at the other pilot, he pointed to one of the Black Hawks. “That’s mine and it’s ready to go.”

  The flight to the ship was short, and he watched with interest as the ship grew larger on the horizon. He’d only seen a few times, but for some reason it always brought a smile to his face. Long, white, graceful and majestic, it stood proud against the deep blue of the ocean. He’d never understood the point of holidays and never travelled anywhere for pleasure, but whenever he saw the ship he wondered if maybe he should have. Even from a distance, the decks looked smooth and clean, and he could almost imagine elegantly dressed people, wandering the promenades while band music played in the background.

  Fancy, the voice remarked.

  Do you think I should have gone on holiday?

  Holiday from what, the voice queried?

  His hobby was also his job and perhaps there was nothing to take a holiday from. Satisfied he hadn’t missed an opportunity, he waited for the helicopter to settle smoothly onto the helipad on the main deck. Once it landed, he climbed from the bird and walked away without a backward glance.

  Where am I going?

  To find the baby, the voice replied.

  Where am I supposed to look?

  The voice didn’t have an answer to that question and he looked around the main lounge. At the far end of the room was a bar in front of a mirrored wall. The glass shelves had rows of folders, and the bar was being used as a counter with forms, pens and piles of paper. Around the edges of the room were tables, clearly used as office desks, and he realized it was no longer a bar, but some sort of administration area. People were busy making notes and filing papers, and he tapped the surface of the bar impatiently.

  A short, slender and pale young woman with a shock of red hair looked up. “Can I help you?”

  “Yes, yes, I’m Farrington from the CDC.”

  “I know who you are. We’ve met. I’m Lucie and I work with Kat who heads up base administration. I’m her second-in-command.”

  He peered closely at Lucie, but he didn’t recognize her. “I’m looking for a baby.”

  “We have quite a lot of babies. I assume you mean a specific baby.”

  “Yes, yes, but I don’t know which one it is.”

  “Then how do you expect to find it if you don’t know which one it is? What do you want the baby for?”

  He waved his hand dismissively. “It’s a medical requirement. I need it as a benchmark. A baseline.”

  “Okay…can you give me more information about this baby?”

  “Just how many babies are there?”

  Lucie smiled proudly. “We have over ninety thousand people across the bases. There’s at least two hundred babies under the age of one and quite a few more on the way.”

  “But this is a very important baby. Not just any old baby.”

  Looking somewhat annoyed, she replied sharply, “They’re all equally important. They’re our future.”

  “Yes, yes, but if it’s an important baby, I assume it would be somewhere here.”

  Lucie sighed. “The nursery is on this level.” Pointing at the double doors that led from the bar to the main body of the ship, she added, “Second door on your left.”

  Without bothering to thank Lucie, he turned abruptly and walked out of the room and through the doors. Walking down the once luxurious corridor, he noted the carpet was now stained and worn. The walls were made of darkened glass and he could see into each room. The second room had a row of bassinets and several playpens. Behind the glass, two women were slowly moving around the room.

  How are we going to know we have the right baby?

  Good point, the voice answered, we’ll just have to kill them all.

  What? Just kill the babies?

  Don’t be stupid, the voice replied dourly, we’ll kill everyone on the ship.

  But I’m on the ship.

  Well d’uh, the voice replied, and with a happy lilt it added, let’s eat.

  He hadn’t eaten the soup at the base, so he was hungry and he craved the warmth of living flesh. The need to feel slick flesh sliding down his throat had been growing, and now permission was granted, he allowed the hunger to fill his mind. He saw a man walking toward him in the corridor, and he smiled as he walked past him. Before the man made it through the double doors, he collided into the back of him so he stumbled forward, lost his balance and collapsed to the floor. Falling on the man’s back, he pushed his head down with his arm, and leaning in he bit the base of his neck. Blood leaked into his mouth and the man was instantly infected. He immediately rose to his feet, tipping him off his back, and he tumbled gracelessly across the floor. Snarling, the man bolted forward and burst through the double doors and into the bar.

  That was fun. Let’s do it again.

  Climbing back to his feet, he wiped his sleeve against his bloodied mouth, and ran down the corridor in search of his next prey. By the time he went through the door at the end of the next corridor, he heard the sound of claxons barking.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR: Little Devil no more (Hull)

  It had been a good few days. Since agreeing his possessed men would control their own bodies, he’d gotten a lot more done. They’d successfully driven the refugees on Staten Island to the beach. There were over fifty thousand people now hemmed in by the hunters, and he was ready to start processing them. It took him less time than the same routine in New York. He was feeling very pleased with himself, and looking forward to returning to his suite and the quiet blonde bombshell he had waiting for him. She still hadn’t said a word to him and he didn’t care. As long as she did as she was told, he could do without the chatter. Surrounded by overexcited hunters, the prisoners were standing around looking miserable and frightened. Occasionally a few or more made a break for freedom, but it only took the sight of the hunters feasting on them while they screamed for the others to be subdued. They were no more than cattle to him now, and he was growing bored, eager to join the team that was out looking for supplies and weapons.

  Striding across the boardwalk, he shouted to Callum, “Where the fuck we at now?”

  “The guys are setting up the chains to secure them inside the buildings. It’s taking forever and I’m bored.”

  While secretly agreeing with him, he glared at Callum. “Shut the fuck up. You’ve got a job to do, so do it.” Looking around the crowded street, he asked, “Where’s Grant?”

  Callum waved at a cluster of hunters that were standing in a circle blocking his view. “Over there.”

  He strode over, and pushing the hunters aside, in the middle of the circle of hunters he found Grant was hunched over a woman who was sobbing with fear. She was a tiny woman, scrawny and young.

  “What the hell are you doing?”

  “I’m hungry.”

  He reminded himself they were all infected with the virus spread by the demons and were driven to eat the living. Although his men were in control of their bodies, they were no longer human. They still wanted to eat people alive and they didn’t appear to have typical human reactions. He saw them as not human, but not quite demon. If anything they were a hybrid, but he didn’t see it was a problem providing they did as he ordered.

  Not wanting to waste time, he snapped, “Eat and make it fast. You’ve got a job to do, and if you don’t do it any better than the demons, then I might as well put them back in control.”

  Returning his attention to the woman, Callum placed his hand across her face and leant down to her body, clearly ready to start his meal. He turned away, but heard the woman screaming hysterically while Callum began to eat her alive. The hunters were excited by the kill, and their heads were vibrating manically while they waited for their turn to eat. It was the noise that bothered him most. The endless screaming and he thought, shut the hell up and waited for silence to fall. The woman continued to scream, and he turned back to the scene and thought, shut the hell up. She was pinned to the ground by three hunters and Callum. Having stripp
ed her naked, they were tearing chunks of her flesh while they sloppily ate her body. Callum’s face was stained with blood, and he had a glazed expression as he chewed briefly, swallowed, and reached for her prone body again. While pieces of her disappeared into the mouths of the hungry hunters, she continued to howl in pain and terror.

  Why isn’t she shutting up, he wondered? Ruler told him all he had to do was think it and it would happen. Glaring at the woman as if she were to blame he thought, die, but the woman didn’t die and she didn’t shut up either. Something was wrong. It was like Ruler couldn’t hear him and make his wish a reality. Suddenly worried, he felt an urgent need to find him. He had no way to communicate with Ruler and figured he should head back to the hotel where they were staying. This new development wasn’t good, and looking around the crowded street, he began to feel vulnerable. He knew if he couldn’t control the situation, there was a risk it might turn on him.

  He felt a spike of anxiety ripple through his gut. “We gotta go. Now!”

  With his face and hands still running with the woman’s blood, Grant wiped his bloodied sleeve across his chin. “What’s the hurry?”

  “Something’s happened to Ruler. We need to head back to the hotel.”

  “Okay, but I’m still hungry.”

  Shaking his head in disgust, he said dourly, “You can eat at the hotel. There’s plenty of fresh meat there too.”

  Leaving Callum in charge of the operation, he jogged to the helicopter and they flew to City Hall Park. Striding from the corner of the park where they landed and towards the hotel, he didn’t think anything looked any different, and the streets were still empty and silent. Once outside the hotel, he noticed Ruler’s limousine was missing and assumed perhaps he’d left. The lobby was quiet, and he and Grant took the elevator to the top floor where he and Ruler lived in the luxurious presidential suites. Stepping outside the elevator, he immediately noticed the doors to both their suites were open. He pulled his gun into a firing position, and indicated to Grant that he should do the same.

  In a loud stage whisper, Grant asked, “What’s goin’ on?”

  “Shut up. Something’s wrong.”

  Moving quietly, he entered Ruler’s suite where there were two dead super hunters, and a heavily bullet riddled hunter lying in the lounge. One of them was sprawled across a light green sofa, and the others two were lying on the floor. Judging by the state of the bodies and the coffee table that had once sat between the two sofas, someone had thrown a grenade or two at them. Crouching low, he looked cautiously around the lounge and dining area, but there was no one there.

  Quietly he walked to the master suite where both double doors were wide open and he saw a body sprawled on the bed. Clearly whatever had happened here, it was over, and the perpetrators had left. Relaxing slightly, he slung his gun over his shoulder and went to inspect the dead body. It was Ruler and he had a single gunshot wound under his chin. His brains and skull were splattered across the plush pillows and up the white wall. The blood was fresh, but drying and he poked at a fragment of skull that still clung to the wall. It dropped and landed onto the soft pillow. Rubbing the blood and brain tissue between his thumb and forefinger, he decided Ruler must have been dead for less than twenty-four hours. The stains were already dried brown around the edges, and only the most densely bloodied patches were still damp.

  Ruler’s hand was still wrapped around a Glock 19 handgun. He figured it was possible someone placed the gun in Ruler’s hand, but he very much doubted anyone had. There’d be no reason to pretend he’d committed suicide. Being the Devil, Ruler could dispose of a body he was using and return in another anytime he wanted to, and it seemed more likely Ruler had decided to kill himself. The only question he had was why.

  “Shit.”

  Grant strolled into the room and stood at the foot of the bed. “What’d he kill himself for? He can’t die anyways.”

  “I dunno, but it changes everything.”

  “Whatdaya mean?”

  “It means we don’t have any reason to be here. I don’t want New York. That was Ruler’s idea. All it meant to me was a shitload of people I had to keep chained up and fed. What the hell do I want a bunch of people chained up for?”

  “Food?”

  “Oh for fuck’s sake, Grant, will you stop thinking about your stomach. You can get a meal anywhere. Just send the hunters out and they’ll pick you up something fresh. You don’t have to keep your dinner chained up. We’re not fucking farmers.”

  “Yeah, alright, but where’d Ruler go?”

  “How the fuck would I know? But if he ain’t here then neither am I.”

  Striding out of the room he stared out of the large panoramic window. He needed to think and he needed a new plan. If Ruler was gone then he had no reason to stay in such a dirty and abandoned city playing guard to a hundred thousand people he didn’t care about. Wherever Ruler was now, he’d left him with sufficient power for his own men to stay in control of their possessed bodies. Staring across the sea, he thought, I can go anywhere I want. He had an army, he could control the hunters and he had vehicles, weapons and supplies. What he didn’t need was a hundred thousand idiots that would need feeding. Smiling to himself, he saw a world of possibilities opening up and decided they could all simply leave. How hard could it be, he thought, we can just pack up the trucks and go.

  While he stood pondering what he would need to do, he remembered his blonde plaything. Turning abruptly he stalked down the corridor to his room and found it was also empty. Damn, he thought, I liked her. He figured she must have taken advantage of whatever happened here and legged it.

  Grant had followed him into his suite and he turned to him and said, “Head back to Staten Island and tell them to pull back to the city.”

  “Why?”

  “Cos we’re leaving, that’s why.”

  “Where are we goin’?”

  “Dunno yet.” Then he grinned and said, “Maybe we’ll head down south where it’s warmer.”

  Grant grinned back at him. “Cool.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: Brothers divided (Gears)

  The familiar sight of the Marine supply base came into view and he breathed out a sigh of relief. It was a long flight back from New York and he wanted to feel land under his feet again. Their mission in New York was a mess. They were told there was up to fifty thousand people trapped in buildings and every minute he wasted was costing them their lives. Ruler always seemed to put them on the back foot and he was sick of forever playing catch up. They hadn’t spoken much during the flight, but he already knew they would need to marshal all their forces to attack the city. He thought they were all a bit shocked by what they found. When it came to brutalizing man, Ruler didn’t seem to have any limit as to how low he’d go. It didn’t seem right to him. Did man really deserved to be punished this badly?

  All the combat shooters on the mission stayed with Benny to protect the survivors they’d rescued. Pax, TL, BD, Ip, and as many survivors as they could carry were on the bird with him. He needed Pax and TL to form the battalions and supplies they would need to try and take control of the city. Initially they could send supplies and troops by air and at the same time get convoys on road. Wolfie should be able to get troops there within a few days as well, but he doubted he had enough supplies to help feed the survivors. They would have to work fast and he needed his brothers to take lead with him. The clock was ticking and every minute was another life lost. Mentally, he cursed Ruler again for being such a little shit. When Hatch landed the bird, he saw three birds immediately take to the air and tilt forward as they headed toward the sea at top speed.

  Jumping from the bird, he jogged over to the ground crew at the helipads. “What the hell is goin’ on? Where the hell are those birds goin?”

  Still wiping his hands on a filthy looking rag, the man looked shocked to see him. “They’re heading to the ship, sir. It’s been attacked.”

  Surprised, he asked, “By what?”

  “Du
nno, sir. All I heard was there’s hunters aboard.”

  Pax had joined him and he muttered, “Aww, fuck.”

  “What the hell is going on?” TL asked.

  “We lost the ship. It’s got hunters on board. Might as well bomb the damn thing.”

  TL’s face creased in fury. “No! You will not bomb our ship, Gears! My son is on board!”

  “They’re all dead, TL. If there’s hunters on board, then they’re all dead. You need to be practical about this.”

  He didn’t see it coming, but he sure felt it when it landed. TL didn’t just take a swing at him, he followed the punch to his face with a body blow that knocked him off his feet. As he went down, he thought, not bad for a guy sixty pounds lighter than me. That thought was immediately followed by a surge of anger and frustration, not at his brother, but a genuine pain at losing the people who lived on their ship. Crashing to the ground, TL landed heavily on top of him and continued to pound at his face with one fist at a time.

  “You fucking asshole! You…will…not…kill…my…son!”

  Each word was followed with yet another well-placed jab of the fist, which he managed to partially block. TL was a much leaner build than him, but they were both fit and trained to fight, although he had to admit it’d been a long time since he’d indulged in a bar brawl. Using his core strength and one arm to lever himself up slightly, he used his other arm to block a blow and jerked his body to roll TL off his chest. TL lost his balance, landed on his side, but immediately kicked him in the knee. Luckily he was still half-dressed for combat and was wearing his knee protectors, otherwise it would have really hurt.

  “Cut it out!”

  Obviously not finished with the fight, TL sprang to his feet and stood slightly crouched. Still glaring at him, he was clearly looking for an opportunity to land another punch. He decided if TL wanted a fight, then he would give him one. While still on one knee, he used his other leg to drive his body forward and up, and he slammed his head into his midriff. TL grunted and stepped back, but managed to hold his balance. He followed the head blow to his gut with a forceful punch under his chin with his right arm, but to be fair, he pulled the punch. TL’s head still rocked back, and he finally lost his balance and landed on his ass.