by SD Tanner
That reminded him that he hadn’t spoken to Nelson that week and he asked, ‘TL, ya got an update on Nelson?’
Nodding, TL said, ‘Yeah, I spoke to him today. The women and kids we brought back from his bunker are settling in on the ship well. Isaac is helping Nelson maintain supplies. He wants to move to Georgia to stay in range of the bird and the ship. I told him I’d look out for a new base for them.’
It was yet another item to add to their never ending ‘to do’ list, but he agreed. For some reason he wanted to keep Nelson’s group and Isaac closer as well and he was glad Nelson felt the same way. That reminded him they still needed to look for more of Ip’s people. Their abilities gave them an edge against the hunters. He was hoping to find more groups like Nelson’s, and if they helped them, he believed they could build a viable fighting force on land.
Pax was obviously also thinking of the things he needed to do and he said, ‘I still gotta go after Major major asshole, and then I gotta go look for BD’s boy.’
When they’d checked the Major’s truck, of all the dead bodies they found in it, the Major’s was not one of them and they assumed he’d escaped. He didn’t really care about that, but Pax was angry and wanted justice for BD. He would help him hunt down the Major and kill him, but it wasn’t a priority right now.
Eyeing Pax sternly, he said bluntly, ‘You’re in no condition to do anythin’, Pax.’
Groaning, Pax muttered, ‘I’m fine. I just gotta get off this damn ship.’
Shaking his head at Pax, he said, ‘Give it a few weeks, Pax. Major major asshole won’t get far, then we’ll all go and deal with him. BD’s boy is gonna be hard to find. It’s been six months since all this went down, but we’ll go look for him.’
‘Gears is right, Pax,’ TL said. ‘It’s been over four months since we started this mission. You haven’t stopped in all that time. You need to rest. We all do.’
Agreeing with TL, he said, ‘We need to regroup again. A lot’s changed since we started all this. We gotta ship. We gotta shedload of armaments to protect the ship with. We gotta a coupla birds. We got an alliance partner in Nelson. We got research bein’ done on the counter virus. We know how to find and kill the super hunters. Through Isaac, we can talk to Ip. We got over 450 people on this ship and, thanks to your trainin’, we got skilled scavengers and combat teams.’
Neither of them spoke and he continued, ‘We gotta get a refuelin’ boat to tag along with the ship that we can also land the spare bird on. We gotta find an island and clear it, so we got somewhere for people to live that’s safe and they can work the land. We gotta find more alliance partners on land to build up our strength. We’re gonna need more heavy weapons. We gotta keep pickin’ up survivors and movin’ ‘em to the island, or trainin’ ‘em for scavengin’ or combat. We gotta find the rest of Ip’s people. We gotta convince Ip’s people to help the other groups like Ip has helped us and Isaac is helpin’ Nelson. We gotta work with Ip to find the super hunters and start wipin’ ‘em out. We gotta keep workin’ with Lydia to get that damn counter virus, so we can kill the hunters.’
Just saying it is tiring, he thought and added, ‘And there’ll be more I haven’t thought of yet, plus we gotta keep what we got runnin’.’
Groaning, Pax complained, ‘Ya forgot we gotta deal with all the human assholes who wanna kill us.’
Nodding, he said, ‘Oh yeah, and we’ll be findin’ more of ‘em along the way.’
Sighing, TL observed. ‘If you two were more affable, maybe we wouldn’t make quite so many enemies.’
Pax threw him a dirty look and said bluntly, ‘Do ya really think bein’ affable woulda stopped Major major asshole?’
‘No,’ TL replied candidly. ‘I think the world is full of nutters with guns. We just gotta have bigger guns.’
Chuckling, he said, ‘Ya think we need to be affable, and carry fuckin’ big guns?’
‘Yeah, I think that would work,’ TL replied mildly.
Nodding, Pax said sagely, ‘It always has.’
Grinning at his brothers, he wrapped one arm around Ip’s waist and put his other arm under her thighs. Holding her in his arms, he stood up and began to walk out the room with her. Wrapping her arm around his neck, she peered over his shoulder at Pax and TL and smiled at them.
‘Ip and me are goin’ to bed,’ he declared, as he strode from the room.
Walking across the suite to their bedroom, he gently put her down on the bed and kissed her long and hard. He hadn’t mentioned the most important thing that happened since they set out on this mission. He’d finally been able to talk to Ip and learned she loved him as much as he loved her.
***
Hunter ruler: I seek to find my mate so true. I sent my guards but they failed to woo.
Ip speaks: Who are you that speaks to me? What do you want for I am not free?
Hunter ruler: You my love are lost at sea. You do not understand. You belong to me.
Ip speaks: That cannot be true. I am free. I only belong to me.
Hunter ruler: I am the one that belongs to you. You must come home my love so true.
Ip speaks: You speak as if you know me well. And my future you dare to tell.
Hunter ruler: Your spirit is a deep well. I have watched you close I can tell. You were born for me but do not know. Together we rule. Together we grow.
Ip speaks: I was not born with future told. I will wait to learn what it will hold.
Hunter ruler: Take the time my sweet one here. I will wait for you for I am always near. I understand you are slow to grow. When you are grown then you will know. I am for you and you are for me. We belong together for eternity.
Ip speaks: I do not like what you have in your mind. You seem to believe I am your kind.
Hunter ruler: You believe you are human still. It is not your future even if it is your will.
Ip speaks: I am what I believe to be true. You cannot know my future through. Why do you persist you bald ones born? Your plans for my future I utterly scorn. For I will be who I choose to be. You do not decide my future for me.
Hunter ruler: I will wait for you my love. You need not fear the rulers here. They will never harm what I hold dear. I am for you and no else. We will meet again you and myself.
Ip speaks: I have a man who guards my soul. I am not free you should know.
Hunter ruler: Your man only knows the human you. It is not what you are so it is not true. I know you for all your mind. He will never see you in full for he is not your kind. When you are grown you will see the truth through and while you grow I will wait for you.
Ip speaks: I believe you demon and not of fair kind. You cannot know my true mind.
Hunter ruler: I am me and I am you. If you think me demon then so are you.
Ip speaks: Your mind is a worry I cannot unravel. I do not believe we are a couple. If you are demon why would you speak true? I do not know you.
Hunter ruler: I will always be here for you hold my soul. Go travel and grow there is more you must know. I will be here keeping you safe as you go.
Ip speaks: You are different to the others who seek. But I am not sure if I want to speak. Go away our time is done. For I am not your little one.
Hunter ruler: It is good enough for you to know I am here. We will speak again for in my heart you are dear.
EPILOGUE
The luxury cruise liner rounded the coast of Key Largo. As it sailed into the open seas, there were hundreds of boats scattered across the ocean. People had taken to the sea to avoid the hunters on land, and they sailed in boats of all shapes and sizes bearing the scars of recent battles. Amongst this poor collection of battered, and barely seaworthy boats, the pristine white cruise liner stood out as the spectacular ship she clearly was.
The emergence of the cruise ship was not missed.
‘Holy crap will ya look at that!’
The man was standing on the small platform of a submarine, peering through his binoculars at the cruise ship.
�
��Shit! Where the fuck did that come from?’ The man next to him replied excitedly.
The man with the binoculars scanned the ship looking for the name of the boat. It looked as if the original name was painted over, but the new name of the boat was not painted on professionally.
The ship was now named, “The Mission”
Smiling to himself, he said to his shipmate, ‘Looks like we got ourselves some pirates.’
Sounding confused, the other man replied, ‘I thought we were the pirates.’
Ignoring his shipmate, he scanned the main deck of the ship. Through his binoculars, he saw a huge man with a scar that ripped his face from his eyebrow to his chin. As he watched, the man put a pair of binoculars to his eyes and stared straight back at him. He felt a vague chill at the obvious challenge from the scarred man.
Turning to his shipmate, he said, ‘Go get Captain Ted. We got company.’
HEAVEN
MEETS
HELL
(HUNTER WARS BOOK TWO)
S D TANNER
CHAPTER ONE: If you build it they will come (Gears)
‘We got incoming!’
‘Battle rattle’
‘Combat teams to deck!’
Why is everybody so goddamn crazy these days, he wondered. While he watched, the combat teams were taking cover behind the sand bags lining the railings of each of the four decks. Without any experience of defending a cruise ship he, Pax, TL and their young team of combat leaders, Max, Benny and Mackenzie, tried to think of every possible way a cruise ship could be attacked and create some sort of defensive line. He vaguely recalled this was scenario number three. They would be attacked from the water by a considerable number of boats and, as he peered through his binoculars, he saw at least 50 boats of all different sizes and conditions converging on their position.
They lucked out finding the abandoned cruise ship several months earlier. It was a pristine white exclusive cruiser with 270 luxury guest cabins, desalination for an endless supply of fresh water and, providing it was fuelled, power for every need including hot water, working toilets, air conditioning, kitchens and engines. It came with a helicopter pad and they’d liberated a winged Black Hawk that could travel 1,300 miles without refueling. It took them a month to find ships engineers, but they finally got the ship moving a week earlier. They’d just sailed past the Florida Keys, not even reached the open seas, and already they were being attacked. He sucked his breath in past his gritted teeth realizing now was not the time to be as pissed off as he felt.
His foster brother, TL, appeared at his side and asked, ‘What kinda weapons do you think we’re dealing with, Gears?’
‘Dunno,’ he grunted in reply. ‘They’re not close enough yet to hit us with anythin’ but a missile, and I’m guessin’ they won’t do that if they want this ship.’
He figured they probably wanted the ship, so they wouldn’t blow it up even if they did have missiles. Hell even he wanted this ship. In a world where everything civilized was lost, this ship was almost the last standing remnant of what man once had. He continued to scan the ocean picking out each individual boat and assessing its likely threat capability. As he scanned, he assumed TL was still standing with him and said, ‘I can’t see anythin’ that looks like Coast Guard or Navy out there.’
TL, who was also scanning through binoculars, replied, ‘Me neither. Probably means they don’t have any heavy weapons.’
Speaking of heavy weapons, he remembered he’d seen the top deck of a submarine and he scanned the horizon. ‘Damn,’ he cursed. ‘Sub’s gone.’
He heard Pax through the earpiece of the radio each of the combat team leads were wearing.
Pax said, ‘I got the combat teams lined up. M249s and MK 19 Grenade Launchers ready to go. What’s the Rules of Engagement? Gimme the RoE, Gears.’
He didn’t want to kill innocent civilians if they were looking for sanctuary, but he had an obligation to protect the 430 people on his ship. I dunno enough about defendin’ ships, he thought. I’m Army not Navy, but I guess the RoE remains the same. Shoot to warn, then shoot to kill if they don’t take good advice when it’s given.
‘Send the nearest boat a warnin’ shot,’ he replied. ‘And make it loud, so they all get the message.’
‘And if they don’t stand down?’ Pax asked.
‘If they attack, we take down the most hostile,’ he replied grimly.
He could see Pax had his combat teams on all four levels. They’d mounted M249 machine guns, two on the left and right of the ship and one on front and back. Ammo was stored in waterproof boxes near each gun, and people to feed the shooters with ammo were standing by ready. They’d run drills and all the civilians and children should now be in the showroom on the boat, ready to be evacuated to the lifeboats.
This don’t feel right, he thought. I should have a goddamn gun in my hands, not a pair of binoculars. He wasn’t used to this sort of remote combat. Usually he and his foster brothers, TL and Pax, would be in the frontline taking the heat, not on a distant ship lobbing bombs from the deck. He wasn’t sure he liked this kind of combat and he was all too aware that underneath his feet was death by drowning, assuming he wasn’t shot first. When you spent your life as a land-based combat soldier, you never visualized dying with a lungful of seawater.
Blocking his radio mike, he leaned to TL and said quietly, ‘Does this feel kinda stupid to ya?’
TL nodded, and blocking his own mike, he replied, ‘Doesn’t feel like real combat.’
Pax radioed, ‘Gonna send a warnin’ shot to that speed boat out in front.’
‘Roger that,’ he confirmed.
He got the target boat in his binocular sights and he saw the grenade fall about twenty yards short of the speedboat. Undeterred, the boat continued to cut through the water, bouncing on the waves as it sailed at high speed towards the ship.
‘That was a waste of a grenade,’ Pax commented dryly. ‘Whatdaya…’
He never heard the end of the sentence. The combat shooters opened fire at the speedboat and he didn’t blame them. He could hear and see the impact of the strafing fire that hit the upper deck. He sighed wearily and thought, why is everybody we meet so goddamned hostile? The reason there were hundreds of boats at sea was because less than six months ago a virus infected almost every person in the world. The infected then attacked the remaining humans. There were so few people left you’d think people might have gotten friendlier, but it seemed only the angry survived. So much for the meek inheriting the earth, he thought dourly. Turns out mostly only the violent nutters with a grudge and a gun were left.
‘Pax,’ he called through the radio. ‘Quit screwin’ around and take that sonofabitch out.’
‘Give it a rest, Gears,’ Pax replied casually. ‘It’s not easy hittin’ a movin’ target from a ship that’s bobbin’ about. I doan wanna waste the shot.’
They’d lived on the mainland until a few weeks ago, only using the cruise ship for their most vulnerable survivors. Everyone else was living in the mainland Base and rotated between the ship and the Base for rest periods. Once the ships engineers got the ship moving, he assumed being on water would be safer. It hadn’t occurred to him to send their bird out to sea to check the conditions of the water. He’d been shocked to learn so many people were out here. The shamblers were the original undead and had they been the only problem, he doubted so many people would have fled the land. The problem was the next evolution. The hunters. The virus mutated and the hunter was a hairless, lean-bodied killer of all life that would get so excited at the thrill of the kill, their heads would vibrate manically. Their only weakness was they were blind in daylight, otherwise they were effective and efficient slaughterers of all and any animal life.
The hunters weren’t easy to kill, they could only be stopped by destroying the brain stem and even that only stopped them killing you. Once disabled that way, their bodies would continue to move until they starved to death. Their medical doctor come forensic pathologist co
me budding scientist, Lydia, had told them their human organs disintegrated into a viscous black goo that transported nutrients throughout their body. Needing few calories, they could take weeks or months to starve.
They weren’t even the biggest problem now. A new species evolved from the hunter and they’d nicknamed it the super hunter. There were a lot less of them, but they had some sort of telepathic ability to control the hunters so, when in line of sight of a super hunter, the hunters could kill day or night and operated like an army of virtually indestructible killing machines. The only upside was the super hunters were more human-like. They had organs and could be killed much like a human. If you killed the super hunter, then the hunter army were again blind in daylight and acted like the dumb dogs they really were.
He heard the bang of the MK 19 firing and watched as the speedboat exploded and disintegrated, sending pieces of the boat into the air. The pieces appeared to float briefly before gravity claimed ownership and they plummeted back into the sea.
‘Target down,’ Pax intoned through the radio.
‘Ya don’t say,’ he replied sarcastically.
It was not even a momentary victory and he could see, even without his binoculars, the message was not received. Not a single boat heading for them hesitated, much less stopped. He sighed again and said, ‘TL, go deal with the survivors. Get ‘em ready to evac.’
He didn’t know what weapons these boats had. Even if he did, it wouldn’t help given he didn’t know how much damage the ship could take before she would be compromised. All he knew was he had at least 150 people on board who couldn’t defend themselves on land or water. At least forty of them were children. Based on the last count, Kat, the Boat Administrator who took care of all of the people, told him there were also now eleven pregnant women on board the ship. The other 280 people were trained to fight, but only on land. Even so, he figured anyone who managed to board them would have a fight to the death. He felt a bullet whizz past his ear, and he could hear the sound of bullets thudding into the various walls and decking around him. He didn’t duck. He was too annoyed to duck.