by SD Tanner
With him was one of the odd creatures that worked for Ruler and could control the hunters. It was sitting in the passenger seat next to him in the truck, wearing body armor and staring blankly out of the windshield. These ones didn’t seem to speak or, if they did, they never spoke to him. Ruler had tasked him to enlist more humans to his side. It was a do or die kind of choice and he wasn’t expecting the enlistment to be difficult. With the armored hunter next to him, he figured either people joined him or the armored hunter would bring the hunters to make short work of anyone who didn’t.
His orders were to direct the people to the Ranch that Pampers was rebuilding. From what he’d seen, the hunters and their armored controllers didn’t have any practical skills and they needed humans to do the work. He was pulling into a small town in Louisiana with a truckload of supplies and he wasn’t expecting to have any difficulty attracting people.
‘You need to hide,’ he told the armored hunter.
The armored hunter turned its head, regarded him with unreadable blue eyes and then slid down the chair into the footwell of the truck. Being so lean it folded in on itself and all he could see was the back of the tactical vest it wore. He pulled to a stop near a building and climbed out of the truck.
‘Anyone here?’ He called loudly. ‘I have supplies!’
He’d tried this a few times now and he knew to wait for people to emerge. There were small groups of people everywhere, barely surviving and he traded on their fears and needs. As he expected a man, with a gun pointed at his head, emerged from a nearby building.
‘Hiya,’ he called cheerfully.
‘Who are you?’ The man with the gun asked.
‘I’m with a relief group. We’re dropping off supplies and directing people to the nearest relief center,’ he replied confidently.
‘You got supplies in that truck,’ the man asked, still not lowering his gun.
He nodded, walked to the back of the truck and declared cheerfully, ‘Yep! I got food, water and medical supplies for you.’
He grabbed the back door handle, opened the top and bottom doors to show the man the truck was full of supplies. The man didn’t lower his weapon, but still keeping his distance, circled to the back of the truck.
‘What stops me from shooting you and taking these supplies,’ the man asked.
‘This does,’ he replied, and stepping aside, he revealed a hunter standing behind him. ‘Probably the ones behind you as well.’
The man with the gun whirled and behind him were five more hunters, also standing still no more than ten yards away.
Starting to sweat, the man asked nervously, ‘What are they doing? What the fuck is going on?’
Regarding the man with utter disinterest and making it clear he didn’t care, he said, ‘You have a simple choice. Live or die.’
Now the man began to back away from the scene and he looked as if he was about to turn and flee. He wondered whether to warn him or let the hunters have their fun. While he hesitated, the man did turn and flee. He got about five yards before one of the five hunters pulled him to the ground and tore into the middle of his back clearly severing his spine.
While the man laying dying and being eaten alive, he walked into the middle of the road and shouted, ‘It doesn’t have to go this way! I have supplies! I have somewhere safe you can go! It’s your call!’
He walked back, sat on the door of the truck bed and while he waited for the inevitable response, he lit a cigarette. Although he quit smoking years before, he couldn’t see any reason not to smoke anymore. Drawing the smoke deeply into his lungs, he allowed it to soothe his irritation at the whining noises the man was making while the hunter continued to chew mindlessly on his flesh.
Sounding as annoyed as he felt, he called to the armored hunter in the truck, ‘Can you make him shut up!’
After a few minutes, he heard someone from an upper floor of the buildings shout, ‘Can ya control those things?’
‘What do you think?’ He shouted back.
‘I think ya can,’ the voice replied.
The door of a building opposite him opened and a skinny, tired looking man with a beard and wild looking hair walked out. He was followed by a thin frail looking woman and both were carrying guns that hung uselessly by their sides. He suspected they didn’t have any ammo for their guns or no doubt they’d be pointing at him. On reflection, he suspected the now dying man probably didn’t have any ammo either. Reaching back inside the truck, he pulled out several bottles of soda and a couple of PowerBars. Once they approached him, he handed them the food and drink.
While they both drank and ate hungrily, he asked, ‘What do you want to do?’
‘We’ll join ya,’ the man replied simply.
Enthusiastically, the woman nodded in agreement and said, ‘I’m Alice. He’s Henry.’
He understood their desperation. The world had become so dangerous, people would agree to anything even if they didn’t know what they were agreeing to.
Nodding, he asked, ‘Anyone else in there?’
Alice shook her head and said simply, ‘They all died.’
Henry finished his drink and power bar and then peered hopefully at the back of the truck. Reaching inside again, he pulled out a tin of beans with a pull lid and handed it to Henry. He found a tin of pineapple pieces and handed it to Alice. Eagerly they both ripped the lids from the tins and ate quickly. He knew from experience, after six months of hunter rule, easily accessible food was long gone and most people preferred to go hungry rather than risk being eaten alive by hunters. So far, he’d sent over fifteen people to the Ranch to work with Pampers to rebuild it. Ruler instructed him to build up a workforce to support his plans, but picking a group here and there was taking too long. He needed to change his tactics and he figured he needed some people to work for him.
Making quick work of eating his tin of beans, Henry wiped his mouth and asked, ‘So what’s the deal?’
‘The guy I work for controls the hunters,’ he replied matter-of-factly. ‘Work for me, then you work for him and you get to live.’
Alice eyed him suspiciously and asked, ‘What’s the catch?’
Bored at having to answer the same old questions, he replied. ‘No catch. My guy wants people to help him build a Ranch in Red River County in Texas. You’ll get three meals a day and he’ll expect you to do a little work for your keep.’
‘That’s it?’ Henry replied in surprise.
‘Yeah. That’s it,’ he answered with a smile.
He knew that wasn’t it at all. Ruler was an asshole. He’d seen him kill indiscriminately, without pleasure or conscience. Ruler killed hunters, their armored controllers and humans with as little regard as he would kill a fly. What made Ruler truly terrifying was his complete disinterest in the suffering he left in his wake. Personally, he admired Ruler’s power and his lack of empathy. Far from making him want to run, it made him crave. He envied Ruler his freedom to inspire fear, to be free of the threat of hunters and to rule without thought.
Studying the two people in front of him, he said, ‘I want you to work with me.’
Looking uncertain, Henry asked, ‘What do ya need us to do?’
‘I need to find people faster,’ he replied. ‘It’s taking me too long to find people and maintain the supplies. I offer people supplies and safety and in return they help my guy rebuild the Ranch. It’s a fair deal. Easy to sell.’
Still looking doubtful, Henry replied, ‘I’m sure.’
He explained, ‘He wants people who can help him protect the Ranch once it’s rebuilt.’
Now looking confused, Henry asked, ‘Protect it from what? The hunters are the problem and you guys have ‘em under control.’
He didn’t know what Ruler thought he needed to defend the Ranch from either. Ruler wasn’t the kind of guy you asked, not if you wanted to live and he wanted to live more than he wanted an answer to a question he didn’t care about.
‘Does it matter?’ He asked bluntly.
‘Sort of,’ Henry replied meekly. ‘You said the Ranch is safe.’
‘It’s safe from hunters,’ he replied sternly. ‘And other than the hunters, there’s only assholes with guns.’
Obviously as tired of Henry’s questions as he was, Alice asked, ‘What do you want us to do?’
He looked Alice up and down and thought she might be pretty with a bit more weight and a bath. He smiled, what he believed was a charming smile, at Alice and said, ‘Come with me. I need more hands to help me out.’
Alice clearly understood where he was heading and smiling back at him, she said, ‘Okay.’
He indicated Alice and Henry should get into the back of the truck, but as they were about to climb in, they saw the armored hunter who was again sitting in the front passenger seat.
Pulling away from the door of the truck, Henry exclaimed, ‘What the hell…?’
The armored hunter turned and looked at Henry with its impassive blue eyes.
‘Don’t worry about him,’ he said calmly. ‘That hunter controls the other hunters.’
‘Does he talk?’ Henry asked warily.
‘Not to me,’ he replied casually.
The four of them drove from town to town, across Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. They picked up two more trucks and he, Henry and Alice each drove a truck filled with supplies. Along the way, they collected more survivors and armored hunters. Each time he met a new survivor group, he handed out supplies to the survivors and directed them to the Ranch. Sometimes one of the super hunters would leave with the survivor group to act as an escort. Whenever they ran out of supplies, the armored hunters would control the hunters and they could access buildings and restock their trucks. Occasionally they met resistance and then the hunters would enjoy a dinner of fresh human prey. Mostly people were so desperate, they chose to believe what he told them. Within a month, he estimated they’d enlisted ten or more people per day. Assuming most of them made it to the Ranch, there would be over three hundred people based there.
Occasionally he wondered what happened to the survivors once they reached the Ranch. He’d no idea what Ruler really wanted the survivors for, but he didn’t really care. He did what Ruler told him to do and he hoped he would be rewarded well for his work.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Let’s go hunter huntin’ (Gears)
He, Ip and Pax were flying over the two bases they’d set up in the Marine supply base and on the narrow strip of land on the Naval base. It’d been over two months since TL, Pax and Captain Ted found the locations and a lot had changed. They sourced more living containers and set up both sites like Forward Operating Bases, fully contained and self-sustaining. Thanks to the containers, the sites were fully functional with power supplied by both solar panels and generators. Desalination containers provided a water supply and other containers provided kitchens, showers and toilets. Banks of containers with bunks formed comfortable enough living quarters. The living conditions at the Marine supply base and the Naval base were not as luxurious as the ship, but the bases were just as safe.
The Marine supply base was only connected to land by a single, easily defended bridge. The narrow strip of land at the Naval base was only connected to the mainland by a short stretch of land. As Pax had suggested, they put up double stacked containers across the land. During the day they used a crane to lift two containers out of the way to create a road in and out of the Naval base. As a last resort, both bases had transport ships docked and if they needed to retreat from the land, they could easily sail out to open water. However, there’d been no major assault on either base by the living or the hunters.
Both bases came with a good supply of ships, weapons and helicopters. They both had fuel depots, but they continued to scavenge aggressively to maintain supplies. Nelson sent scouting parties out as far as three hundred miles from the bases and they left signs up to 500 miles away letting people know they could join them. Gerry set up a repeating message telling people the location of the bases and that they would be welcomed.
The response to their advertising was immediate and almost overwhelming. In the past few months some eight thousand people made their way to the bases. Added to the five thousand people that joined them from the boats, there were over thirteen thousand people split across the three locations. The island had over two thousand people and the ship had nearly a thousand people. The Marine supply base had about four thousand people and the Naval base had around six thousand people. Receiving, processing, transporting, feeding and training people was now a major undertaking. It was well beyond anything Pax could manage but, with so many people, they implemented a team structure and the workload was well distributed.
Peering out of the crew window of the bird, Pax said, ‘We’ve come a long way, bro’.’
He didn’t disagree, but he was still far from satisfied and grumbled, ‘Not far enough.’
Something hit him in the head and he looked around sharply.
Pax was frowning at him and said crossly, ‘Yer never goddamn happy, Gears. Doncha ever take the time to enjoy life?’
‘We ain’t anywhere near finished, Pax,’ he replied equally as crossly. ‘Settin’ this up has taken so much time and effort, we ain’t made any progress takin’ down the super hunters or findin’ more of Ip’s people.’
He was frustrated. It took fifteen hours a day seven days a week for several months to set up the bases and the islands. With the natural defenses of the bases, the ample supplies and containers, the set-up was hard work, but easy enough. The problem was the constant arrival of survivors. Their sales campaign was overwhelmingly successful. They planned to accommodate five thousand, then it became eight thousand and then twelve thousand. Every time they pitched a headcount for the bases, they increased it to cope with the rapid growth in people. It meant they worked double time trying to build the capacity of the sites to match needs that grew daily. At times it felt like they were working with quicksand and managing the numbers of survivors arriving daily drowned out any other objective.
Survivors still continued to arrive daily and he knew they already needed more capacity. He was also aware they’d only dealt with one small corner of the country. In the near future, he envisaged there would need to be equivalent bases in at least ten more locations to cover the whole east coast. The plan to become aggressive with the super hunters was parked to deal with the very real problem of protecting the living.
Hatch set them down at the Naval base and he, Pax and Ip disembarked. On their way to the meeting room, they walked past a large penned area full of clucking chickens and he was gratified to see that there was finally fresh food becoming available.
The mission room on the Naval base was an office in one of the original buildings on the base. The squat, single story building with a flat roof had probably never been impressive, but now amongst the seemingly endless rows of white containers, it looked dirty, old and tired.
Walking up to the building, Nelson greeted them with his usual smile and boomed, ‘Good to see you all today.’
After greeting one another they walked into the squat building. The interior of the building lived up to the exterior by continuing with the same dull, drab look. The meeting room seated about eight people and the windows were so dirty it was impossible to see anything outside. Isaac was already sitting in the room and Ip immediately went over and sat with him. The two seemed to disappear into a conversation of their own.
‘Lookin’ good,’ Pax said cheerfully.
‘No it isn’t, Pax,’ Nelson replied, equally as cheerfully. ‘It looks like hell, but it works and for that I’m grateful.’
Nelson poured three coffees and they stood around a dirty table adding sugar. Pax opened his pack, pulled out a small flask and handed it to Nelson.
‘Is that what I think it is?’ Nelson asked.
‘Fresh from the farm,’ Pax declared happily.
While he watched Nelson pour the fresh milk into their coffees, he said, ‘It took a lotta work, but
I finally got fresh milk.’
Laughing, Pax nudged Nelson and said, ‘That’s Gears real mission. To get fresh milk for his coffee.’
Powdered milk was a personal bugbear of his and having fresh milk for his coffee, pleased him more than he expected. Grinning, he quipped, ‘And my cornflakes.’
Turning to Nelson, he asked, ‘How many survivors are we getting on a daily basis now?’
‘It’s slowed a little,’ Nelson replied. ‘Between picking people up by air, escorting people by convoy and people making their own way here, we’re getting about 50 or so a day now.’
‘That’s slowin’ down,’ Pax observed.
Nelson shook his head and said worriedly, ‘But it shouldn’t be. The word has spread further than the 500-mile reach we set. We should have people still coming into the base from further out.’
Puzzled, he sat down next to Ip and Isaac and asked, ‘Why aren’t we?’
Also sitting down at the meeting table, Nelson replied, ‘Some survivors have told us they’ve seen another recruiter.’
‘Another recruiter?’ Pax asked, sounding surprised.
‘Yeah, the recruiter has a group of people with him. They show up with supplies and direct people to another location,’ Nelson explained.
That seemed odd to him. If there was another recruiter then they should be working together and he asked, ‘Where do they send ‘em?’
‘I don’t know,’ Nelson answered. ‘Apparently if they say they won’t go, they’re killed.’
Looking surprised, Pax asked, ‘What do they do? Shoot ‘em? ‘Cos that’s a waste of ammo.’
Nelson shook his head and said, ‘No. They’re killed by hunters.’
He knew the only creatures that could control the hunters were the super hunters and he asked, ‘Is the recruiter a super hunter controlling the hunters?’
‘No,’ Nelson replied. ‘The few people who have survived the recruiter say he’s human, but he has a super hunter with him.’