Hunter Wars Omnibus Edition (Books 1 - 3)

by SD Tanner

  ‘This is why we can’t have nice things,’ Pax commented dryly. ‘Ya jus’ doan look after yer stuff, Gears.’

  ‘Shaddup Mom,’ he replied amiably.

  In the headlights, he could see hunters moving ahead. There were so many hunters he couldn’t work out the layout of the mall. Realizing he would need to be able to fire the M136, he regretted deciding to drive and he said, ‘Nelson, you’re gonna need to take the wheel when we stop.’

  Hunters were appearing in front of him and through the headlights of the Jeep behind them, he could see hunters at the side windows. The Jeep bumped roughly as hunters were being caught under the wheels. Slowly the hunters seemed to understand there was a meal in the Jeep and they were moving closer and closer. As almost a single mind, he saw the hunter’s heads start vibrating manically and they launched themselves at the Jeep. A hunter face appeared in the windshield and hammered its vibrating head into the glass. The mall erupted into a sea of movement and the Jeep bucked as it continued to ride over the bodies of fallen hunters.

  ‘Do you think this was a good idea, Gears?’ Nelson asked calmly.

  ‘Probably not,’ he replied, equally as calmly. ‘Honey, ya got a fix on that super hunter yet?’

  In response, he felt Ip lean up against his shoulder and she opened the car sunroof. Realizing she was climbing out, he immediately slowed the Jeep. From outside on the roof of the Jeep, Ip slipped down to the hood and slapped the hunter that was still hammering its head into the windshield. Now dead, the hunter slid off the hood and down the side of the truck. There was nowhere for Ip to hold onto the Jeep from the hood and he maintained a low speed, while she continued to slap any hunters that came too close. Now they reached the center of the mall and he wasn’t sure whether to turn left or right. Ip made the decision for him by sliding off the hood and moving to the left and the two Jeeps slowly followed her. There were hunters on all sides of both Jeeps and he could see Ip flashing in and out of his headlights while she happily cleared hunters in her way. Seeming to know she could kill them, the hunters were pulling away from Ip.

  They were half way down the long strip of the mall and there was a level above and below them. Ip stopped and looked up towards the top level on their left.

  ‘She’s got him,’ he said. ‘Take the wheel, Nelson.’

  Ip was still killing hunters who came near her and he pulled the Jeep up behind her. Awkwardly he climbed out of the driver’s seat and into the back of the Jeep. He pulled out the M136 and set it to fire. Ip climbed back onto the roof of the Jeep and he knew she was waiting for him to appear.

  He opened the sunroof he said through his mike, ‘Cover me.’ As an afterthought, he added, ‘Don’t shoot me, Pax.’

  Opening the roof fully, he pushed the M136 out first and, as he heaved himself through the opening, gunfire erupted all around him while hunters leapt at the parked Jeeps. He didn’t over worry his aim and assumed the High Explosive round would do sufficient damage to wherever the super hunter was. Ignoring the hunters and the noise, he focused on firing the M136. The Jeep rocked slightly with the shooters moving around inside and hunters hurling themselves wildly at the front and back of the Jeep. He braced himself against the edge of the sunroof and fired. Immediately the upper level of the mall exploded. Without waiting to see the effect of the round, he dropped the M136 and fell clumsily back into the Jeep. A combat shooter immediately reached up and slammed the sunroof closed.

  He shouted to Nelson, ‘Go. Go. Go.’

  Nelson didn’t wait and he floored the accelerator, but the wheels didn’t gain traction and the sound of squealing tires joined the racket of howling hunters. Eventually the tires found their grip and the Jeep lurched forward sliding to the left as it did.

  ‘What about Ip?’ Captain Ted shouted through the mike.

  ‘She’ll be fine,’ he replied, knowing she would be.

  Nelson was a bad driver. Driving the length of the mall, he crashed into carts, signs, benches and anything else that was near. At the end of the corridor was another large set of doors. The doors led outside and down a short flight of stairs to the car park. Nelson didn’t hesitate and they were bounced violently in the Jeep while it thudded down the short flight of stairs and into the car park.

  When they finally stopped outside the mall, he asked. ‘Do ya have a license to drive, Nelson?’

  ‘No,’ Nelson replied dryly. ‘It expired.’

  The combat shooters started laughing and whooping in delight.

  ‘That was fuckin’ awesome!’

  ‘Can we go again, Dad?’

  Feeling the tension release in his body, he thought, that was fuckin’ awesome and I wanna go again too. It felt good to be the aggressor again, to take control and not be led. The second Jeep had followed them and was parked next to theirs.

  Walking over from his Jeep, Captain Ted asked, ‘Where’s Ip?’

  He looked up at the now ruined doors of the mall and replied, ‘Probably gone shoppin’ and we should line up shooters at the doors. She’ll be scarin’ the hell out of the hunters and they’ll be headin’ out shortly.’

  Pax grinned and said happily, ‘Ip’s a demon shopper.’

  Nelson groaned and said, ‘That’s a bad pun, Pax.’

  Looking confused, Pax replied, ‘Oh yeah.’

  As predicted, he saw a hunter come out of the mall door, and disoriented by the sunlight, it fell down the stairs they’d just thudded down in their Jeep.

  He walked across to the other Jeep and called to the combat shooters from Captain Ted’s Jeep, ‘Saddle up and swing round the main doors.’ Turning to his own combat shooters, he said, ‘Line up and start shootin’.’

  The other Jeep left to take position in front of the main doors they drove through earlier. He could hear the sound of gunfire from both sides of the mall as the combat shooters did their job. Captain Ted and Pax went with their combat shooters, and he and Nelson stood with their combat shooters joining the crapshoot as more dazed hunters stumbled from the mall. Obviously Ip was making her presence known, and hunters were starting to stream out of the mall, becoming addled and confused in the daylight and unable to find their way back inside.

  While he fired continuously, only pausing to reload, he became aware of the sound of different gunfire coming from his left. He turned, and saw a thin faced man wearing a red patterned bandanna and a leather waistcoat, firing an AR-15 at the hunters. There was a short slight woman dwarfed by the Mossberg 500 shotgun she was firing almost hidden behind him. A taller larger man wearing a Stetson and dirty jeans joined both of them and began firing. Considering how hostile people were these days, he was surprised they weren’t shooting at them, but they joined them shooting the hunters.

  Lowering his weapon, he walked across to the man wearing the red bandanna and said, ‘Hey! I’m Gears. Who are you?’

  ‘Friend,’ the red bandanna man replied, as he lowered his own weapon. ‘Lost a lotta people tryin’ to get into this mall. Appreciate a bit of payback.’

  Over the sound of gunfire, he heard the roar of motorcycles entering the car park from multiple directions, and turning he saw about thirty motorcycles converging on their two locations. Many riders were carrying a pillion who sat high above them holding long-nosed weapons held higher still.

  ‘Ya vouch for this lot?’ He asked.

  The red bandanna man laughed and said, ‘We’ve seen your heli. I’m guessin’ if they don’t behave, your boys will burn ‘em from the sky.’

  ‘Too right,’ he agreed grimly.

  The red bandanna man wiped his hand on his dirty jeans, thrust it towards him and said, ‘I’m Wolfie and we’re friendlies.’

  ‘Nice to meetcha, Wolfie,’ he replied and shook the man’s less than clean hand.

  ‘I reckon we got enough shooters out here,’ Wolfie said amiably. ‘Wanna talk?’

  He grabbed his pack from the Grand Cherokee and they both walked away to the far end of the car park, away from the noise of the continuous g
unfire. Sitting down on the curb, he opened his pack and pulled out several bottles of water and power bars and handed some to Wolfie.

  ‘What’s ya story?’ He asked.

  ‘Same as everyone,’ Wolfie answered as he ate. ‘Been holed up in the city. Worked okay for a bit. Plenty of supplies and we could take care of ourselves, but hunters have gotten more aggressive just as the supplies started dryin’ up.’

  Thinking he could see at least sixty people in the car park now, he asked, ‘How many people have ya got?’

  Wolfie sighed and said, ‘We had over 150, but we’re down to about ninety now. We shoulda headed out of the city, but I thought we could stay and hold our own and we did for a long while.’

  ‘The hunters have evolved,’ he explained. ‘They got super hunters now that are turnin’ ‘em into an army. We just killed the super hunter in there.’

  Wolfie was watching the hunters still staggering out into the daylight and asked curiously, ‘Why are the hunters comin’ out into the daylight?’

  ‘We sent Typhoid Mary in,’ he said, deliberately being vague. ‘Tends to send ‘em out.’

  Sounding confused, Wolfie asked, ‘Who’s Typhoid Mary?’

  He didn’t want to talk about Ip and said, ‘Somethin’ that scares the crap outta ‘em.’

  Wolfie clearly got the hint and didn’t pursue his line of questioning, but asked, ‘You guys army?’

  ‘No, but we were,’ he replied honestly. ‘As far as we can tell, there ain’t no government left. We got two bases down in Jacksonville Florida and a coupla islands growin’ food. Got about thirteen thousand people between the locations and gettin’ more every day.’

  Sounding shocked, Wolfie exclaimed, ‘Holy shit! Ya might as well be the fuckin’ army.’

  ‘We gotta plan to kill the hunters and restore order,’ he replied. ‘What’s your plan?’

  Wolfie laughed and said, ‘To not get bit.’

  ‘That’s not much of a plan, Wolfie,’ he replied dryly.

  ‘No it ain’t, but it was good enough for a while,’ Wolfie agreed.

  He needed more bases and this region was full of military bases, and he wondered if there was a chance he could add both a new alliance partner and another base. Looking at the bikers now shooting alongside his own shooters, he said, ‘What if we helped ya set up a base?’

  Sounding optimistic, Wolfie asked, ‘Would ya do that?’

  ‘I need more people and more bases,’ he replied simply. ‘Ya got people and you’re surrounded by bases. Be good to have a friendly up this way.’

  Suddenly suspicious, Wolfie asked, ‘What’s the catch?’

  ‘No catch,’ he replied plainly. Indicating his head towards the shooters, he said, ‘But ya will be expected to do more of this.’

  ‘That’s no catch,’ Wolfie replied confidently. ‘We wanna do more of that.’

  ‘Ya should come back with us and we’ll show ya the base,’ he said.

  ‘Can I bring a coupla my people,’ Wolfie asked.

  ‘Course ya can,’ he replied amiably.

  By now there were no more hunters coming out of the mall, and piled in front of the mall door were at least eighty hunter bodies. They were still moving, but no longer mobile. He assumed there would be a similar number outside the other door and there must have been well over 150 hunters in the mall. He leveraged himself up off the curb and said, ‘I gotta go get Typhoid Mary.’

  Walking across the parking lot, he radioed Hatch to land and caught up with Pax. As they both walked towards the damaged doors of the mall, he asked, ‘Have ya seen Ip?’

  Pax replied, ‘Nope. Guess she’s still shoppin’.’

  Sighing, he walked up the stairs with Pax, stepping over the hunters and sliding slightly in the black gooey mess that now covered the steps. Unshouldering his gun, he called into the mall, ‘Honey! Quit shoppin’! Gotta go!’

  Ip appeared out of the gloom of the mall carrying a well-loaded backpack over her shoulder. She smiled up at him and he took the pack from her shoulder. Smiling back at her, he said to Pax, ‘If it weren’t for the end of the world, this woman woulda goddamn bankrupted me.’

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Looking to make a deal (Ruler)

  ‘What!’ He roared and his rage erupted in him like a burning fire.

  Chuckles blanched and repeated, ‘They set up another base in Jacksonville’

  This is getting out of control, he thought as he gave his rage full reign. They’re stealing from me! I’m starting to take this personally. At first it was just a glitch in his plan, but this was outrageous! Worse than that he was feeling impotent and that never happened. He stood sulkily surveying the newly rebuilt Ranch and decided he needed a new plan. Well, I probably need to implement the last plan, he thought. He was supposed to go to the ship, but he didn’t really want to. He didn’t see why he had to, and his rage burbled again.

  He couldn’t work out how they’d done it. Humans were weak and stupid. To confirm his opinion, he looked around at the humans who were busily building and loading things into trucks. They didn’t look very bright to him, but it hadn’t taken much to have them work for him either. Maybe that was the problem. Humans were easy prey to whoever offered them a solution. His solution was not a good solution, but they didn’t know that. Once he had control of all humans, he would keep them for a while until they were no longer fun to play with.

  ‘I’m not happy,’ he declared petulantly.

  ‘Sorry Ruler,’ Chuckles replied timidly. ‘What do you want me to do?’

  ‘Nothing,’ he said abruptly. ‘You’re a fucking idiot!’

  Smoothing back his hair with both hands, he said informatively, ‘I’m late for my cruise.’

  ‘What?’ Chuckles asked, sounding confused.

  He didn’t bother to explain, but said, ‘Run the Ranch while I’m away.’ Then he glared at Chuckles, making the man pale and break into a sweat, and added, ‘Don’t break it or I’ll cook you alive.’

  Chuckles looked suitably frightened, as well he might. He quite liked a roasting and Chuckles wouldn’t be his first victim. He watched as Chuckles swallowed deeply and asked, ‘Umm, how do I do that?’

  Rolling his eyes, he remembered he didn’t have time to find a replacement for Chuckles and killing him would be inconvenient and he instructed, ‘You have the hunters! Anyone annoys you then kill them. The rest will catch on.’

  ‘You’re putting me in charge?’ Chuckles asked dubiously.

  He smiled at Chuckles and said, ‘Yes, you dumb piece of shit.’ He remembered the other reason he never killed Chuckles. Chuckles was an angry little man with a petty mind and it was the only thing he liked about him. Disdainfully, he added, ‘But don’t kill them all, Chuckles, or at least replace them if you do.’

  A brief smile flitted across Chuckles face and he said respectfully, ‘Whatever you say, Ruler.’

  His limousine was driven by a busty platinum blonde who he liked looking at. Walking over to the limousine, she opened the door and he climbed in. He was joined by several super hunters, and leaning back in the deep soft leather chair, he ordered, ‘To Jacksonville, Florida.’

  It took two days to get to Jacksonville and in that time he ate and rested well. He had the busty platinum blonde pull up several miles from the Marine supply base and climbed out of the limousine.

  Patting the roof, he said to her, ‘Off you go, dear.’

  He started to walk and was about half a mile from the base when a pickup truck pulled up next to him. A woman leaned out of the passenger side of the truck and asked, ‘Where are you headed?’

  Smiling wearily at the woman, he said pleasantly, ‘I hear there’s a base near here that takes survivors.’

  The woman returned his smile warmly and said, ‘There sure is. We’re heading there. Do you want a lift? You look kinda tired.’

  He thought that was rude. He was actually feeling very well rested, but he gave the woman a grateful smile and said, ‘Thank you. You’re very kind.’ />
  Settling into the back of the truck, the woman passed him a soda and snack bar, neither of which he wanted, but he ate and drank as if he was hungry.

  The woman asked warmly, ‘Hi, I’m Kat. What’s your name?’

  He hadn’t thought of a name yet, but lying came easily to him and he said, ‘People call me Mr. Scratch, but you can call me Scratch.’

  ‘Nice to meet you, Scratch. Where are you from?’ Kat asked.

  ‘Oh, I was with a group,’ he replied vaguely. Adjusting his face to look suitably sad, he added, ‘They’re gone now.’

  ‘Sorry to hear that,’ Kat replied, and she didn’t pursue the subject.

  They were waved into the base and they drove across a bridge to an island. He could see people moving about busily, looking well fed and purposeful. He noticed every person was carrying a gun and the island was well protected by water and sentries. It annoyed him. There was no way his hunters could easily attack the base and nor could his humans. This bears further investigation, he thought, they’re more organized than I expected. How did they do this, he wondered?

  Kat led him to small building, and indicated he should sit while she pulled out a form and started to question him. ‘How old are you, Scratch?’ Kat asked.

  That was an awkward question. He didn’t have an age and, lying, he said, ‘Forty-eight.’

  ‘Do you have any specific skills?’ Kat asked.

  You mean apart from my ability to kill you, he wondered, but he said, ‘I was an accountant.’

  ‘Do you have any medical conditions?’ Kat asked.

  He smiled and thought, no, but you will if you don’t stop asking me stupid questions and he said, ‘I have a bad back.’

  Kat looked at him skeptically, but continued with her questions and asked, ‘Do you know how to use a gun?’

  No, he didn’t, but he thought it might be fun to learn and smiling, he smiled, ‘Not really.’

  ‘Would you be interested in becoming a combat shooter?’ Kat asked.

  I most certainly would not, he thought and asked, ‘Isn’t there a ship somewhere?’