Hunter Wars Omnibus Edition (Books 1 - 3)

by SD Tanner

  The assault vehicles approached the Ranch and roughly evenly spread, they made a circle around the ranch house. Combat shooters were climbing out from the vehicles, taking position and firing at any hunters that dared to wander within their range. From inside the vehicles, the gunners gave protection to the shooters and continued to fire the M2s.

  Now satisfied that the earth was well scorched, he ordered, ‘Hatch. Drop us close to the house.’

  Hatch did as he was asked and landed the bird about twenty yards from the front door of the house. He could see their old home, previously destroyed by a hunter horde under the direction of a super hunter, was fully rebuilt. Last time he’d seen the house, to protect the house from hunters, Pop boarded all the windows. As the bird landed, he saw that curtains in the now open and glassed windows, blew and strained against the frames. This was not a replica of the house he’d last seen, but was a copy of the one they were raised in as children. The house was wrong in more ways than he could explain. It shouldn’t be there, much less be a copy of his childhood memory.

  Sounding disgusted, Pax said, ‘That’s some fuckin’ freaky shit.’

  He agreed and said, ‘Yeah, this place is jus’ fuckin’ wrong.’

  They hauled themselves out of the bird and he, Pax, TL, Benny and Max ran towards the house. No hunters launched at them, nothing shot at them and nothing got in their way. As he ran, he realized the shooters were no longer shooting which meant the perimeter was unchallenged. That didn’t make sense to him, but he didn’t have time to ask why. Unchallenged themselves, they stamped heavily onto the porch, holding their weapons at eye level. Benny and Max watched their six, TL watched his left, Pax his right and he stood with his weapon trained on the front door.

  ‘Open the fuckin’ door!’ He shouted.

  There they waited, weapons ready, tensed and willing to fight. The front door of the house opened about six inches. He sensed the slight tensioning across the team and he waited to learn what he needed to react to, in what he knew was a life and death moment. He saw movement and his finger tightened on the trigger. Then he saw a white flutter, followed by a delicate hand and wrist. The hand flapped and the white hanky waved flirtatiously.

  Are ya fuckin’ serious, he thought, we rained hell on ya ass and ya wavin’ a hanky at me?

  ‘Yoo hoo!’ A woman’s voice called out. ‘Don’t shoot me, Gears, there’s a good boy.’

  Recognizing the woman’s voice, he said querulously, ‘Anna…?’

  The hand and its hanky disappeared and the door fully opened. Standing in front of him was Anna. Her mousy brown hair was matted and knotted to her head, she was wearing a flimsy, clearly once white, but now filthy long dress and was obviously naked underneath it. Anna smiled at him, but he thought he detected an edge of madness in her eyes. Ip said she was behaving oddly and now he understood what Ip meant. This was not the woman he had once known. Anna’s grip on reality had never been good, but now she had stepped over the edge and into the abyss. With Anna in his gun sight, he decided there was nothing about her that made him want to lower his weapon.

  Sounding confused, Pax said, ‘What the fuck…?’

  Anna smiled and said sweetly, ‘Come on in boys. We’ve been waiting for you.’

  CHAPTER TWENTY SIX: Let me show you how it’s done (Gears)

  ‘Hello boys!’ A voice called out gaily.

  They walked in holding their M4A1s at eye level, aiming at what they looked at. His gun was trained on a happy man sitting at a kitchen table that looked eerily similar to the one his Mom originally had. The scarred heavy wooden table had six place settings, each with a delicate flower patterned cup, saucer and matching plate. Down the center of the table were two three tiered layered plates filled with tiny cakes, perfectly cut finger sandwiches and scones. Next to each set of tiered plates were bowls, each overflowing with whipped cream and red-colored jam. At the head of the table, next to the kitchen counter, was a man who at first glance looked to be in his early thirties, but on closer inspection was probably in his late forties. He had a shock of dark brown hair and a handsome face, but he detected an edge of cruelty around the wrinkle free eyes that were a watery blue.

  ‘Come sit,’ the happy man said pleasantly. As the man patted the seat next to him, he added cheerfully. ‘We need a good old chin wag.’

  When he planned the attack on the Ranch, he hadn’t factored in the weird. As usual he anticipated the needs of combat and not the crazy. He and his brothers were trained to fight battles, not deal with crazies. After bringing scorched earth to the Ranch, he expected a short and sharp shootout, followed by a quick extraction and yet here he was at the Mad Hatter’s tea party. He wasn’t in the mood for this sort of nonsense and he opened fire at the table. Cups, saucers, cake, cream and cutlery flew everywhere, shattering and spraying across the table, chairs and floor.

  With his face set grimly, he growled, ‘Get the fuck up, asshole, or I’ll shoot ya next.’

  The happy man’s face fell in disappointment and he said sulkily, ‘Oh, so it’s straight down to business then.’ Glaring up at him, the happy man added, ‘Behave yourself or I’ll kill your imp.’

  Pax was standing to his right and said, ‘Ya mean Ip.’

  ‘Potato. Tomato,’ the happy man said illogically. ‘Who gives a shit?’

  TL and Benny moved deeper into the lounge of the house and TL had his gunned trained on the stairs leading to the second floor.

  ‘Go clear the second floor,’ he ordered.

  TL and Benny headed upstairs and he heard the sound of short bursts of gunfire. Keeping his gun trained on the happy man, he said to Pax, ‘Check the garage.’

  Pax and Max moved to the garage and again he heard short bursts of gunfire, followed by silence.

  The happy man clapped his hands together in delight and said, ‘Ooh, so macho. Bet the girls love that.’

  Looking stern, he continued to watch the happy man, but said nothing. He was waiting to hear if Pax or TL found Ip. Quickly TL, Benny, Pax and Max returned, but clearly they hadn’t found Ip. Anna hadn’t followed them in and now the only person left in the house was the happy man.

  Lowering his weapon, he asked the happy man, ‘Where is she?’

  The happy man was no longer happy and he said sulkily, ‘Well I thought we’d do this over a nice cup of tea and scones, but look what you went and did.’ The happy man brightened and he added cheerfully, ‘But I do rather like your toys! I’m gonna get me some of them!’

  He felt his upper lip curl in disgust as he said dourly, ‘Ya not quite right, are ya?’

  ‘Don’t be so fucking rude,’ the happy man replied sharply. ‘For a man who’s about to die, you’ve no fucking manners.’

  Max was standing at the far end of the wooden kitchen table and she said, ‘I know you. You were on the ship and at the island.’

  Looking closely at the happy man, he realized he recognized him from the party they had on the island and he’d been with Chris and Anna that night. Sonofabitch, he thought, we were infiltrated. Who the fuck is this guy?

  The happy man chortled and said, ‘Oh, the wheels of your brain do turn slowly. It’s like watching a legless hamster in a wheel. The will is there, but the skill is not.’

  The happy man got up out of his chair and strutted around the table. Broken crockery crunched loudly under his feet and this seemed to distract and amuse him. Looking down and smiling, the happy man did a little dance, gyrating his hips and waving his arms in the air while the crockery crunched to the beat of music only the he could hear. Watching the happy man dance, it was obvious that despite their weapons and willingness to kill him, the happy man didn’t fear them. He didn’t understand what he was looking at, but he suspected the happy man dancing in front of him might be the source of all their problems.

  Interrupting the happy man’s dance, he asked abruptly, ‘Who the fuck are you?’

  The happy man stopped his dance and replied, ‘I might ask you the same question.’ Sn
iggering, the happy man added, ‘But you’d get it wrong.’

  Walking over to him, the happy man looked him up and down and he said, ‘You don’t look like much.’

  The surprise of the bizarre situation had long worn off and he was getting sick of the happy man and his idiocy. He would have shot the man without hesitation, but he still didn’t know where Ip was. While he stood contemplating his options, he wished he’d brought Isaac with him. Isaac could at least have talked to Ip.

  ‘I wish you had brought him too,’ the happy man said. ‘He’s better looking than you.’

  Having lived with Ip, telepathy no longer surprised or impressed him and he said bluntly. ‘If ya can read my mind, then ya know I’m gonna kill ya.’

  The happy man smiled and said, gleefully, ‘No, you won’t. You don’t know where your imp is, so you can’t.’ Appearing to sober up, the happy man added seriously, ‘We need to talk.’

  ‘Try and say somethin’ useful,’ he said dourly.

  Walking around to the other side of the table, the man stood opposite him and looking down at the ruined table, he complained, ‘You shouldn’t have messed my table up like that. The women who worked so hard to make it so right are so dead. You wasted their last few hours on this earth.’

  Grunting, he replied, ‘I think you wasted their last few hours on this earth.’

  Looking up at him from across the table, the happy man said gleefully, ‘Ooh, sharp repartee. Your legless hamster is working extra hard today.’ Waving his hand and now sounding bored, he added, ‘But I digress. My name best translates as Ruler.’

  Ruler, as he just named himself, waved his arms wide and said sternly, ‘All this is mine. Man has had his day, but his day is done. You need to get off my property.’

  Snorting with the disgust he felt, he asked rudely, ‘Says who? All I see is a bipolar asshole.’

  ‘Don’t overwork your hamster,’ Ruler replied dryly. ‘Why are you bothering to save mankind? Why do you care?’

  Wondering why he was bothering to argue with this self-proclaimed ruler, he replied, ‘Mankind didn’t deserve this. And you’re not the first jackass to claim ownership of the planet, but be advised, they’re all dead now.’

  ‘I’m not claiming ownership,’ Ruler replied disdainfully. ‘I am the owner and you are unwanted tenants that need to be evicted.’

  ‘So evict us,’ he replied bluntly.

  As if he was dumber than a dog, Ruler said, ‘That’s what I’m doing.’

  Snorting with contempt, he said dryly, ‘Funny ‘cos I don’t seem to be leavin’.’

  Smiling like a man with a winning hand at poker, Ruler said, ‘You shot my little helpers and now you think you have the situation under control, but you don’t.’

  The doors and windows exploded, glass shattered and he felt the bodily movement of hunters hurling themselves into the room and then they stopped. About twenty hunters stood or crouched in the lounge and on the stairs with their heads vibrating manically, hands pumping into fists while their bodies shuddered with barely restrained vicious aggression. Ruler’s eyes glinted oddly making clear that, despite outward appearance, what lay within was far from human.

  Ruler asked cruelly, ‘Did you think I could do less than my underlings?’

  TL, Pax, Max and Benny each had their weapons aimed at the hunter closest to them, but he aimed his gun directly at Ruler.

  Ruler’s mood seemed to shift yet again and he sang happily, ‘Shoot me and she dies.’ He added, equally as happily, ‘Don’t shoot me and she dies.’

  He was about to pull the trigger and shoot Ruler for being an irritating asshole when he felt something hit him in the side. His chest constricted and he dropped his gun trying to reach for his side to remove whatever it was that was crushing his lungs. His arm disobeyed his brain and it became too heavy to move, time slowed down as he tried to understand what was happening.

  ‘Oh, for fuck’s sake!’ Ruler shouted.

  Anna was standing with her arms hanging loosely by her sides and holding a Beretta M9. She muttered to herself, ‘Stupid sonofabitch.’

  She lifted the gun, as if to fire again, but stopped mid movement. A bullet hole appeared in her forehead and she crumpled to the ground. Without lowering his weapon after firing, Pax retrained it on Ruler.

  ‘Oh fine,’ Ruler declared sarcastically. ‘Go ahead and kill one another. You’re doing my job for me.’

  ***

  Outside the house, hunters were converging onto the perimeter. The sound of continuous gunfire could be heard, the birds were circling and strafing and attempting to push the hordes back. The combat shooters were falling back rapidly as they were being over-run. As fast as they were attacked by a hunter, a fallen combat shooter, newly born as a hunter, was up and attacking the still living shooter next to it.

  Inside the house, TL pushed past the still immobilized hunters, dropped to one knee to check Gears who was now half-kneeling and half-fallen on the floor struggling to breathe.

  While TL tried to pull Gears up and remove his vest to deal with the wound, Ruler sighed and shouted, ‘Bring her out!’

  The hatch in the kitchen floor opened and Ip came out first, but was closely followed by a man with a gun to her head. Ip and the man walked into the kitchen and she looked at Pax and catching his eye, she smiled. Pax took aim and shot the man as Ip dropped to the ground and reappeared just as fast behind Ruler. Without hesitating, she grabbed Ruler by the head, yanked it to the side and tore his throat out with her teeth. Ruler’s carotid artery was instantly severed and arterial spray burst from his neck, reaching six feet and spilling a bloody rain across the ruined kitchen table. As he died, the hunters in the room erupted in fury and attacked.

  Pax, Benny and Max immediately pulled back to form a protective circle around TL and Gears while Ip, ignoring the gunfire around her, killed hunters as they attacked.

  ‘Get him outta here,’ Pax roared at TL.

  TL dragged Gears from the room as they continued to fire at the still approaching hunters. Stumbling out of the door, they saw hunters were everywhere, but without their super hunter controllers or Ruler, the hunters were blinded by the daylight. Gunfire continued as the combat shooters shot hunters that neared their position.

  ‘Hatch!’ Pax shouted. ‘Gears is down!’

  Ip came out of the house and killing hunters, was forming a barrier of prone hunter bodies around them. Her mouth, chin and neck were stained red from Ruler’s blood and were it not for her shaggy blonde hair, she could have been mistaken for a hunter. If anyone had ever thought she was human, they would never think so again.

  Hatch brought the bird down into the small space and without landing, held the bird steady while they pulled and pushed Gears onto the platform. Gears was still struggling to breathe, but he grabbed Pax’s arm and looking intensely at him, he gasped, ‘Burn it.’

  Staring intently into his brother’s eyes, Pax replied confidently, ‘It’s ashes.’

  Hatch took flight with Gears and TL. Turning away, Pax saw Ip was continuing to kill hunters and she seemed completely lost in a murderous rage and, rather than stop her, he joined her.

  TL was too busy pulling Gears tactical vest off and cutting through his shirt to pay attention to the carnage below. He had to keep Gears alive long enough to get him to the CDC where he knew Lydia was waiting for the wounded. The bullet had gone through the side gap on his vest, under his arm and through his chest. He thought the bullet had probably gone through Gears lung and was lodged somewhere deep inside his chest. Judging by Gears chest sounds, one lung had collapsed and there was probably considerable bleeding inside the chest adding to the pressure on his remaining lung. He needed to re-inflate the collapsed lung, but he was alone on the bird and Hatch was flying fast and erratically. He pulled out an oxygen mask and put it over Gears face, then he grabbed bandages to pack the wound and digging around the pack, he found pain medication.

  Throughout his every move, TL didn’t stop talking to Ge
ars. Gears was masked, but even if he wasn’t, TL didn’t think he was talking anymore. He lost track of what he was saying to Gears. Something about school, the girl they’d both liked who went out with him instead of Gears and how he was sorry about that and she was really boring. He kept talking about how he never had sex with her either, but he didn’t think it would have been any good anyway. For all his talking, all he was really thinking was he didn’t know enough to save his brother. He was just a field medic, not a doctor. All he knew was how to pack a wound and try to keep a man alive until the real doctors turned up. They taught them nothing more than the basics and in this post-apocalyptic world, he didn’t know enough and there were no doctors ready to step in and save a life.

  ‘Five minutes out,’ Hatch advised.

  He was monitoring Gears heart rate, which was slowing and becoming faint. As Hatch landed the bird, he saw Lydia and her team running towards them and he felt Gears heart finally stop beating.

  ***

  Gears could hear TL talking. He hung onto the sound of his voice, but it kept fading away leaving a hollowness in his head. He could feel the wind, the pressure in his chest, the sound of TL’s voice and then all the sound and sensations became like static and he could hear a loud buzzing in his ears. He tried to regain the sounds and the sensations of the world, but he couldn’t. Control of his mind was pulling away from him and he thought, no, no, no, I don’t agree to this, stop it!

  CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN: Seven seconds of heaven (Gears/Ip)

  The smell of cooking bacon was wafting into his bedroom, blending with the smell of the paddocks and the horses outside his open window. He was lying in his bed, under a quilt with one arm flung over his head and the other across his abdomen outside the covers. His position reflected how he felt, warm, secure and relaxed. He ran his hand down his face and frowned. It didn’t feel right and he did it again, but it still didn’t feel right. For some reason his face felt smooth, despite his early morning stubble. Confused he ran his hand down his face for a third time and realized he couldn’t feel his scar. A surge of adrenalin coursed through him and he sat up and saw Ip sitting on the end of his bed, smiling at him.