The Uncivil War Series Box Set

by B. T. Wright

  The helicopter landed, and Jake stopped and got out of the truck, raising his gun to help keep the aliens back. The white light on the chopper’s nose and the red one on its tail illuminated the trees that surrounded the woods. Jake saw movement on his right, raised his AR, and squeezed until the two aliens running at him hit the ground. Bryan and TW ran to the left side of the helicopter and kept firing into the woods on that side. Jake put his back to the helicopter and for the second time he took in the scene behind him. Fire was still raging, but now several vehicles had begun driving around the blaze, headed directly for them.

  Jake looked right. Jess was on her way with Tyler, and Mark was behind them scooping Amy up into his arms. Jake looked off to what was now his left side and again fired at a couple of aliens running toward him.

  “Bryan!” Jake shouted over the noise of the helicopter’s rotors. “I need you to watch this side! I have to help Mark!”

  Bryan moved over immediately. Jake jogged toward Mark as Jess and Tyler ran by him. He was now staring at several cars coming right at him. They were still a good ways off, but it wouldn’t be long before they were on them. All he could see in his mind were the cars continuing without stopping, all the way to the helicopter. If that happened, no one was getting out of there alive.

  Jake turned and shouted at the top of his lungs. “They’re not going to stop! Everyone on the helicopter, now!”

  He turned back toward the oncoming vehicles, then did the only thing he could think to do to slow them down. He ran over to the pickup truck, jumped in, and put it in drive, ready to head straight for them.

  Just before he hit the gas, he heard Jess shout. “Jake! No!”

  He couldn’t hesitate. The small window of opportunity they had to get out of there was closing—fast. He mashed the pedal to the floor and spun the tires as the truck shot forward. The plan for when he got close to them formed as the aliens in their vehicles were bearing down on him. They were only about a hundred yards from him now.

  Jake quickly swapped in a fresh magazine that he’d put in his pocket. He pulled and released the charging handle—ready to shoot.

  Seventy-five yards.

  Jake tightened the strap on his go bag and prepared for a jarring exit.

  Fifty yards.

  Jake pushed open the truck door and jumped out away from it. As soon as he hit the ground, he rolled once, twice, then dragged his foot on the pavement to slow himself down. Every bone in his body felt the pain from the impact, but he twisted around onto his stomach, brought the rifle to his eye, found the back left side of the his pickup truck, and fired until he punctured the gas tank. The back end of the truck lifted toward the sky in a ball of fire just as the front end slammed against the first vehicle in the alien caravan.

  Jake was already on his feet, sprinting back toward the helicopter. He heard a couple more explosions behind him as he noticed up ahead that there was still one figure silhouetted in the light of the chopper. He assumed it was Bryan, and he was still firing off to the left and the right.

  “Go! Get on the chopper!” Jake yelled. But amongst the whooshing of the rotors and the gunfire, there was no way he heard him. Jake still had a substantial amount of ground to cover before he made it there.

  Jake glanced to his left and didn’t see much. On his right, he saw movement, and he fired at the shapes coming near him. When he looked over his shoulder, there was a car that had just driven around his blazing pickup truck. The aliens on his right were closer now. He slowed enough to get them in his sights, and he fired a string of bullets until they dropped. He was about a hundred yards from the helicopter and he could see that another figure had come back out to help the other. The sparks from their guns were blasting into the night.

  If he could have told them to get in and take off, he would have. He would be able to find a way out of there himself. If he needed to he could get lost in the woods until they could come back for him. But there was no way to communicate—

  Jake’s thought was interrupted by his left hand feeling the handheld radio in his pocket. He didn’t slow down as he punched the button. “Go! You have to get out of here now, or we all will die! I’ll lose the aliens in the woods. Come back for me when it’s safe!”

  That was all he could manage. He didn’t even have time to hear a response. He jammed the radio back in his pocket, stopped running, turned around, and squared his sights on the windshield of the oncoming car. If it hit him, it hit him, but he couldn’t let it get to the helicopter. He fired on the driver’s side until the charging handle locked back and the magazine was empty. But the car was still coming.

  Jake pulled his Beretta from his pocket, and just as he was about to start shooting—ready to take the car head on—it slowly began to veer off to his right, enough so that Jake could tell it wasn’t going to hit the helicopter. One of his bullets had found whomever, or whatever, was driving that car.

  The sound of the helicopter changed. He looked back over his shoulder and saw it starting to lift off the ground. Once again he ran in its direction. They were still firing from inside the helicopter, so he knew they weren’t going to leave without him.

  Something slammed against him, and before he knew it, he was sliding across the pavement on his side. An alien human was clawing at his face, and it was all he could do to push it off of him. His Beretta skittered across the pavement. He put his right foot into the alien’s hip and pushed away, then another one jumped on top of him. Jake could hear gunfire from the helicopter, but he knew he was going to have to take the aliens next to him out on his own. It would be too dangerous for Bryan and TW to fire that close to him in the dark.

  Jake drove his right elbow into the jaw of the alien woman on top of him, then pulled it by its long hair off of him. Another alien man jumped at him, but Jake was able to roll to the right and pop up to his feet. He slid his hand back, grabbed the handle on his axe, and shouted at the top of his lungs.

  “Come on motherfuckers! Come and get me!”

  The adrenaline was shooting through his veins. The shout wasn’t even a conscious effort. Jake was running on rage and fear. He made the first move forward and hacked at the woman alien first. As soon as he removed the blade from her skull, he swung backward on the man alien coming at his side. The back tip of the axe’s blade tore into its right eye. He freed his axe once more, just in time to swing on the first alien that had knocked him off his feet, and the blade went clean through its neck.

  Jake didn’t stop moving. He made it to his Beretta just in time to pick it up, turn around, and fire five times, dropping two more aliens that were charging him. Instead of shooting at the three that were still coming behind the ones he just took down, he turned and sprinted for the helicopter. The landing skids were about ten feet off the ground.

  With the axe in his left hand and the gun in his right, Jake raced to make it before more aliens could reach him. The cabin lights were on up in the chopper. Inside he could see Bryan firing off to Jake’s right, and Jess frantically waving Jake in. Jake fired on two other aliens that were about to cross his path, but he only managed a kill-shot on one of them before his magazine was empty.

  Jake tossed his Beretta and took the axe in his right hand. Just before he jumped to grab the helicopter’s landing skids, the surviving alien’s head exploded from one of Bryan’s bullets. Jake hurled himself into the air and managed to wrap his left hand around the metal bottom of the helicopter. He held on for dear life as it began to lift, but he felt something wrap around his leg and weight his grip almost to the point of dropping. He looked down to see one of the alien men had grabbed his leg and was holding on with both hands. Jake swung his axe and sliced right through the alien’s left arm. It couldn’t hold on without both of its hands, so it was forced to let go. Jake was free from its grip.

  As he hooked his axe back onto his bag, grabbed the landing skid with both hands, and floated up into the breaking dawn, he watched as every single one of his friends was jumping up an
d down in the cabin, cheering at the top of their lungs. They were all hugging, and clapping for joy as they looked down at Jake.

  That was when he saw Amy behind them. Sitting up on her own. Her eyes open. Ginger was nestled up beside her, giving her some much needed comfort.

  They had made it.

  40

  The sun was peeking out over the mountain as the helicopter floated toward the Mount Weather Complex. Jake had hardly had a moment to catch his breath. The minute they pulled him up into the cabin, he and Jess shared the longest embrace of their lives. There were several times when he felt like she might have been ready to let go, but he wasn’t. And he didn’t.

  When he did finally give Jess a second to breathe, and after he checked on everyone in the cabin personally, Jake slid up into the cockpit and said hello to the man who saved their lives. He was an older gentlemen with a bald head and a white goatee, but as fit as someone half his age. His smile was wide. Jake could tell he was as happy to see new people as Jake was to see him. Well . . . almost.

  Bill explained how he too had taken Beritrix all his life. But it wasn’t till the moment Jake told him it was acting as a vaccine that he found out it was the thing that had saved him. As they came up on the facility, Bill also explained what they were about to see. He of course hadn’t been there, but the man on the radio had instructed Bill that when he did make it to Mount Weather, he was going to have to land on the roof. Bill said when he asked why he would need to do something so dangerous, the man had told him there was nowhere else to land. That the entire land area surrounding the underground facility was covered with aliens.

  Jake was skeptical that it could be that bad. Until their helicopter came down over the mountain and he saw a literal sea of aliens covering every inch of ground around the buildings. It was the most astounding thing he’d ever seen, and he’d seen a lot in his short time on earth. The last week alone was off the charts. But the sheer number of them below nearly took his breath away.

  The roof they were to land on was marked with a red X. Jake could already see that there were people there waiting for them. Bill had also mentioned that the crew at Mount Weather had cleared it of aliens and had installed metal on the backside of every window of the building in the last twenty-four hours. All so Bill would be able to land and they would be able to get through the building to the underground facility safely.

  As the helicopter lowered onto the roof, Jake realized there was a mountain of questions that needed answering once they got inside: how Emily’s research on a cure was going, and how much military power they had left around the world. And all the questions that would come once they finally sat down with Amy and picked her brain about what she knew about the aliens. Jake had to shift his focus from keeping his group alive to figuring out how to take the country back from this invasion, and he knew Amy was the place to start.

  But all of those things, no matter how important they were, paled in comparison to how much Jake wanted to see his brother. And how much he wanted to wrap his nephews in a big bearhug. He hadn’t seen the three of them in a long time as it was, but all the loss in the last week had monstrously compounded it.

  As soon as Bill shut down the engine, Jake and company began to pile out of the helicopter. They were ushered inside through the roof access door, down a flight of stairs, then down an elevator. Jess took Jake’s hand as the elevator passed underground and they were on their way to safety.

  The armed guard in front of Jake turned around and gave him a salute.

  “At ease,” Jake said.

  “Sir, I just want to say that it is an honor to have you here with us. I hope to fight alongside you and win this war.”

  Jake smiled. “Soldier, I just want some bourbon and a pizza.”

  The guard’s face lit up. “We can definitely take care of that.”

  The elevator door slid open, and a host of people were waiting in an all-white lobby to greet them.

  Jess squeezed Jake’s hand. “I know she’s going to be in here, waiting to see you.”

  “Jess, she doesn’t—”

  “Stop.”

  Jake nodded.

  “It’s not okay what you did, Jake. But I’m past it. I love you and I know you love me. That’s my focus. Don’t give me a reason to think otherwise.”

  Jake nodded again. He was just hoping that Emily wouldn’t come running for a hug. Things were going to be awkward enough. He didn’t want it to start out on that note.

  All of them exited the elevator. The man front and center to greet them was none other than the President of the United States. Jake tousled the hair on Tyler’s head as they approached. It was good to see Tyler smile again.

  “Jake Maddox, I’m President Miller. It’s damn good to see you.”

  Jake shook his hand. “It’s an honor, sir.”

  The president smiled. “I assure you, the honor is all mine. We have plenty to talk about, but no offense, you need a shower.”

  Jake laughed. He couldn’t fathom what he must look like to these people. All of the people that traveled with him from Cincinnati had been to hell and back over the last day and a half. And Jake was sure, what with all the blood spilled around him, that he certainly looked it.

  The president stepped aside, and that was when Jake saw Emily. He would never tell Jess the feeling that tugged at him when he saw her, because it was powerful. But it wasn’t something romantic––by that point he knew he would never feel anything like romance for a woman other than Jess for as long as he lived. But it was something akin to love. Maybe it was because of all that they talked about in Syria. Maybe it was all they both had fought through in order to get back to Mount Weather. Whatever it was, it was palpable. But mercifully, Emily was smart enough to know that she needed to keep whatever feelings she did have in check. Because Jess deserved that, and Emily knew it.

  “I’m so glad all of you made it. Jake, it’s good to see you. Jess, I’m assuming?” Emily reached out her hand.

  “That’s right.” Jess took Emily’s hand and shook it. “It’s nice to meet you, Emily. Thank you for helping to get all of us here.”

  Jake was already madly in love with Jess. But the courage she showed to not only stand there and face Emily so soon after what Jake had told her about them, but to also thank her, was something beyond his comprehension. He would live the rest of his life trying to make right the wrongs he’d done to her. No matter what she decided to put him through. Because if any woman in the world was worth it, it was Jess.

  “You both will be happy to know that just a couple of hours ago, we were able to bring our two infected patients around. There is still no sign of alien life inside them. No blackened eyes . . . nothing.”

  Jake wasn’t paying attention.

  “Jake,” Jess said. “Honey, did you hear what Emily said? They may have found a cure.”

  The word cure got his attention, but still not his focus. He was busy scouring the room for his brother and his nephews. It was just like Colt to hang back and make Jake wait. Jake looked at Emily. “Where’s my brother and the boys?”

  The big and hopeful smile that Emily was wearing faltered immediately, and it fell about as far as a frown could fall. Jake’s heart dropped, and he instantly felt sick.

  “Just spit it out, Emily. I’ve been through enough. I just want the truth.”

  Emily pulled Jake and Jess away from the crowd, into a room where they could have some privacy.

  Emily said, “When you left, Colt told you he was getting on a helicopter bound for Kansas City, right?”

  “Right. Then straight on to here with maybe one other stop. He wasn’t sure of the exact route. Did he not get on the helicopter?”

  “No, he did get on the helicopter. But . . .”

  Emily hung her head.

  “For God’s sake Emily, what is it? Are they all right?”

  Emily looked up, tears filled her eyes, and her bottom lip was quivering. “We don’t know. You were the last person to
speak with him. But Cheyenne did hear from the pilot.”

  “So they landed? Where?”

  Emily shook her head. “It was a mayday call, Jake. The chopper went down. They aren’t sure where, and they aren’t sure who survived.”

  Jake didn’t know why the thought that Colt and the boys might not make it had never crossed his mind, but it hadn’t. Now that they weren’t there at Mount Weather with him, Jake couldn’t help but feel that all he’d been through over the last week had been for nothing.

  Everyone at the Mount Weather facility had a war to prepare for. And all the higher-ups were going to be looking to Jake to put together the plan. But the only thing Jake felt like doing in that moment was taking the elevator back up to the helicopter and going to find his family himself.

  “They’re going to be okay, Jake,” Jess said. “I promise.”

  Jake knew the odds of surviving a helicopter crash weren’t great, even in the fully functioning world they lived in just one week ago. But the odds of surviving it now, even if the crash didn’t kill them, with all those things that were running wild down on the ground? That surely would finish them off. Jake had no way of knowing if the aliens had gotten to his brother and his nephews, but Jake did know one thing . . . that he had become damn good at killing them himself. And whether his family made it back to Virginia or not, it wouldn’t change what he was going to do next.

  Jake was going to take back his country from the things that had come there and caused so much heartache. Whether it was alongside his brother, or in his brother’s memory, the outcome was going to be the same.

  All of them were going to die.

  VOLUME FOUR

  Book 4

  by

  Jonathan Dudycha

  1

  Air Force Academy

  Colorado Springs, Colorado

  Three days ago