Survival Rules Series (Book 3): Rules of Darkness

by Hunt, Jack

  His father looked at him. He hadn’t told him that story, nor many of the others. He couldn’t. These weren’t the kind of war stories that won medals. They were the incidents that caused shame, night terrors, and PTSD.

  “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few,” Hudgens said coming around and placing his hand on Corey’s shoulder. “I understand.”

  “You don’t understand shit,” Corey said. “How could you?”

  Hudgens cocked his head. He could see him thinking over his response. His shoulders dropped. “If you can give me a better idea, I am all ears. I’m not for putting anyone in harm’s way, and… If I knew how to fire a gun, you can be damn sure I would be out there with you, side by side.”

  “Bullshit,” Andy said, disguising his response as a cough. Obviously, it wasn’t masked enough as Hudgens gave him another glare. If his glares could kill, half the town would be dead by now.

  “Look, there is no way to cherry coat it. It’s dangerous either way. Whether they move in with us or act as a distraction. However, under the conditions and time frame, that’s probably the only option you have unless you’re willing to wait for me to gather those I know.”

  “We don’t have time,” Hudgens said before continuing as if the whole idea was his to begin with. “We’ll have them look as if they are leaving town. Ferris, you and Andy can blend in among them for their protection. Of course, they’ll have weapons but that will be up to them to…” he mumbled unsure of it all. It was a ridiculous idea. Fallujah was one thing, this was another. Corey was beginning to regret telling him what happened. “Oversee it. Put it in action. I want it done today. If they’re expecting a delivery, let’s give them one.” He blew out his red cheeks. “Dismissed.”

  Ferris was the first out the door into the hallway.

  “Dad,” Corey said catching up with him as he darted out and went in a different direction. “I need you for this.”

  “Do you? As you seem to have it all in hand.”

  “Put your ego aside. You think I wanted him to put this on me?”

  “And yet you allowed him.”

  “He has a point.”

  “Ah, there we go. I knew it would come out eventually.” Andy threw his hands in the air and walked off down the hall. Corey wasn’t about to let it go. They were short on good marksmen and his father was one of the best. “Would you just listen? God, man. Why is everything a competition with you?”

  Andy turned on a dime. “These people you are going up against aren’t regular civilians. They have trained every waking hour for this.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  Andy pursed his lips, opened them as if he was about to say something.

  “Look, we have lost a lot of people. You and I know this situation isn’t getting better. This isn’t just about Whitefish. They are attacking surrounding towns. If we don’t put a stop to this now…” he trailed off, lost in the thought of Ella. “Please.”

  He gripped his father’s arm. There was a pause.

  “Okay. But I call some of the shots and I’m not going with numbnuts over there,” he said giving a nod towards Ferris who was waiting by the door to head out.

  “I wouldn’t expect you to.”

  “How do you want to do this?” His father asked.

  He couldn’t believe it. In all the years he’d been alive his father had never once asked for his input. “We hang the carrot out in front of them. Supplies are what they’re taking, so let’s give them some. We’ll gather the group together and load up a trailer full of supplies, mostly the ones we collected from the cache today. And then we’ll do this…” He began to share the plan with his father. At this stage they had no idea how many they would encounter but that was where Nate and Erika would come into it.

  When he finished explaining, his father nodded. “It could work.”

  “Do you know if they’ve returned from scavenging?”

  “Haven’t been home. I’ll swing by and see. What about your brother? Have you seen him?”

  Corey shook his head. “Not since he left. What did you tell him?”

  Andy shrugged. “Nothing. Just to avoid Jude. He wouldn’t listen.”

  Corey squinted. “Are you sure about that? As he left in quite a hurry.”

  “I’m telling you the truth.”

  Corey leaned against the wall. “Jude. Right. I didn’t think about them. Now there is a group who are already trained. Maybe if—”

  “No,” Andy barked.

  “What?”

  “Just no. I don’t want us in any way to be involved with that group.”

  “But they could be of use to us. If it wasn’t for his men coming to my aid that night, I could be dead.”

  “It was a power move.”

  “A what?”

  Andy shook his head and turned away. “You don’t get it, do you? Just like your brother.”

  “Dad, what are you not telling me?”

  “Let’s just stick to the plan. Forget your brother.”

  “But he’s been gone for three weeks.” Corey stared at Andy. “Even if this goes smoothly, I need to check in on him.”

  Andy pointed a finger at him. “Don’t go up there. I’m warning you now.”

  “Whatever problem you have with Jude, that’s between you two. But I intend to thank him. And find out what’s happened to Tyler.”

  He scoffed. “Three weeks, Corey. Three weeks have passed and only now you are wondering what happened to him? You’re in no state to be leading this group. Leave it with me. Go home. Get some rest. It was a mistake encouraging you to help the town.”

  Corey’s eyebrow rose. “A mistake?”

  “You’re in grief, son. It can cloud your judgment.”

  “Right. You would know all about that.”

  Andy scowled. “Listen to me. Losing your mother was the catalyst for my downward spiral but ultimately it was my choice to ignore the pain. That is what took me over the edge. I don’t want to see the same happen to you.”

  “You don’t have to worry about me,” Corey said turning to walk away. His father clasped his shoulder.

  “War changes a man. Grief can destroy him. Don’t mistake the two.”

  Corey didn’t respond. He walked off heading towards Ferris. His mind was a storm of thoughts. As soon as Ferris saw that he was alone, he opened his mouth to speak but Corey nipped that in the bud right away. “Keep it to yourself. I’m in no mood.”

  As he walked out into the calm evening air he turned to his left and saw Nate crouched down smoking a cigarette and looking at the ground. “Nate?”

  Nate looked up at him and thumbed towards the door. “They wouldn’t let me inside. Um. It’s Erika. The doctors have put her in an induced coma.”

  “What?”

  Shock took hold.

  Nate brought him up to speed on what had happened. “Apparently, these things can show up weeks later. Something to do with the blood vessels in the brain. She was complaining about frequent headaches. I just assumed…” he trailed off as tears began to well up in his eyes.

  5

  It felt rushed. The whole damn thing did. Hudgens was pushing for results. He wanted the raiders gone but didn’t understand that operations of this magnitude and danger required more than half-assed intel. Especially when it came from those they didn’t trust in the first place. It was pure madness. That’s why Corey took it upon himself to go ahead as a scout and scope out the site. He didn’t tell anyone except his father and he’d given him strict instructions to keep it to himself. The fewer that knew, the better. Regardless of what happened in Fallujah, there was no way in hell he was sending untrained civilians ahead without at least knowing what they were up against. His father had tried to reassure him by telling him they knew how to shoot a gun but he could tell even his father didn’t like the idea. While Andy gathered the group and gave them a briefing, which amounted to nothing more than minimal information and withholding the true extent of risk, Corey lay p
rone on a rise looking through a high-powered night vision scope on his .338 Lapua Magnum rifle. They were at least a thousand yards out on the northeast side of the lake, facing the southwest side. Nate had joined him. He was unable to do anything about Erika’s situation, and Corey encouraged him to come along as it didn’t make sense to spend all his waking hours sitting in the hospital.

  “It sucks, man. There is no other way to put it but she’s in good hands and now is not the time to buckle.”

  “I know,” Nate said. “I just…” he trailed off, then pulled another cigarette from his pocket. His hands were trembling ever so slightly. Since Corey had met him outside city hall he’d been smoking cigarettes back to back. “You should ease up on those things.”

  “Only thing that’s keeping me on an even keel.”

  “By the way, where’s Bailey?” Corey asked.

  “With Erika. She wouldn’t leave her side. A nurse said she would give her some scraps and water. I’ll swing by there tomorrow and check in. Hope to God Erika is awake.”

  Corey adjusted the focus on the scope and took in the sight of the small group gathered beside Skyles Lake. “That can’t be all of them.”

  “How many are there?” Nate asked.

  “Seven,” Corey said pulling away from the scope. He drummed his fingers on the ground. They’d set up a small campsite, nothing more than a few tents, one battered Jeep, and a collection of horses, but it looked temporary, certainly not ground zero for operating a large-scale group of raiders. Where was the housing? The trucks? The storehouses for supplies? The rest of them? He knew some of the insurgents operated in small cell groups. Was that what this was? Nothing more than one of many cells?

  “How many were you expecting?”

  “A lot more than this.”

  He unclipped his radio and was about to update his father when Nate nudged him. “Isn’t that Andy’s truck?”

  “What?”

  He pointed towards the road, across the tops of towering pine trees, and handed him NV binoculars. Corey took a look and his eyes widened. He couldn’t make out who the driver was but that was definitely his rusty truck. It rumbled down 93 and veered into a driveway that came out on Skyles Lake Lane. Unsure if it was his father taking matters into his own hands, he got on the radio. “Dad, it’s Corey, come in, over.”

  There was no response.

  “Dad. Come in. It’s Corey.”

  Still nothing.

  He peered through his scope to get a better look. The vehicle swung around a cluster of evergreens just out of view. Headlight beams painted the tents. A few of the men broke away to meet the stranger. All he could see was the rear end. “Damn it!” Corey said. He moved the rifle.

  “You think it’s your father?” Nate asked.

  “No. What the hell would he be doing there?” Corey handed him the radio. “Keep trying to get hold of him. I’m going down.”

  “What? No. How am I supposed to get in contact with you if… Hold on, Corey.”

  Corey rose to his feet, leaving the long-range rifle there. “I can’t see shit from up here. I need to go in.”

  “That wasn’t the plan.”

  “Neither was seeing my old man’s truck roll in. I need to know who’s in it.”

  Nate got up and lifted a hand. “Look, just wait. Maybe we can get hold of Ferris, or Hudgens. Maybe someone else can check and see where your old man is.”

  “There’s no time.”

  He plucked his carbine off the ground beside him and shouldered it. He burned some energy in the jog down the slope and through the thicket. Even though his shoulder was healed, it still ached from time to time.

  Nate felt uncomfortable letting him go but Corey had a mind of his own. He tried the radio a few times but got no response. He pushed the binoculars against his eyes. A lone figure stepped out of the pine trees and appeared near the edge of the water, talking with the seven men. He was pointing to the road, and then as if he knew where they were, he directed his attention to the forest where Corey was heading. “Oh shit.”

  How did they know?

  Corey said he’d only told his father.

  He watched as some of the group began breaking down the tents in a hurry, another reversed their battered vehicle to help them load it while the other four grabbed up rifles from the back and fanned out heading for the forest. Panic gripped Nate knowing that Corey was about to walk right into the midst of them. “Damn it,” he said as he scooped up his rifle and sprinted after Corey. He only had a five-minute head start.

  It was one of those nights when the stars were barely visible making it seem darker than usual. Corey jogged at a steady pace, zigzagging his way down a steep rocky incline, around trees, over boulders and across creeks until he could see the lake glistening in the distance. He heard someone approaching before he saw anything. Footsteps bounding, and heavy breathing caught his attention. He took up position behind a thick bush and waited. As soon as the figure ran into view, he exploded out, grabbing them around the face to prevent them screaming and lowered them to the ground in a matter of seconds.

  “Nate. What the hell are you doing?”

  A few seconds to catch his breath and he spat the words out, “Four of them. Coming this way.”

  “What?”

  “Whoever was driving that vehicle knew where we were. They pointed in our direction. Who did you tell?”

  “My old man, that’s it. But he wouldn’t…”

  “Perhaps he told someone else. Did you give him our coordinates?”

  Corey was about to respond when he saw movement. He brought a finger up to his lips and both of them melted back into thick underbrush and bushes. Through the branches he could only make out one. “Listen to me. Don’t squeeze the trigger. Wait here,” he said to Nate, pulling off his bag and taking out some rope.

  “What are you…?”

  Before he could finish, Corey stepped away, knife in hand.

  Shooting the guy would have been easy but without a silencer on the end of the rifle, he’d only draw attention to their location and right now that was all they had going for them. In the darkness he saw the silhouette of the man with his rifle raised. He took up position behind a thick oak tree and crouched down waiting for his moment. Sure enough, the guy stepped into view and Corey exploded upwards jamming the knife up under his chin while simultaneously clasping a hand over his mouth. The sudden attack was so swift and clean that the muffled cry wasn’t heard. He didn’t bother dragging the dead man out of view as it would have created noise, however, he did pull back his shirt and look at his shoulder. Sure enough there was the symbol. Like a cult, all of them were branded with that star.

  Moving quickly, he carefully navigated his way into a new position after spotting another one. Using the rope he was carrying, he swung it over a thick branch and let it hang down just slightly, then waited. The unsuspecting man raked his muzzle nervously from side to side and took small steps. Using a stone from the ground, Corey tossed it just a few feet away. The man froze, inches away from the noose above. His rifle was fixed on the area where the stone dropped. Had Corey waited a few more seconds he would have missed the opportunity but instead he took it and dropped the noose. It looped over his head. Instinctively he reached for it but it was too late. Corey pulled it tight and yanked it upwards holding him there. His legs flailed around as he breathed his last. Once he stopped moving, he lowered him and was about to move on when he heard a voice over the radio. “Come in, Pete. It’s Davidson. You got eyes on them?”

  Two remained.

  Nate wasn’t going to sit by idly. He’d already moved from the spot he was nestled in to a large cluster of boulders that gave him a bird’s-eye view of the forest floor below. He spotted one of the men on a radio and had him in his scope for a second before he moved out of his crosshair. Damn it.

  He shifted out from behind cover and worked his way through the trees, quietly and fast, pitching sideways down the incline. He’d only taken a few steps
when his ankle twisted and he lost his footing and stumbled into a roll. The rifle flew out of his hand and he felt the full force of the earth as his shoulder crashed into it and he went head over heels until he slammed into a tree trunk. It was the only thing that stopped him from going over a rocky overhang. He reached up and touched his head. Pulling his hand away he noticed he was bleeding. Damn it. Before he was able to get to his feet the same guy with the radio was upon him. There were no words exchanged between them as he came into view and raised his rifle. Nate squeezed his eyes shut expecting the end.

  Crack.

  Thump.

  A gust of wind full of leaves blew in his face and he opened his eyes to see the same man inches away from him, a bullet hole in his forehead.

  “Get up, you idiot. What did I tell you?” Corey said dragging him out of the clearing into thick brush. A few feet away they could hear a voice over the radio. That was when Nate caught sight of the fourth man, however instead of pressing forward, he turned and made a run for it.

  “Shit!” Corey yelled. “Wait here.”

  He burst away, chasing after the lone survivor.

  Corey was pissed. He could already hear the man raising the alarm over the radio as he ran for his life. Whatever element of surprise they had was gone. Whatever hope they had of finding the rest of the raiders was vanishing by the second. He stayed low raking his barrel over the terrain as the man disappeared out of view and the sound of running stopped. Corey took cover behind a tree and scanned for the camo-style military fatigues the man was wearing.

  Branches snapped and crunched and he shot out into view. Corey took the shot but it missed. Gunfire was returned a second later, tearing up tree bark and the earth around. He pressed his back against the tree and looked up to where Nate was. More branches crunched, this time getting closer. He wasn’t trying to escape; he was buying himself time to raise the alarm. “Eleven o’clock,” Nate yelled.

  Corey turned out and using only what Nate said as guidance unleashed a three-round burst. He heard the familiar sound of bullets hitting the mark, and he pulled back.