by SD Tanner
“I can hear ya! You can’t tiptoe, Gears. You’re the size of a goddamn gorilla!”
Feeling deep relief that his brother was very much alive and still behaving like an idiot, he relaxed. “Shaddup, Pax. Who says we’re here for you!”
“Get your ass down here and let me out. You took your goddamn time gettin’ here. Whatcha been doin’ while I’ve been locked up.”
“Nothing much, Pax,” TL replied amiably.
They reached the cell Pax was broodily standing in. Looking at his brother he thought he looked exhausted and unhappy. He was usually such an exuberant character, but he looked like he was beat. Glancing at the lock he realized they needed a key they didn’t have.
“What about me?” Mackenzie complained. “You’ve got no love for me?”
Peering into the cell next to Pax, TL exclaimed, “What the hell are you doing here?”
Appearing out of the shadows of the cell, Mackenzie leaned against the bars of the cell. “I came to rescue Pax.”
“Don’t take this the wrong way, but you did a lousy job,” TL observed dourly.
“Shaddup, TL. I’m glad he was here. It ain’t been fun.”
Now was not the time to ask what had happened. Pax was alive and he needed to secure the building. “Do you know if you’ve got any guards left?”
“Dunno. All hell broke loose out there, but the guy they call the POTUS was around. I think his name is Gray, and there’s a super hunter somewhere. She’s a hot lookin’ piece of ass if ya like ‘em butch.”
Deciding not to ask about that either, he turned to TL. “Shoot the damn locks off and get ‘em outta here. Me and Logan will look for Gray and the super hunter.”
Before he turned to leave, he put his hand out to Pax and they gave one another a brief man-to-man handgrip. In that one action was a lifetime of understanding. He knew Pax was relieved to see him and thanked him for coming. Nothing would ever be said about it, and he fully expected Pax to resume his lifelong habit of hurling insults at him. Giving up any pretense of moving quietly, he stalked down the corridor with his gun at eye level, sweeping each cell as he stamped past it. Logan was at his side and together they quickly cleared the corridor. Behind him, he heard TL and Pax talking, and then a gun fired and he assumed Pax was free. A second gunshot echoed down the corridor and he figured Mackenzie was also free.
At the end of the corridor was another door, but this one had an observation window. Peeking through the small window, he saw it led to another area with a stairwell to the left. Nothing appeared to be moving and Logan opened the door while he provided cover.
“Whatdaya think?”
“They’re here somewhere.”
“Yup.”
Everything he’d ever heard about the POTUS, which wasn’t much, led him to believe he was a weasel and a coward. There was no way a guy like that had gotten involved in the battle, and he’d no doubt kept a super hunter with him to protect himself from the hunters.
With his mind, he said to Ip, get ready to move, we might need you.
Ip speaks: Speak nice, or I will be ice.
Quit sulkin’, honey, he thought, and stand ready. Then thinking she might hold true to her threat to ignore him if he was rude to her, he added, there might be a kill in it for you. Bossy little thing, he thought, and then grimaced remembering she could read his thoughts. Continuing to move forward, he figured Gray and the super hunter were probably on the second level. With his gun, he indicated to Logan they should head for the stairs. Logan held his own gun ready to fire, and together they walked into the stairwell and up the stairs.
There were more cells at the top of the stairs, but these lined the entire wall leaving the area in the middle of the room empty. Scattered across the middle area were overturned tables and chairs, and he assumed it must have once been a communal area for the prisoners.
“Stop!” A male voice cried out shakily.
He couldn’t see the owner of the voice, but he stopped and looked around the room trying to work out where the voice was coming from. He knew it was from somewhere in front of him, but with so many cells and so much junk in the room, he couldn’t zero in on where.
Still sounding nervous, the man said, “Put down your guns or I’ll shoot.”
“Nah, don’t think I wanna do that, sounds stupid. Get your ass out here or I’ll open fire on the off chance I’ll getcha anyway.”
In a voice that dripped like honey, a woman said, “You must be Gears.”
It was a tone filled with promise, and he was curious to see the woman who could inspire a man with her voice alone. He didn’t have to wonder for long and a slender, dark haired woman with pale skin, a rosebud red mouth and striking blue eyes, emerged from a cell in front of him. She walked slowly and deliberately towards him, and he guessed this was the woman Pax had described as butch. With her hips swaying, and her head tilted seductively, he struggled to see his brother’s point of view.
As he came up behind him, Pax snarled, “Demon whore.”
He had his gun pointed at her head, and the woman’s tone changed abruptly. “Fuck you!”
In that moment the woman’s face transform from beautiful to vile. Her teeth were sharpened to points, and her perfect mouth formed an angry sneer. He felt Pax tense and he was obviously ready to fire, but the woman’s face changed again.
Her face filled with terror. “Please help me. Please.”
The woman became desperate and tears were streaming down her face. Looking around the room, panic stricken and obviously frightened, she began to wail. “Get it out! Get it out of me!”
The woman crumpled to her knees and began to bang her fists violently against her head. “Get out! Get out! Get out of me!”
Worried she would hurt herself, he swung his gun over his shoulder and he began to move towards her.
“No!” Pax roared, and he fired at the woman. His bullet hit home, entering the top of her bent head. It jerked back with the impact, dragging her body with it and she toppled backward.
Whirling, he looked back at his brother in horror. “What the fuck did you jus’ do?”
Ignoring him, Pax stalked across the room with his gun still in firing position. “Get your fuckin’ ass out here, ya sonofabitch.”
Still aiming his gun at something behind an overturned table, he reached down and yanked a skinny, pale and shaking man to his feet. Pax roundly slapped the man across the back of the head, making him stumble forward. “Move your goddamn ass, Gray!”
Returning to where he was standing, but now with the pale man in tow, Pax said angrily, “Let’s go.”
Without so much as a backward glance, he stormed out of the room dragging Gray with him. Both he and Logan shared a stunned look and followed him down the stairs, through the corridor of cells and out into the parking lot where the bird was waiting for them.
Grabbing Pax by the arm, he asked, “What the hell jus’ happened? Why did you shoot that woman?”
“That weren’t no woman, Gears. They’re goddamn demons possessing the bodies of the living. Killin’ ‘em’s a mercy.”
“What the hell are ya talkin’ about? You just murdered a woman. What the hell happened to you?”
Ip speaks: Still stupid.
“Shaddup, honey.”
Ip sat on a nearby low wall, and with her long legs dangling, she kicked them petulantly while she glared at him.
“Dammit, Gears! When are you going to get your head around this?” TL demanded.
Pax was still holding Gray by the arm and looking angry and tired. TL was staring at him, clearly frustrated and annoyed. Ip was continuing to kick her legs against the wall, while giving him a sulky look. Demons, he thought, ya’ll think they’re demons.
Ip speaks: Think means maybe. Know means is.
Finally he realized that he was the only one who didn’t believe. “Demonic possession of the livin’?”
“Yep,” TL replied confidently.
Pax shook his head and said, “You don�
��t believe what your see with your own eyes now?”
He looked over at Ip. “No need to answer, honey, I know what you believe.”
Contemplating the prison, he wondered if maybe TL was right and he was refusing to see the world as it really was. Mackenzie was watching him and he thought, there’s the man with precognition. Logan was standing next to Mackenzie, and he thought, there’s the man who can kill hunters with a touch. Hunters were still roaming around him looking disgruntled. Lying just ten feet away was the body of a downed hunter. It had been shot in the face, and with half its head missing, a black greasy goo oozed onto the muddy ground beneath it. Its arms and legs were shattered and its torso was riddled with over a dozen bullet wounds. Each wound would have been fatal to a human, but the hunter was oozing black slime and still conscious and twitching. The earth surrounding the downed hunter was dead. The once rich and fertile land was transforming into a sticky, muddy and useless clay. He knew no life of any sort would come from land like this.
For the first time since the virus outbreak he saw the world as it really was. Lifeless and populated by the undead. Feeling a sinking sensation in the center of his being, he looked sadly at his brothers. “Aww, crap.”
Batting his shoulder, TL said in a resigned voice, “I know.”
Pax sighed. “Yeah, we ain’t in Kansas no more, Dorothy.”
Ip speaks: Protect the child.
Looking across at her sharply, he asked, “What?”
Ip speaks: The dead are dying. The living die too. Heaven is lost and we will be too.
Not understanding her words, he felt her mind invade his and he stepped back in surprise. “Cut it out!”
Ip speaks: No time for stupid or heaven is lost. It is time to fight, and fight we must. Do not resist for you must see. Without heaven, hell will be free.
Hearing the urgency of her words and trusting her, he stepped forward again. Images and feelings flooded his mind. A sense of calm and peace came over him and he saw the Ranch. The horses were running free, but there were dead bodies everywhere. Some were hunters, but most were the living and he understood her message.
“Ruler’s men have attacked the Ranch. Our people are holed up in the house. We gotta go.”
Suddenly tensing, TL asked, “Is Lydia safe?”
“For the moment, but we need to get down there now.”
“What about the refugee camp?” Logan asked.
Pax looked confused and asked, “What’s goin’ on at the refugee camp?”
“Ted found your truck and he thought they’d taken you to the camp. He and Wolfie took six hundred shooters to attack it and get you out,” he replied.
“That won’t work,” Pax said, now sounding worried. “Ruler’s got super hunters. How the hell are they gonna defend against ‘em?” He began to pace and said, “I gotta get over there. Ted can’t deal with that alone. He doesn’t know what he’s dealin’ with.”
“No!” TL said angrily. “The Ranch has pretty much no defenses. They need us now.” Running his hand worriedly across the top of his head, he muttered, “Fuck! The baby…’
He asked the pilot, “How far out is Hatch?”
“ETA, ten minutes.”
Turning to TL and Pax, he said, “Pax, you take Logan and head over to the camp and start sortin’ ‘em out. TL, you, me, Ip, Mackenzie and the combat shooters will head down to the Ranch at top speed. Ip can keep us informed about what’s goin’ on down there. We’ll get the pilot to rustle us up another fully armed bird to meet us at the Ranch.”
He called to Ip. “Quit sulking and get your ass back over here. You’ve got some killin’ to do.”
She smiled happily, and dropping down from the wall, she skipped over to where they were standing. Looking up at Pax, she took his hand and kissed him on the cheek.
Ip speaks: Hello you, where have you been? You wife has worried and thinks you have been mean.
Pax glowered at Ip and said, “Tell BD if she wants to be with me, then she’s gonna have to resurrect herself, ‘cos I’m all done with datin’ the dead.”
Ip speaks: Dead is all that there can be for she and me. If you do not date the dead, then you will be free.
Looking over at him, Pax said dourly, “Ip makes as much sense as she ever did.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: Stuck in the middle with you (Pax)
He wasn’t in a good mood. Hearing Gears flatfooted attempt to tiptoe down the prison corridor was a relief, but he was still really pissed about something. He tried to unravel his emotions while the bird made its way to the refugee camp. Being taken back in time and reliving his mother’s murder at the hands of his father had been a shock, but it was good to have the memories of her back. She’d been a kind woman and knowing that made him happy. At least now he could remember her fondly.
The brain’s a funny thing, he thought, it aims to take care of you, even if that means it doesn’t tell you everything that’s going on in it. Probably for the best, he thought, I’d never wanted to know and now I know why. Putting the issue of his mother aside, he pondered the next subject that was on his mind. The never-to-be-dead BD. He was fed up being in limbo, unable to move forward, but not wanting to stay where he was. It was impossible. He’d do anything to bring her back, but he wasn’t a magician. From his view of the world, she was definitely dead and she needed to either stay dead, or miraculously bring herself back to life. Although he had a preference, he was ready to move on.
Staring out of the open door of the bird, he decided neither of those good women were what was bothering him. It was the third woman in his life that disturbed him the most and that was Ip. She’d never been able to talk to him telepathically and now she could, he was confused. Continuing to watch the passing landscape in the bright searchlights, the earth beneath the bird was growing barren and devoid of life. He believed what was happening on earth and who Ip really was, were linked. Ruler wasn’t a man, and he knew that as well as he knew the sun would always rise in the east. The super hunters weren’t an evolution of the hunter virus, they were demons and Ruler was their leader. He believed Ruler was the Devil, but if Ruler was the Devil, then who was Ip? Given Ip’s connection to him and his brothers, who were they?
There’s the problem, he thought. I don’t know who I am anymore. I was a soldier in the U.S. Army fighting a bunch of hunters, but what am I now?
It wasn’t the time to try to put the puzzle together. He needed to be the soldier he’d learned to be, and get Captain Ted and their people out of trouble. Drawing closer to the camp, he immediately understood the kind of problem they were dealing with. There were three Strykers parked about two miles from the camp that appeared to be secured. However, there were forty more armored vehicles near the refugee camp that were completely surrounded by hunters. Their combat shooters were trapped inside the vehicles, unable to move for the sheer number of hunters that were smothering them. Several of the vehicles must have tried to move and now they were half covered by the leaking corpses of dead hunters. If the armored vehicle became completely covered in the black goo, then the ventilation systems would fail.
He sighed deeply and wondered where Captain Ted was. Looking over at the barracks, they had clearly been bombed. The warehouse was destroyed, and there were burning embers and smoke coming from both structures. Only the refugee camp was still standing, but he noticed many of doors leading into the buildings hung open. Amongst the roaming hunter horde there were dead bodies scattered across the barren land surrounding the buildings. Obviously there’d been a considerable fight and it was unclear who’d won. He noticed a four-wheel drive outside the largest of the refugee buildings and he guessed it was one of theirs. The door to the main building was closed and he wondered if any of their people were left inside.
“Take us back to our vehicles in the rear.”
He needed information and he’d gotten about as much as he was going to get with an aerial recon. Hatch landed near the three armored vehicles and he and Logan climbed out of the
bird, jogging across to the trucks. As he left, he said to Hatch, “Head to the Ranch, but make sure there are some eyes in the air on us.”
Nearing the armored vehicle, the back door creaked open and a woman in ACUs clambered out. “Hey Pax, where the hell have you been?”
She was a plain faced woman with an almost masculine build. He didn’t recognize her, much less know her, but she clearly knew who he was. Looking quizzically at her, the woman realized her error and said, “Oh, I’m Pauline. I’m a medic and Cutter left me here with a medical team to deal with casualties.”
“Do ya have an update for me?”
Handing him her earpiece, she said, “Here. You can talk to them yourself.”
Jamming the earpiece in his ear, he asked, “Pax here. Gimme a sitrep.”
“Shit! Pax! Where the hell are you?” Captain Ted asked excitedly.
“I’m with your medical team. More to the point, where the hell are you?”
“Stuck in the refugee camp. The combat convoy are stuck as well. We’re surrounded by hunters and I’ve got a badly injured man here.”
“Who’s injured?”
“I dunno his name. He’s one of Ruler’s guys, but he saved our asses so he’s one of us now.”
“So, get me up to speed.”
“We found your truck. We assumed you and the team were being held here. We bombed the warehouse to clear the barracks. Looked for you in the barracks and found the injured man. We went to the refugee camp. Had air support bomb the barracks. We knew you weren’t at the camp, but thought we could clear it. I called the convoy into position. They got surrounded by hunters. We got into the refugee camp and freed the refugees. The refugees went ape shit and attacked the camp. Then we got surrounded by hunters and now we’re fuckin’ stuck.”
