Gift from God: Hunter Wars Book Four (The Hunter Wars 4)

by SD Tanner

  The combat shooter continued driving cautiously and asked, “What do you want to do?”

  “We don’t need another truck, so we’ll disable this one and move to the next. If we’re lucky we’ll find a super hunter or two, or better still that little shit, Ruler.”

  Quickly becoming used to the raging hunter on hunter battle surrounding them, he was no longer surprised by the loud slamming of hunter bodies against the sides of the truck. Above them, still clinging to the roof, Ip seemed to be completely in control of the hunter on hunter battle. If anything, hunters under her control killed their brothers with a ruthless focus her opponent super hunters lacked. It appeared Death was her name and her friend, and she was merciless in bringing it to those she was ordered to kill. A bigger war needs a better weapon, he thought vaguely. Maybe it was always her purpose to keep adapting to fit their needs to win the battle against Ruler. Odd world we live in, he thought absently and he shot another living target.

  Now closer to the other truck, he took aim and shot the radiator and engine, hopefully disabling the truck and shouted. “Next truck, honey!”

  Through the headlights on the truck, the combat shooter found the next vehicle parked outside the front of the house. It was then he saw a problem. The enemy shooters and hordes of hunters were making inroads into the house through the front door and windows.

  “TL, what the fuck is goin’ on in there?”

  “Don’t shout, Gears. And get Ip in here. We’re fighting on all fronts and we’re getting overrun.”

  Trying not to shout over the noise of the hunter-on-hunter battle going on around him, he replied, “Roger that. On our way. Gimme a sitrep.”

  “Lydia was in the basement, but she’s with me now. I’ve got about eight to ten shooters left and Mac, but we’re taking fire and hunters are breaching the level. Ground floor is lost and we’re not holding steady on the second.”

  “You coulda said.”

  “Thought you might be busy.” Falling silent, he could hear steady gunfire through the earpiece, then TL said, “And they only just swarmed us, so there was nothing to tell until a minute ago.”

  “Did you get that, honey?”

  Ip speaks: Do be silent. Death is busy now. To protect the child, I will not be mild.

  “I pity the fool that pisses ya off.”

  They reached the front of the house, but the enemy shooters and hunters were already inside. Ip slid down from the roof onto the hood, and then to the ground as if she was riding a slippery slide in a children’s playground. He pushed himself out of the truck and shot the radiator and engine of both trucks. There were so few of their people left they could airlift them out and they didn’t need the trucks, but he didn’t want the enemy to have them.

  “No one’s fuckin’ goin’ anywhere tonight.”

  Ip had taken control of the hunters surrounding them and turned them into her own army. They continued to be swarmed by enemy hunters and the battle raged on. Shoving two warring hunters aside, he turned and stalked into the house with his gun ready. He knew none of his people were on the ground floor and storming through the front door, he opened fire, spraying bullets across a wide arc. His combat shooter followed on his heels, and they both began to pick out the living and shoot them.

  Worried Ip might be shot by enemy fire, he shouted roughly, “Stay behind me, honey.”

  The hunters in the room began to attack one another and the human army. Between his own shooters firing from upstairs, and he and his combat shooter firing into the crowded and warring room, there was a serious risk they might shoot one another. Still firing wildly, he grabbed Ip with one hand and launched himself behind the large, over-stuffed sofa near the front door. Clearly agreeing with him, his combat shooter threw himself behind the sofa with him, and together they continued to fire into the melee.

  “We’re in, TL.”

  “I’ve got hunters up here,” TL replied, grunting as if he was in mortal combat with one as he spoke.

  “I can’t get Ip up to you until I clear the shooters down here.”

  Interspersed with more grunting noises, he heard TL say grimly, “Sooner the better, brother.”

  He reloaded, and from his crouched position behind a large sofa, he and the combat shooter continued to open fire at the living. There was some return fire, but it was going wild. There were so many hunters fighting one another, the enemy shooters weren’t able to target them. While they continued shooting up the stairs, they also fired random shots in their direction, and it was keeping them pinned down.

  He needed to change the dynamic. “Send them enemy assholes some hunter hate.”

  Without any indication she’d heard, more hunters tore through the already crowded front door, and they began to crowd surf their way to the living enemy shooters.

  “Nice,” he muttered, feeling slightly amused by the sight of hunters climbing over their warring brothers and dropping onto the living. Once with their prey, the hunters ripped into their flesh and over the sound of the fighting hunters, he heard the screams of the dying.

  The scene began to take shape, and there was a young and very attractive woman standing in the kitchen near the door he knew led to the garage. Being so sweet on the eye, she stood out from the crowd of stinking, black soaked and torn hunters. She had no weapon and was standing tall. Her long hair framed her soft face, and then he saw her blue on blue eyes. What a waste, he thought, and he took aim and shot her through the head. The effect was instant. He felt a stinging slap to the back of his head, and he turned in shock to see Ip glaring at him.

  “What?” He asked, but suspected he knew why he’d been slapped. “Not now, honey, you can slap me later.”

  Ip speaks: You are War and you will be true or I will kill you too.

  This whole reading my mind thing is not payin’ off, he thought, but around him the battle began to wane. Without the super hunter controlling them, all the hunters were now under Ip’s control and they made fast work of the remaining enemy shooters.

  “Ceasefire. Ceasefire. We’re coming up the stairs.”

  He could now hear gunfire from the battle still raging between the living in the house and the enemy outside, but it was sporadic and that worried him. Either their shooters were winning the battle, or more likely, there were too few of their own people left upstairs.

  “Honey, you’re with me.” Turning to the combat shooter, he ordered, “Stay here and keep the front door covered. Kill anything that dares to poke its goddamn nose in here.”

  With a heavy heart, he climbed the stairs wondering how many of their people were left and worrying for his brother’s safety. At the top of the stairs, hunters were hammering at several closed doors and Ip quickly took control of them. Under her control, the hunters went to the window at the end of the hall, climbed through the broken glass and fell to the ground below. He glanced at her in surprise, and she shrugged as she tilted her head to the side and smirked.

  “That’s kinda wrong, honey, but we’ll talk about it later.”

  Ip huffed and turned to head down the stairs, and he assumed she would stay with the combat shooter to guard the entrances to the house.

  “All clear! Open up!” He shouted into the now empty corridor.

  A door opened, and a man he didn’t recognize said frantically, “Get in here. We need help!”

  He walked swiftly into the room and saw TL was on his knees in a pool of blood, leaning over the body of Lydia. Dropping to one knee, it was obvious Lydia was dead. Her once brown eyes were now a dull blue and she lay staring up at nothing. TL had his arms buried deep inside an incision he’d made in her abdomen, and he realized his brother was trying to save the baby.

  “What can I do?”

  “Protect the child,” TL said calmly, as he slowly eased a bloody bundle of tiny tangled limbs from Lydia’s corpse.

  The baby emerged drenched in the blood of its mother, and as TL gently wiped the blood from its face, it let out a lusty howl that sounded an
gry and already disappointed with life.

  Unable to help himself, he smiled and said, “Well, I’ll be damned.”

  While the baby wailed loudly, there was the sound of increasing gunfire from outside of the house. Hauling himself from the floor, he cautiously looked out the window. As he did, the sound of screeching angry hunters competed with the unhappy cries of the newly delivered baby, and there was a full-scale hunter battle was in flight.

  “Dammit, honey, I told you to stay in the damned house and watch the door. Goddamn woman doesn’t listen to damn thing I tell her.”

  Before he stormed off to find Ip, he said to TL, “Get whoever’s left downstairs. As soon as it’s clear, I’ll call the birds down and you’re outta here with that baby.”

  “No way, Gears. You can’t go looking for Ruler. You haven’t got the shooters and you need to get back to Pax and the camp.”

  TL had read his intentions perfectly. He narrowed his eyes at his brother, annoyed at being corrected. Snorting begrudgingly, he said, “Yeah, alright. You head to the base with the baby, Mac and anyone else who’s left. I’ll head to the camp with Ip and our shooters.”

  Now wrapping the still howling baby in a towel he’d found in the room, TL asked, “You don’t want Mac with you?”

  “No. Like you and Ip have said, protect the child.”

  He headed down the stairs and to the front door of the house. The two damaged trucks were where he’d left them and the area appeared to be clear of hunters and enemy shooters. He figured all their resources were now focused on the battle surrounding the sides and back of the house. Assuming Ip was controlling the three-sided battle, he decided to call one of the birds down.

  “Hatch, get me a bird. Front of the house.”

  “Yeah, I know.”

  The bird appeared almost instantly, and he realized Hatch was keeping a close eye on the battle below and asked, “What can ya see?”

  “Ip’s on the roof makin’ a hell of a mess down there. We’ve been givin’ her cover from the air.”

  TL must have heard the bird landing and he appeared at his side, clutching a small, but still complaining bundle. Even with the towel muffling the sound, the baby’s loud and ongoing objections could be heard above the sound of the bird and the battle.

  “That’s a noisy baby,” he observed dourly.

  “Shaddup, Gears,” TL replied rudely. “One crying baby is enough.”

  Following TL was the man who’d opened the door in the hallway and two other people he didn’t know. Mackenzie was the last to leave the house, and with a deep sigh, he realized only three people and the baby had survived. It was a complete massacre and with a jolt, he wondered if Mom had been at the Ranch.

  “Hatch bring the other bird down. I want that one to head back to the base. You’re with me and Ip.”

  Once TL, Mackenzie and the baby left on the second bird, the combat shooters climbed into the bird piloted by Hatch. The shooter with Ip climbed down from the roof and boarded the bird.

  Now they were all aboard safely, he said, “Give Ip some cover fire and let’s get her on-board.”

  Hatch hovered over the roof of the now destroyed house, and the combat shooters unloaded with the M240 machine guns into the warring crowd below. Ip skipped quickly across the roof and lightly launched herself into the bird, landing up against his body. While he held onto her firmly, Hatch lifted the bird into the air. It was still dark, and once the lights of the bird left, he could no longer see what was happening below. For a brief moment the searchlights lit up the ground again. Hunters were tearing and ripping one another apart, and enemy shooters were crouched behind their vehicles unable to move. What a mess, he thought dismally.

  Ip speaks: It is war and that is true. It is the life for me and you.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT: Every way but loose (Gears)

  “Seriously?” He said shaking his head at what he could see was a shambles beneath them. “I’ve got some forty or so assault vehicles and nearly six hundred combat shooters stuck in their goddamn trucks.”

  “Don’t forget, Ted,” Pax added happily. “He and three other guys are trapped in the refugee camp and one of ‘em’s badly injured.”

  He looked at Pax in utter disbelief and asked, “And you’re happy, why, Pax?”

  “Air support is twenty minutes out and when they get here we can sort this. We go in with Ip to get Ted and co, and then get Hatch and his guys to bomb the crap outta the site. Ip can keep the hunters busy killin’ one another while we drive out. Easy!”

  Nothing about the past twenty-four hours was easy. “Did Ruler remove the last of your goddamn brain while he had ya?”

  Giving him a mock filthy look, Pax said, “Don’t be rude, Gears. You know I’m right. What the hell different plan do you got?”

  He didn’t have a different plan, but it irritated him to have to agree with Pax. “I shoulda left you in the prison.”

  Pax slung his long ape-ish arm around him, and giving him a smoochy look, he said, “Aww, ya don’t mean that.”

  “Get off me, Pax,” he said abruptly, as he shoved his arm away. “Jeez, you’re not even drunk.” Pausing and staring intently at him, he asked suspiciously, “You’re not drunk are ya, Pax?”

  “Nah, jus’ happy,” Pax replied with a wink.

  Shaking his head in mock disgust, but privately relieved by his brothers obvious good mood after his ordeal, he growled, “How many times have I gotta tell you not wink at me, ya freak.”

  Ip speaks: The noisy one is settled sound. The Devil must have lost that round.

  “Yeah, well it ain’t easy to win against a dumbass like Pax.”

  He was relieved to find Pax in a better frame of mind than he’d seen him in since BD died, but he needed to focus on the problem confronting him on the ground. Pax had sent for birds and there were ten inbound, due to arrive within the next half hour. It was daylight, and once the super hunters were dead, the hunters would be useless in the light. It appeared all of the refugees had already died in the battle with Ruler’s men or run away. He didn’t know where Ruler was, but he didn’t think he was at the camp, otherwise their combat shooters would already be dead. If he had to guess, Ruler had probably been at the Ranch, but he hadn’t been in a position to hunt the little shit down and deal with him. He would have to settle for destroying Ruler’s camp. Tit for tat, he thought idly, you screwed my Ranch, so I’ll screw your camp, ya sonofabitch.

  Ip speaks: There is nothing here he reveres. It is not the same in the game.

  “Thanks for pointin’ that out, honey. You’re a big help,” he replied sarcastically.

  Focusing on the problem below, their forty plus vehicles were lined up side by side, one behind the other, and were tightly packed next to the one with only wide road through the camp. That’s a novice mistake, he thought, the trucks shouldn’t be so close to one another. Now there’s no way to easily move the convoy. The trucks couldn’t turn around, and the only way they could leave was by driving in single file through the camp. If they bombed the camp too heavily, they could damage the main road and the trucks would be stuck. He decided carpet-bombing the camp would have to wait until the convoy had cleared the site.

  There didn’t seem to be much of a human army, and if they were hiding anywhere nearby, they were probably in the outlying buildings, which was most likely where the super hunters were too. He decided the first problem was to eliminate the risk of the human army and rescue Captain Ted and his team. They could do both at the same time. That should at least kill some of the super hunters, which would give Ip less to deal with when she took control of the hunters surrounding the convoy. Thinking back to their fight at the missile silo, he figured they could do the same as they did then and carpet-bomb everywhere, but the main road through the camp. With any luck, they would kill all of the super hunters and if not, then they could deal with any stragglers in force.

  Satisfied with his plan, he said, “Pax, you’re in control of the air support. I
want you to bomb the outlying buildings, but don’t take out the main road ‘cos the convoy is packed too tight to break it up. I’m gonna head over to the refugee camp with Hatch and Ip to pick up Ted and his team. I’ll get Hatch to drop us back onto the convoy, and Ip can take control of a hunter army and have ‘em slug it out while we move the convoy. You’ve gotta keep bombing the outlying buildings to kill the super hunters. Logan’s with you.”

  “Did you get that, Ted?” Pax asked.

  Over the radio, he heard Captain Ted speak. “Yeah, we’ll be next to the main doors.”

  Pax nodded. “Give us another thirty minutes to organize the birds.”

  Landing near the medical team, there was the sound of a fleet of birds heading in their direction. It heartened him to know they were able to respond so fast to a threat. On a day-to-day basis he tended to worry about their failures, but every so often he could appreciate the magnitude of what they were now capable of doing. With the plan agreed, Pax and Logan jogged to a waiting bird, and as they took off, he and Ip climbed into the bird with Hatch and several combat shooters. Given how empty the camp seemed to be, he wasn’t expecting it to be difficult to airlift Ted and his team.

  When they got closer to the refugee camp, he said into his radio, “Ted, we’re here. Get ready to extract.”

  The bird was hovering five feet from the ground, with the combat shooters manning the M240 machine guns. Ip dropped to the ground with her sword drawn and the hunters, that has been harassing the front door of the main refugee building, moved away and began leaving the area.

  Once clear, Hatch landed the bird and he climbed out. “Come on out, Ted.”

  There were only a few hunter corpses lying around. The front seats of their abandoned four-wheel drive were drenched in still damp blood, but there were no bodies. Feeling disgusted, he assumed the hunters had eaten any remains of the living. The front door of the main barracks in the refugee camp opened, and Captain Ted, Mike and Darren came out carrying a man who was howling in pain. The noise of his shrieking cut through the air and he found it unsettling.