Wasteland Rules: Born to Fight (The World After Book 2)

by J. G. Martin

  The Government Intelligence Agency, or GIA, had received a report indicating that the Major was at a cartel drug base in the Everglades. The GIA was the consolidation of every intelligence agency or arm in the government. All intelligence assets were controlled by them and all reports were shared. The head of the GIA, Davis Tallman, reported directly to the President and was possibly the second most powerful man in the U.S.T.G. The GIA had informed Tom that Mario Sandoval, the Cartel boss, might know where the target was.

  Tom had rushed his team down to the Everglades and made contact with Sandoval. Under pressure from Tom, backed up by the threat of bombers, Sandoval had cracked. He had told Tom everything about the current mission the Major was on. And, that they would be returning to the drug lab to be extracted by helicopter. So, he and his team had set up the ambush around the drug lab. Their armor would make it difficult for anyone to detect them as they hid in the surrounding swamp. He had Daron hang back with a Stinger 3 SAM to shoot down the chopper and Saad was on overwatch with his sniper rifle in case anyone extra came to the party.

  He had watched as the target arrived and they disembarked. It had been tempting to trigger the ambush right then and there, but he had agreed to let the Cartel people leave unharmed. Not that he cared too much about honoring a deal with the drug dealing scum, but the U.S.T.G. had a future use for them and he was under orders not to upset them too much. So, he had waited patiently as the exchange had occurred and the Cartel slowly left. He wasn’t sure what Sandoval had told the Major when he pulled him close, but it was too late at that point.

  Daron had fired at the approaching chopper and it never had a chance. The missile had blasted it out of the sky with ease. That had been the signal for the team to attack and they had rushed forward eagerly. Unfortunately; the Major had acted amazingly quickly, moving almost the instant the first gunshot had sounded. That sudden movement had caused Saad’s sniper fire to miss the Major by a hair’s breadth. He had rushed the non-combatants into the boat as he covered their escape. Because of the distance, the Red Berets hadn’t had much success in hitting anything. Tom thought the Major had taken a minor wound and one of the scientists had been hit, but he couldn’t be sure.

  The Major had stayed behind to cover the escape and had taken shelter in the marina building. That was fine, his orders were to grab the Major and capture the device he was carrying. The others were extraneous to the mission. He ordered his team to concentrate fire on the building and keep the Major pinned down inside. They moved to take positions behind cover, surrounding the building. Zach tried to move closer, but incredibly accurate fire from the building tagged him with a long burst and knocked him down.

  “Zach, report. You okay?” Tom demanded through their helmet radio.

  Each helmet contained a small voice activated wireless communication system that was encrypted and keyed only to the team. Wu carried the base unit with the other communication gear on a special hard cased pack on his back. Tom and Wu also had the ability to jump to a broader channel through a satellite uplink that allowed them to communicate with command.

  Tom was answered with a groan. “I’m fine, the armor absorbed the rounds; but it hurts like hell.” Zach replied.

  “Everyone stay behind cover. This guy is an elite operator with tons of experience. He isn’t going to go easy.” Tom ordered.

  There was a blast of gunfire, and Tom flinched, but it wasn’t directed at them. He wasn’t sure who or what the Major was shooting at, but he wanted to take advantage of the distraction. Tom had been assured that the device was nearly indestructible, so he didn’t need to hold back when trying to take the Major down. So he decided to take the easy way out and not risk his team. The armor might stop just about anything, but it did have some gaps that a round or shrapnel could sneak through.

  “Rosa, drop a couple of grenades into the building. Everyone else give her covering fire. On my mark…Mark!” Tom ordered.

  Almost as one, the team rose and unloaded everything they had on the building. Bullets gouged huge holes on the concrete walls and created a storm of concrete dust and fragments, and the door disintegrated in a hail of gunfire. Rosa skillfully launched two grenades through the open windows and the resulting blasts blew fire and smoke out the windows and door. Before he could congratulate her on her accuracy, a large explosion knocked him and the entire team down.

  Tom got back to his feet to see a large oily cloud of black smoke rising from the side of the building. Flames burned furiously, engulfing the entire side of the building. The side of the building had been blown in and the roof had collapsed. No one in the building could have survived the blast. Thick, black smoke was rapidly beginning to obscure the building and the dock. The grenades didn’t do that, something else had exploded.

  “What the hell was that?” Savio yelled.

  It took Tom a minute to clear his head. Then he realized what had happened. The diesel fuel tanks had exploded. It had been after the grenades had exploded, but the tanks and pumps were outside. The grenades wouldn’t have triggered the explosion. Storm must have blown them up himself. That triggered a startling realization.

  “Fan out!” Tom yelled into the microphone. “It was a distraction. The target blew up the fuel tanks to cover his escape!”

  The team burst into action. They spread out and rushed towards the burning building. The team frantically searched for any sign of their quarry. He wasn’t on the dock and he wasn’t in the building. The docks and building were built out onto a spit of land so there was no way he had gotten past them. The water around the docks was disturbed by burning debris, but there was no sign of the man there either. Every member was scanning the area for what seemed like an eternity. Where had he gone?

  “Over there!” Rosa called.

  Tom looked where she was pointing. Across the inlet, almost to the other side, a head and arms had emerged. The Major must have swum the entire way under water in heavy clothes with a full pack. Tom had to admit it was clever to use the fuel tank explosion as cover for his escape. You didn’t have to be a genius to come up with a plan like that, but swimming that far under water with all that weight was impressive. He had heard this guy was a legend, but nothing had mentioned him being a superior athlete.

  The man quickly reached the other side and climbed out. As soon as they realized where he was, they all opened fire. Bullets churned the water and tore up the river bank. The trees exploded as the man disappeared into the woods on the other side. Tom could swear he saw the man take a few rounds and not even hesitate. This was going to be far more difficult than the simple hunt and kill operation he had been led to believe.

  “Go around!” He screamed. ”Our armor is too heavy for us to swim.”

  The team raced off around the inlet, with Tom at their head. Their target had been covered in mud so it would be difficult to see him in the unending brown of the dead mangrove trees and overgrowth. That would also probably make use infrared tracking difficult as well. There was nowhere for Storm to run to, but he could probably hide for hours, maybe days, if he wanted to. Tom decided to bring in the chopper to help search. He switched to the dedicated channel for their air support.

  “Air Support.” He called. “Target is fleeing. Bring up the chopper to help us search.”

  Silence. There was no response, so he tried again. But again, there was no response, just silence. Where was their air support? He highly doubted they were taking a break or turned their radios off. There was no intel on anyone else in the area and he doubted the Cartel would have interfered. It was likely that he would have heard an explosion if the choppers had been taken out. So where were they?

  “Wu.” He called. “I can’t raise our air support. Is something wrong with the comm?”

  “No sir, it’s working perfectly.” Wu replied.

  “Wait…we’re being jammed?” He exclaimed in disbelief a moment later.

  “What?” Tom asked bewildered. “How is that possible? The channels are an encrypt
ed satellite uplink.”

  “Sir, I have no idea. We are just…locked out somehow.” Wu explained. “The local channel works, but we cannot access any of the other channels.”

  Since all of the satellites had ceased to work at the beginning of the Aftermath, the newly formed U.S.T.G. had been unable to communicate long distance. To remedy that they had launched a few new satellites into low earth orbit and built gigantic relay towers at all of their bases. That provided coverage over almost all of North America, with the Southwest and Pacific Coast being the only blank spots. The channels were heavily encrypted and kept on isolated servers to prevent any kind of hacking.

  Tom wasn’t sure how the Major was managing that but it didn’t bode well for their mission. He was starting to get the feeling that they hadn’t been told everything about this guy. Perhaps his skills weren’t just legendary and were in fact reality. For the first time in his life, Tom felt doubt and a twinge of fear. He shook his head and forced those feelings away. He couldn’t afford even the tiniest bit of hesitation. That would get you killed in this line of work.

  “Keep trying. Call for as much back up as you can get if you get through.” He ordered.

  “Sir?” Wu asked with incredulity.

  “Killing this target is of the highest priority. We cannot let our egos get in the way.” Tom explained quickly.

  As Wu went back to fiddling with the comm unit, Tom focused on the rest of his team. They had gotten a little ahead of him while he had been focused on the radio. He could hear their heavy breathing through their mikes. Running through rough terrain in heavy armor wasn’t exactly easy and it had been awhile since they had been forced to do so. But they were all highly trained professionals who kept themselves in top shape so they were handling it well.

  “Over here!” He heard Bryan yell into his mike.

  “Right behind you!” Daron called seconds later.

  “I got him!” Bryan yelled excitedly.

  The team had become separated in the dense thickets of the swamp and Tom couldn’t see them directly. He knew which direction the yelling was coming from and headed in that general direction. The bursts of gunfire helped guide him and he neared the area that his men had encountered the Major. Maybe this would be over quickly after all.

  “Where’d he go?” Daron breathed into his mike.

  “He was here a second ago. He’s got to be hiding around here somewhere.” Bryan added.

  “Keep him contained. I’m almost there.” Tom informed them.

  “Us too.” Jamal added seconds later.

  Tom smiled. They had the target cornered and once the rest of the team arrived they could flush him out. He gloated to himself as he thought of the rewards that would be bestowed upon him by the upper echelons. A promotion at least. Probably women and cash. Maybe even a nice house in the suburbs. His daydreaming was cut short by a horrible snap-cracking noise that came through the headset. That was followed by a sustained burst of gunfire, an assault rifle on full automatic emptying its clip. Someone was screaming over the comm channel. It sounded like Daron, but what he was saying was unintelligible. Then a brief and terrible silence followed by a horrible gurgling noise.

  “That’s why you follow Rule #20. Always carry a blade, it never runs out of ammo.” A voice whispered across the channel.

  Was that the Major’s voice on Daron’s radio? He would have to be in Daron’s face to be close enough for the mike to pick up his words. Tom got a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach as he raced towards the sound of the gunfire. He arrived to find the scene he had feared. Both of his men lay on the ground in lifeless heaps beneath a large tree. His point man’s head was twisted around in an unnatural function and it was obvious that his neck had been broken. Daron lay next to him his hand clutched over his bloody throat. Blood poured out of the gaping wound and Tom watched as the life left his man’s eyes. He swore as he looked at his fallen men. Who was this guy? He was cutting down elite troops like they were nothing.

  A quick examination of the scene indicated that Daron had been stabbed in the throat with a large blade like a machete. Bryan’s neck must have been snapped quickly if the Major had time to also strike down the brash young soldier from St. Louis. How could the target have struck them so quickly and from so close a distance? He scanned the area and then had a moment of clarity. Tom looked up into the tree and saw the scuff marks on an overhanging limb. The man had scrambled up a tree and then hung down upside down to grab Bryan from behind and snap his neck, which would have taken impressive strength.

  Then he had launched himself off the tree and onto Daron. The struggle had been brief. Daron had tried to bring his rifle to bear and unloaded the entire clip. But the Major had been too close and had simply pushed the rifle barrel away and then stabbed Daron in the throat. It had been over in seconds and neither man had stood a chance. The Major was as good, maybe better, than they had said. Tom feared that this was going to get even uglier before it was over. Again he felt a twinge of fear but pushed it back down. He had a job to do, and he never failed.

  “Daron and Bryan are down. Does anyone have the target?” Tom snapped into the mike.

  That statement and question were followed by multiple voices swearing and cursing over the radio. He could hear all of them breathing heavily as they tried to converge on his location. He tried to pick out their individual voices over the agitated chatter. They were angry and excited and they were starting to lose it. He realized that in their time together they had never really been tested. Most people broke at the mere sight of the red berets on their shoulders and surrendered. No one had ever really put up much of a fight. Even the merks had been broken by the bombardment by the time they had attacked. He needed to regain control or they were going to fall apart.

  “Snap out of it people!” He thundered over the comm. “We need to focus on doing our jobs. Does anyone have eyes on the target?”

  Silence suddenly fell over the channel. It was a few moments before he got a response. “I see him!” Zach crowed.

  “He’s running ahead of us!” Rosa echoed seconds later. “We are roughly due east of your position, maybe a quarter klick.”

  Tom took off at a full sprint in their direction. He would come back to attend to the bodies of his men later. Now he just wanted to catch the man responsible, complete his mission, and exact a little payback. Their target had proven very resilient and very resourceful. He might be the most dangerous man Tom had ever encountered. He didn’t know why the man had been exiled instead of executed, leaving such a dangerous man alive seemed very foolish. It was time to end this threat now, once and for all.

  “Where did he go?” Rosa suddenly called out.

  “He was right in front of us, there is nowhere to hide. It’s like he just vanished.” Zach responded.

  “Keep looking, he must be hiding around here somewhere.” Rosa ordered.

  “Wait for backup, I’m a minute away.” Tom ordered. “Everyone get there on the double. This guy is incredibly dangerous, do not engage alone.”

  There was silence from Rosa and Zach, but the others were calling in their positions and they were several minutes away. The thick brush and weeds were slowing all of them down as they rushed through the muck to get to the location. The two of them were on their own until he and the others arrived. From their silence he assumed they were communicating with hand signals, but that gave him no idea of what they were doing. Moments before he arrived he heard a sickening wet thud followed by yelling and gunfire.

  He burst through the brush and came out into a clearing with several large pools of water. Zach was sitting in the muck with Rosa cradled in his arms. Her head was nearly severed from her body and blood poured out over her grief-stricken lover. His gun lay thrown to the side and he desperately tried to stop the blood flow. He seemed oblivious to the fact she was already dead and was completely lost in his grief. Tom swore as he saw another of his soldiers down, killed by the seemingly unstoppable ghost known as Majo
r Storm.

  “What happened?” He snapped at the crying gunner.

  “He came up out of the water behind her and chopped her head off with a freaking machete!” Zach screamed at him. “There was no way he could have held his breath that long, no way!”

  Zach’s voice trailed off into incoherent mumbling as he cradled his fallen lover. Tom looked for any sign of the target but could find nothing. The man moved like the panthers that were rumored to hunt the Everglades before the Collapse. The others arrived shortly and were shocked and horrified by the scene before them. Their lieutenant and second in command lay dead with her head practically chopped off in the massive arms of their sobbing heavy gunner. This was spiraling out of control.

  “Which way did he go?” Tom demanded.

  Zach could only point. The Major seemed to be continuing to head east, only pausing to ambush his men when they got too close. He led the survivors as they took off at a fast run in the direction their quarry had fled. Tom was winded and he could sense the others were tired, but they pressed on. They had lost too much to give up now. The Major was heading towards the coast and once he was there he would have nowhere to run. They could surround him and cut him to pieces with their firepower.

  That plan went out the window when they broke out into the open of a marsh just before the coast. Their target was almost a klick out in the water swimming like a madman. And waiting for him in the calm waters of the marsh was the speedboat that had left the marina at the beginning of the attack. Tom opened fire, but the target was too far away. Before Saad could arrive and position his shot, the Major was pulled on board the boat and it roared away in a spray of water.

  Tom and his men watched in stunned disbelief as their quarry escaped. It was inconceivable that this one man had managed to evade and kill his pursuers with ease, and then end up at the exact spot his rescuers were waiting for him! How had he been able to communicate with the boat to have them come pick him up? Not to mention, how had he been able to run all that way and still swim out to the boat so quickly? The bastard had even managed a mocking salute as the boat pulled away.