by SD Tanner
“This doesn’t look so easy,” he observed dourly.
Gears was practically hanging out of the door surveying the site, and pulling himself back inside the bird, he said pragmatically, “Nah, we might have to get on the ground for this one.”
TL asked uncertainly, “Do you think it’s worth the risk?”
“Yeah,” he replied confidently. “The deck’s stacked against us, so anythin’ we can do now to even the odds is worth doin’. And anyways, we’re here now, so why the hell not?”
Nodding in agreement, Gears said, “I reckon we can cut a path through the base. We jus’ gotta take a shitload of grenades and ammo and steal a truck. We can be in and out fast, causing as much damage as we can.”
“Without getting ourselves killed, Gears,” TL added. “Don’t forget that part.”
Gears waved his hand dismissively at him. “Yeah, yeah.”
Giving TL an impatient look, he said derisively, “You’re startin’ to sound like an old woman.” Thinking of women reminded him of something he’d noticed at the airfields. “Did you notice there were no women at either of the airfields?”
TL gave him a grim look. “Yeah, it’s weird.”
Hull had held BD prisoner and she’d been covered in deep bruises when he found her. Feeling a spark of anger, he said grimly, “It’s Hull. He doesn’t want women in his army. I’m gonna kill that asshole.”
“We ain’t got time for personal vendettas, Pax,” Gears said sternly. “We deal with this shit as a team. Don’t forget that.”
He knew Gears was glaring at him and deliberately avoided making eye contact. Both Hull and Major major asshole hurt the woman he loved and he would make Hull would pay for both of them. It certainly was a personal vendetta and he was determined not to fail BD a second time.
Ignoring his brother’s glare, he said, “Let’s get it done.”
The pilot landed in one of the empty parking lots on the outskirts of the base, and they climbed out of the bird and headed for a truck that was parked nearby. It was a HUMVEE with a .50-cal M2 machine gun mounted on the top. They unloaded crates of M67 grenades and bags of magazines for their M4A1s from the bird, and the pilot took off again with orders to provide them with air cover while they did their drive-by bombing. Unwilling to leave the pilot alone with Lucie, Ip took her while they headed to the truck carrying the grenades and ammunition. Like most military vehicles, the HUMVEE was designed to start without a key and TL climbed into the driver’s seat. Gears climbed into the passenger seat, and to give himself maximum access to throw the grenades at his targets, he removed the windshield using the emergency escape handles. He positioned himself behind the M2 machine gun, and Gears lined up crates of grenades in the front passenger seat. Ip and Lucie were already in the back of the truck.
“I don’t figure these demons have got any mechanical skills,” Gears remarked. “All we gotta do is cause damage to the vehicles, and I doubt they’ll know how to fix ‘em.”
He was standing in the truck examining the M2 and hoping it would work. If it didn’t, he could use his M4A1, but he preferred the higher caliber weapon. The M2 was already loaded and he found more ammo crates for it inside the truck. Gears and TL were discussing the easiest route through the base. TL would decide the best route to get them to their planned rendezvous with the bird based on the resistance they encountered. They figured, if it all went badly, they could always call the bird to pick them up wherever it could land.
Looking up from the gun, he saw hunters beginning to converge around them, and ducking his head into the truck, he asked Ip, “They your pets?”
“Don’t ask stupid questions, Pax,” Gears replied dourly. “If they weren’t, you’d be dead.”
Not wanting to lose the advantage of surprise, TL immediately began to drive toward the main road running through the base. Gears was sitting on the hood of the truck, bracing himself with his legs through the gap left by the missing windshield. At his feet on the front passenger seat were crates of grenades, but in his lap was another small open bag filled with more. TL entered the first of the parking lots that contained both trucks and birds, and he lined up the M2 ready to cause as much damage as he could.
Gears lobbed his first grenade into the nearest HUMVEE as they drove by, while he opened fire on the birds. Luckily the M2 worked, and Ip sent the hunters under her control onto the main road of the base, where they began to violently attack other hunters. Surprisingly, no one fired on them, and he and Gears continued to wreck the trucks and birds in the parking lot.
Surprised by the lack of response, he shouted, “What the hell is goin’ on?”
“Dunno and don’t care,” Gears grunted, as he lobbed another grenade into the open hatch of a Bradley. The armored vehicle bucked as the grenade exploded inside. He lobbed a second grenade clearly determined to disable the vehicle completely.
“Don’t use two per truck, Gears,” TL complained. “There’s hundreds of them. Can’t you count?”
“Shaddup, TL. Focus on your own damn job.”
TL turned the vehicle in a wide arc onto the main road that ran through the base, and Ip and Lucie clambered out of the HUMVEE.
Worried for their safety, he shouted, “Where the hell are you goin’?”
Gears shouted, “Get your ass back in here!”
Ip ignored them and she and Lucie disappeared into the growing crowd of warring hunters on the main road. TL followed behind them in the truck, and he quickly understood her tactic. Running swiftly, Ip and Lucie ducked and weaved through the fighting hunters and around the vehicles. She was using her hunters to push the other hunters away from the road to give them a clear run. Suddenly he heard the sound of gunfire and they were taking fire from one of the taller buildings. He swung the M2 upward until he had the window in his sights and began to fire. While he fired, he saw their bird swoop down, and the co-pilot start firing the M240 at the windows. Deciding the bird was better equipped to deal with the shooters in the buildings, he focused again on firing at the parked vehicles. Gears was now hanging out of the door of the HUMVEE, hurling grenades at the axles or tracks of the vehicles on their left. TL was driving at no more than ten miles per hour, and he was satisfied they were disabling the vehicles on both sides of the road.
TL turned to their left into a larger parking lot with several birds and another group of trucks. Their bird was firing hydra rockets into the taller buildings, and Ip was continuing to block the streets with the warring hunters. The hunters were tearing into one another, creating a mass of confused movement, and he knew it would make it difficult for any shooter to target them. Birds were always vulnerable and easily damaged, and it wouldn’t take much to make them useless. He fired into the cockpits and at the rotors of the birds, confident he was doing enough damage to make them unusable. TL turned the vehicle to the right, and they travelled down a narrower road, before turning right again into the next large parking lot. Repeating their destruction, they continued to disable the trucks and birds. They were still taking fire from the buildings, but he concluded their enemy was a bad shot, and so far they’d failed to hit their truck much less them.
They met Ip and Lucie on the main road and he heard Gears shout angrily, “Get back in the damn truck!”
Clearly Ip wasn’t going to listen to Gears, and she and Lucie ran ahead of the truck and down the road towards the next parking lot. While he fired to the right, causing as much destruction as he could to the parked vehicles, Gears continued lobbing grenades under the trucks. He agreed that without axles or tracks, the vehicles wouldn’t go far. They reached the next parking lot, which was on their right, and TL turned the vehicle into it, and there were five birds and at least forty trucks parked. Hearing the gun click, he realized he was out of ammo. Dropping into the truck, he grabbed a bag of magazines and his M4A1. Opening the door, he dragged his foot along the ground, and then climbed out of the slow moving vehicle. Running to the first bird, he pulled open the door to the cockpit, and opened
fire at the instrument panel and controls. Once he was sure the bird was unusable, he ran in a low crouch to the next bird and repeated his destruction. Turning to head towards the next bird, he found himself surrounded by a hunter guard, and grinning, he thought, thanks Ip.
Gears was also out of the truck, and was opening doors or hatches, throwing in a grenade, and then running to the next vehicle. He had his own team of hunters following his every move. He noticed his hunter guard were slowly starting to fight amongst themselves, and he heard TL speak through his earpiece. “Time to go. Ip’s losing control of the hunter fight.”
Without the hunters protecting them, he knew the shooters could target them in such an open parking lot. TL had been slowly rolling the HUMVEE beside them and he ran back to the vehicle and climbed inside. Gears was also returning, but he held Ip firmly by the arm, and was pulling her along with him. Unlike Ip, Lucie was more obedient and she followed Gears to the vehicle. Once they were all safely inside, TL picked up his speed and drove out of the parking lot, and into an open field where the bird could land.
Gears was scolding Ip. “Honey, you’re a pain in the ass. You’re supposed to follow my orders.”
Watching the bird land just a short distance away, he said, “Leave her alone, Gears. She did good.”
Smiling at him happily, she leaned over and kissed his cheek before giving Gears a haughty look. Gears rolled his eyes at her and then looked for where the bird was landing. Parking next to it, they climbed out of the HUMVEE and clambered onboard. Once the pilot took off, he looked down at the base from the air, eager to see the damage they’d managed to do. Men were now running from the buildings, and then stopping and standing around the trucks and birds. It was as if they didn’t really understand what had happened and didn’t know what to do next.
Snorting in disgust, he said, “They ain’t much of an army.”
“They don’t need to be, Pax,” TL remarked dryly. “They’ve got hunters on their side. Ip can’t control enough hunters to even those odds.”
Having just watched he lose control of the hunter battle, he knew TL was right. “What are we gonna do about the hunters, Gears?”
Gears was sitting with his arm around Ip and he replied, “I dunno.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: Saved my soul (Ruler)
He was watching the ghostly demons floating above his head and thought, stupid bats. The gates to hell were opening and his pets were now free to roam the earth. It’d been quite some time since he’d reigned, and the demons and dead were teeming out from hell, wandering about as if they owned the place. He didn’t really care, but they were annoying, and without physical substance, he found them boring. Admittedly they were fun to watch when they were teasing the living, but with so many of them and so few of the living, it was less entertaining than usual. His demon Dead Souls were able to do much more to the living than just scare them, and he preferred to spend his time with them. Crossing one long shapely leg over the other, he peered down the front of his top and examined his breasts again, wondering why Mackenzie was unimpressed. They were by far the biggest he’d ever seen and he was a disappointed by his reaction. Not that he trusted Mackenzie. The man had abilities he shouldn’t have, and they weren’t a result of being infected by a strain of the hunter virus. He knew the hunter virus was just a virus, and it wasn’t the reason why Mackenzie’s could move around time. The man was an anomaly he wanted under his control, but so far he hadn’t accepted his offer of immortality, and he suspected he probably wouldn’t.
Hearing a truck pull onto the driveway of the house, he casually glanced at the door waiting for Hull to walk in with Gray. Gray had run off earlier that day with one of the hunters, and he told Hull to fetch him back. He knew Gray was playing for the other side, but it’d suited him to keep the man close. What could Gray tell the Horsemen that would do him any harm? Nothing, he decided and it amused him they now knew they were outplayed. Between his thirty thousand strong Army of the Dead Souls, the hunters, and the irritating bats, he knew he couldn’t lose. Smiling to himself, he felt quite smug about having the upper hand for once. With his long running feud with the Horsemen, it was rare for him to be in such a powerful position. He’d always known it was a question of time before the logic of the universe would glitch, and when he saw the virus happen, he’d pounced. Congratulating himself on his uncommon patience, he beamed happily as Hull marched Gray into the sunlit room. Gray was wearing a dirty pair of dress pants, an untucked blue shirt, but he looked tanned and surprisingly well.
“Ah, you’ve come home.” Waggling his finger at Gray, he said mischievously, “You really shouldn’t wander around out there. It’s not safe, you know.”
Hull cleared his throat. “He was with Gears and his brothers. He’s been blabbing.”
Still unconcerned, he continued to look at Gray and asked conversationally, “So, what did you tell them?”
“I gave them a list of your manpower, weapons, equipment and armaments.”
Although he was happy for Gray to tell the Horsemen anything he knew, he was unprepared for his calm demeanor. Probing Gray’s mind, he was surprised it wasn’t so easy to read anymore. Where was the man’s fear? A sudden sense of insecurity flooded through him, and he wondered what the Horsemen could have told Gray that healed him of his cowardice.
Narrowing his dark eyes, he asked sharply, “What the fuck’s wrong with you?”
“Nothing. Why do you ask?”
“You don’t seem yourself.” With a sneer, he added, “You seem…happy.”
“Why shouldn’t I be happy?”
“Because I’m going to make you suffer for eternity and that used to worry you.”
“What’s done is done. I can’t undo my fate, but I can make your job harder.”
Gray’s arrogance made him even angrier, and masking his rage with delighted laughter, he asked, “And exactly how do you think you’ve done that?”
“Forewarned is forearmed. The more they know about your plans and capability, the better chance they have of stopping you.”
Forewarned would only give them time to worry about something they couldn’t change and he giggled with more false good humor. “Knowing what lies ahead doesn’t change what lies ahead. Your reasoning is flawed.” Feeling another flare of paranoia, he narrowed his eyes. “I don’t believe you. You know something. They’ve told you something.”
“If you think that, then read my mind and find out for yourself.”
More spikes of rage spark through him. He couldn’t read him anymore and Gray knew it. He’d always been his pet, someone he could control and manage through fear. If he couldn’t read Gray’s mind, it meant he wasn’t scared of him anymore and wouldn’t open his mind to him. He wasn’t sure who this new Gray was, but he believed he was concealing something. Soothing his rage, he decided it didn’t matter. He owned Gray’s soul, and he had an eternity to get what he wanted.
Smiling happily, he said with glee, “I own your soul. You and I are going to be friends forever and ever, and in the end you’ll be begging to tell me everything and anything.” His eyes glinted and he added, “You and pain are going to become even better friends than you and I.”
Probing Gray’s mind again, he looked for the spark of fear he knew ruled him and found nothing except a steady sea of calm. It didn’t make sense. His threats weren’t idle and Gray was well aware of what he could do. There was no escape through death anymore, and once he owned a soul, he owned it for all eternity. The whiny, ghostly bats now wandering the earth were only a small sample of the souls he had under his control. Glancing out the window of the house, he saw the thousands of pitiful souls enjoying their brief moment outside of hell. He could call them back to hell whenever he was ready, but for the moment it amused him to let them roam as if they were free.
Returning his attention to Gray, he said to Hull, “It’s time to remind him who’s the boss.”
Hull shrugged and grabbing Gray, he half-dragged and half-walked him outs
ide and into the garage. In there were a set of exposed beams below the roof, and hanging from the beams were several people in chains who, despite their fatal injuries, were far from dead. With their souls still inside their dead bodies, he could trick them into believing their bodies were still alive. Perpetual pain in a body that could never heal always broke the human mind and spirit. Studying the damaged minds and souls hanging in the garage, he thought sentience is both a blessing and a curse. Torture an animal and all it has is momentary instinctive fear, but torture a human and they know the damage being done is permanent. There was something pleasing about watching hope die in a man. Just as rage fueled his desire to rule, watching a man’s spirit break satisfied his hunger. If you can destroy a man’s hope, you’ll own that man forever. He would break Gray too, and in breaking him, he’d learn everything he needed to know.
Without being asked, Hull shackled Gray’s wrists and hoisted him up on a chain. He was hanging by his wrists, with his feet a foot above the floor. He still wore a relaxed look in his eye, but at least he was grimacing from the pain in his shoulders.
“That pain will only get worse.” Poking Gray in his stretched and scrawny stomach, he sniggered and said, “Tell me what they told you and I’ll take you down.”
“Really?” Gray asked, sounding hopeful. “If I tell you what they said, you’ll let me go?”
Smiling to himself at how quickly he was caving to his fears, he replied smoothly, “I won’t let you go, I own you for all eternity, but I don’t have to torture you.” Pausing to reflect, he added unhappily, “Although some people say being owned by me is torture, but that’s merely propaganda from the other side.”
