Dead Alive: Eden Lost Book Two (Hunter Wars 8)

by SD Tanner

  Another man stood. “Maybe we need an election, you know, to vote a leader in?”

  A rumble of unhappy voices filled the room, and Diesel held his hand up for silence. “Okay, okay, let’s stay within the bounds of what’s reasonable and achievable. We don’t have the infrastructure or organization to have an election, but you raise a valid point. We do need a leader.” He turned to look at him. “Axe, you and TL have been leading so far.” Glancing at Leo sitting next to him, he added, “And Leo, most of us know you and you have a lot of credibility with many people.” Turning to Harry next, he said, “And Harry, we need your refinery, so you carry considerable clout with all of us.”

  Harry raised his hand, booming loudly, “I have enough to do keeping the refinery working. Plus we’re running out of processing chemicals, and Genny and I need to work with the experts in your towns to help us find a solution. These are critical problems, people, and if we don’t get them fixed then our mid-term fuel supplies are at risk.”

  Diesel nodded. “Fair point. What about you, Leo?”

  Lurching to his feet, Leo joined Diesel in the middle of the room. “I’m a manufacturing guy and I think that’s the best use of my skills. We need to expand our manufacturing capability, and I’m happy to lead on that.” Smirking, he flicked his hand at the room. “And anyway, you lot are a pain in the ass to manage. I’d rather build factories, and believe me that ain’t easy, but you’re even more trouble.”

  His directness raised a healthy chuckle around the room, and he felt the tension easing in the group. When the room grew quiet again, Diesel turned to face him and spread his hands out. “That leaves you, Axe.”

  “There’s always TL,” he replied.

  “It can’t be TL,” a woman’s voice called from the back of the room.

  Expecting to see Faith, he was surprised when BD sashayed across the room wearing a smile. “TL can and will help you, but he won’t be around for long, so you need to sort this out amongst yourselves.”

  “Why won’t he be around? Where’s he going?”

  With the sunlight shining through her wildly curly platinum blonde hair, she almost wore a halo. The effect was a startling contradiction to her robust curves and alluring smile. “I know most of you don’t know anything about why the hunters really left and who defeated Ruler. The fact is, Gears, Pax, TL and Ip won’t stay, so assume they’ll be leaving sooner and not later.” She looked Diesel in the eye. “And it doesn’t matter where they go, it’s enough to know they will.”

  Diesel held her gaze for a moment and then turned to the group. “Who votes for Axe to be the official leader of this group?”

  The sudden election caught him by surprise, and he gave Diesel a quizzical look, but he didn’t see it. Even more surprising was the number of hands that were immediately raised.

  “Before we settle this, does anyone have any serious objections to Axe acting as the leader for the Council of Eden?” When no one spoke, Diesel turned to him. “You’re the boss.” In a loud stage whisper, he added, “That means get off your ass.”

  Feeling awkward, he stood and pulled his shirt down, trying to avoid the need to check it was tucked in. While the group applauded, he joined Diesel in the middle of the room, and the clapping died away. “Thank you. I appreciate your confidence in me, but we won’t get anywhere if we can’t agree on the basics.”

  When no one spoke, he continued, “Firstly, I agree we shouldn’t have to defend people who won’t stand with us, and we probably don’t have the resources to do it anyway. However, I think we need to build the army big enough to provide our towns with defenses, and also be willing to help any towns we see are in trouble. Any town that takes our help will either become an ally or join us. Secondly, I don’t think we should see ourselves as a subset of America. We fought too hard to be one unified country in all ways, and we need to stand our ground. Too many good people struggled and died for us to be what we became, and we shouldn’t throw it away. I get we’re torn apart in all directions right now, but it only takes one group to unify and stand for something and the others will join us.”

  Diesel had stood a short distance away to give him the center of the group, and now he nodded. “Okay, so what do we need to do?”

  “Well, first of all, I want people to vote you in as my second.” He looked expectantly around the room, and most hands were raised, so he nodded at Diesel. “Now we’re both in the shit.” Once the group finished laughing, he added, “We need more people to join our army, so you all need to get on a recruitment drive and send your troops here or to the Marine supply base. We also need a real manifest of capabilities for every town. We need to know what skills you have.”

  “You need Kat,” BD interrupted. “She was our base administrator before Eden arrived.”

  He nodded to BD. “Do you know where she is?”

  Addressing the group, BD said firmly, “Kat, spelt with a ‘K’. About five, five, mousey hair, looks like a soccer Mom. Ask around your towns. If you find her, tell we need her and send her to me or any of our bases.”

  “Okay, but while we don’t have the miracle worker, Kat, we still need names and skills of everyone you have over the age of eighteen. Any skills at all. I don’t care if they were a laborer, a waiter, a doctor, or a teacher. We need everything.” When everyone nodded, he added, “And we need manifests of equipment, vehicles, weapons, food supplies and goods.”

  “What do you need that for?” A man asked.

  Diesel answered for him. “If we’re going to form a single group, we need to share what we have in all ways. That includes people and supplies, but you’ll give and take, so no one will be left with less than they need.”

  “Gears should be the head of our army,” A voice declared confidently. “I saw what he did to that Crusader convoy. He’s a mean son of a bitch.”

  He nodded in agreement. “I think that’s a given. Pax, Ted and Jack will no doubt continue to train the troops, but the army belongs to Gears. I want to run what we’re doing past TL. He pulled the people together last time, so we need him.”

  “What about the oil supply?” A man asked. “We can only produce so much, and should we really be supplying towns who aren’t part of the Council?”

  Harry stood up and raised his hand. “Err, I think to do anything else will cause problems with supply.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Standing next to Harry, Genny said, “We rely on the roads to make deliveries. If we stop supplying towns outside of the Council, we’ll be subject to attacks. I agree they should join us, but if we don’t share equally we’re putting our delivery people at risk.”

  “But your deliveries are an opportunity to talk to all the towns, so maybe Diesel and I can join you on some of them and we can talk to the leaders one-on-one.”

  Diesel nodded. “I also think we need to have the army bases represented at these meetings, so someone from Gears side needs to be here. It doesn’t have to be him or Pax, they seem to be all over the place, but someone needs to keep us up-to-date about what’s happening out there.”

  “Where are they now?” A woman asked.

  That was a very good question. The last he’d heard, Gears was in the UK, Pax was on a long-range training mission, Jack and Ted were also training, and no one knew where TL was. “Gears is in the UK.”

  “Why?” Diesel asked.

  BD answered for him. “He’s gone to find the survivors he sent there for safety five years ago. The recon team that went over there said the UK wasn’t quite right.”

  “What was wrong with it?”

  “I don’t know. Philip just said he couldn’t find anyone or any animals, plus parts of it were dying.”

  “Why?”

  BD gave him a small smile. “If you understood what really happened when the hunters were here, then you’d know what could be happening.”

  There were odd rumors about BD, and he’d heard she’d died and come back in another body. There was also a story traveling
the towns claiming Gears, Pax, TL and Ip were the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Despite being impressed by their abilities, he didn’t believe either story. Without a doubt the world had changed, but to believe the Devil had walked the earth and the Horsemen had bested him was a bit much.

  He shook his head. “We need to stay within the bounds of reality, and it dictates we need manifests of skills and resources. We need to enlist the other towns. Hopefully we can find the original base administrator, Kat, and Gears and his team need to build an army. Let’s focus on doing those things, and I’m sure the rest will sort itself out.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: Mackenzie

  “So, you lived here with Lucie?”

  Benny wasn’t even out of breath climbing the incline while fighting his way through the dense bushes. “Yeah, you weren’t using it.”

  “Yeah, but why’d you come here? I didn’t even know you knew where it was.”

  “Max told me. I figured you were happy here and maybe we’d be too.”

  He and Max had been happy here, but it didn’t look anything like he remembered. Since waking up and finding himself in Eden, a lot had changed. Benny was infected, the Horsemen had been away for five years and were back, the land was replenished in all ways, but man hadn’t changed one little bit. They were still fighting with one another, and even without Ruler, they were the same dissatisfied people he’d always known them to be.

  After hacking their way through the forest for half a mile, they finally reached the clearing with the small creek and RV. With rust streaking down the sides and flat tires, his old home looked like it had been abandoned. The campfire, where he and Max had spent many happy nights together, was cold with a thin layer of white ash across the blackened wood. In the silence of the forest, the creek burbled softly and the trees rustled quietly.

  “Max?”

  In theory, he shouldn’t need to come all this way to talk to Max. All three of the young leaders were technically dead and could communicate telepathically, but he didn’t know which of the many stars that had appeared in his mind was hers. Benny said she’d haunted their old home from the moment she’d died, and he figured this was probably the easiest way to find her. One of Hatch’s pilots was waiting for them about half a mile from the campsite. Chasing down a ghost might seem like a waste of fuel, but since he’d rejoined the world it seemed no one questioned anything he asked for. It would appear he’d formed quite a reputation as a soothsayer. Where he’d once viewed his visions of the future as a liability, others now assured him it was a gift to be valued. It was changing his perception of himself, but he wasn’t entirely sure to what.

  “Mac?”

  There she was standing by the edge of the creek, still with a huge bloodstain on her chest, and her hair in an untidy ponytail. Against the backdrop of the lushness of Eden, she cut a lonely, lost figure, but he felt his heart rate lift just looking at her. Inside his mind, a star had opened and it was hers. He would never lose track of her again. Striding over quickly, he tried to stroke her cheek, but his hand passed straight through her face and she gave him a dour look.

  “I’m not really here, Mac. You know, the whole ghost thing.”

  “Yeah, I know.” He studied the wound on her chest. “Why are you still wounded?”

  “I won’t be healed until I go home.”

  “Does it hurt?”

  “Don’t be stupid.”

  Even dead, she didn’t suffer fools and he grinned at her. “You can go home anytime, Max. I’ll be by soon enough to join you.”

  She smiled at him, giving him one of her cheeky winks. “Is that why you came? So, you could dump me?”

  “Well, kinda, but I mean you don’t have to wait for me. I think I’m supposed to do something here, so I can’t leave yet. Baby Mac is fine and so am I. Go and be at peace, Max, you’ve earned it.”

  Despite being dead and not really needing to breathe, she sighed. “I was waiting for you, but now we have another problem.” Waving at Benny, she added, “You might as well hear this too.”

  Together they walked to the cold campfire and hunkered down on the ground, while Benny sat on the step leading into the RV. It reminded him of the days when they’d worked together, training to become the future leaders of the bases. Given they’d all died in one way or another, they made an odd team, but he supposed they still were one.

  Unable to interact with their world, Max fidgeted with her open tactical vest. “Ruler’s back.”

  The news didn’t surprise him. “How do you know that?”

  “The gates to hell are opening and the demons and ghosts are walking the earth again. I gather not in the same numbers, but it’s getting worse.”

  “Can you see them?”

  “It doesn’t work like that, Mac. We don’t need to see one another to know there’s spirits all around us. I just know there’s more of them than there were before and that’s not right. Look, I’ve been dead for five years, and there were always some spirits, but there’s a lot more now, plus some of them are demons. There’s only ever been one living person I can talk to since I died, and that’s a woman called Maxine who lives on the islands. She’s been seeing more ghosts and demons than before as well. She says usually ghosts are just lost souls or people who don’t know they’re dead, but the one’s she’s seeing aren’t all like that. These are the souls of the condemned, and they can be very dangerous.”

  He didn’t know much about ghosts, but wondered if the demons Max was aware of were just the super hunters. “The super hunters never left. Ted didn’t manage to even kill them all.”

  Max shook her head. “The demons Maxine and I are aware of aren’t the same sort of demons. The super hunters are capable of possessing humans, the demons I’m talking about don’t have any physical form. They usually live in hell doing unspeakable things.”

  Idly poking a stick into the ashes, Benny said flatly, “The hunters are back too, but they’re not the same. Some of them are more sentient than others, and some are just plain assholes.”

  “What does that mean?” Max asked.

  Benny snorted. “People are as stupid dead as they are alive, Max, you know that. A dumb human makes an equally dumb hunter. Those idiots kill because they’re too ignorant to do anything else. Others are just plain mean. They kill for kicks.”

  “What about the smarter, sentient ones?” He asked.

  Benny shrugged and flicked his stick into the useless ashes. “They’re more like me. They make conscious decisions about how they’re gonna live, but a lot of them still can’t talk. The virus can do serious damage the language center.”

  Reaching out to touch him, her hand passed through his forearm. “This isn’t good. The Horsemen came to see me a few months ago. I told them you were in hell and they needed to get you out.”

  “Yeah, I know and Ip helped them find me. That didn’t get me out, but I started spying through the eyes of the demons, and Ruler kicked me out for it. He thinks I’m someone called the Revelator. I’m supposed to witness events as evidence. He said he’s not allowed to kill me, but I dunno what happens if he does.”

  Her forehead creased into a frown. “Do you think Gears, Pax, TL and Ip have any idea what’s really going on?”

  Having only just woken up from hell, he’d barely had time to talk to Pax and even then, he hadn’t said anything that made him believe they had the situation under control. “No, I think they’re still trying to work out what the problem is.”

  Benny snorted cynically. “I think between us we’ve got a better grip on the problem than they do.”

  Surprised by his negative comment, he asked, “Why would you say that?”

  “We know the hunters are back and they’re not all the same. We know the ghosts and demons are coming back, and we never did have a good defense against them. We know mankind has split into two camps, one with the Crusaders and the others living in independent little groups.”

  Max nodded and asked tartly, “All that means, Benny,
is we might know a little more about the nature of the problem, but do you have any solutions?”

  If it was possible, Max was feistier now she was dead than when she was alive. He supposed she had nothing left to lose other than delaying her journey home. She had no reason to hold her tongue, not that she ever did when she was alive anyway, she’d always spoken sense and he tended to agree with her.

  Nodding, he said, “Pax knows about the hunters and that there are two types.”

  With a sigh, Benny replied, “True and I suppose TL has been talking to the towns, so he knows what happening there.”

  “Exactly,” Max added. “The only thing they don’t know about is the ghosts and demons. Where is Gears anyway? I’ve been trying to talk to Ip, but she’s ignoring me.”

  Ip didn’t seem to be talking to anyone and he said, “Yeah, me too. I think there’s so many new stars since the hunters turned up again, she doesn’t know it’s me…or you.”

  Benny interrupted. “Gears went to the UK looking for the survivors there.”

  “Then he knows,” Max said firmly. “He would have gone to Stonehenge where the gates to hell are, so he knows.”

  “So, what do we do now?” He asked.

  Max rose from her crouch and stood tall. “We were always destined to be the leaders of the bases and nothing’s changed.”

  Standing with her, Benny gave her a quizzical look. “Well, something’s changed. For one thing, we’re all dead.”

  “I know, but that’s a good thing, Benny,” Max replied intently. “You’re now a hunter, so you can communicate with them. Mac can see the future, so he can warn us about what’s going to happen. I can sense the spirits and demons, so I know where they are. Eventually I might even be able to communicate with them.” She grinned widely at both of them. “Don’t you get it? We can lead the real army of the weird. Between us, we can lead the dead against Ruler.”

  “You’re that sure he’s back?”

  “You saw him in hell, Mac, you said so yourself. If that asshole held you in hell for five years then he never really gave up, now did he?”