The Renegades (Book 5): United

by Jack Hunt

  We had kind of been a little vague on the exact number. The truth was we really didn’t know. We knew it was above a hundred. Though in all honesty, it was more likely two hundred.

  “No going back now,” he said over the mic. “They’ve seen us.”

  “Get into position. Pull the trucks around and open fire on them.”

  There were a few minutes of silence. Then over the sound of the radio we heard gunfire. It was like an explosion of fireworks going off. I kind of wished I had been there to see the look on Fritz’s face.

  Lincoln handed me the night vision binoculars. I peered through.

  “You sure that’s the place?”

  “Yeah,” I said as I watched a couple of men walking around the perimeter holding fully automatic rifles.

  “So how do you want to do this?” Brolin asked.

  “As fast as possible. If they radio through before we take them out, we’ll be up shit creek without a paddle.”

  I screwed on a quick detach suppressor on the end of my AR-15 and moved out. Two of us were going to take the west side, two the north and two the east. The assault would be fast and unless anything went wrong, we would have six of them down within the next couple of minutes leaving only four of them remaining. No doubt they would panic.

  Shouldering the rifle, I crouched and moved forward in the darkness with my scope focused on one of the men. Wren was off to my right doing the same. When we got into position, we waited for the men to do their rounds. I used a small light that I flicked on and off to indicate to the other five to fire when ready.

  Now despite the fact we used suppressors, it still wasn’t silent. There’s always a pop and when fields surround you and there’s no sound except for crickets, it didn’t take long for the other four to realize what was happening. Two of them bolted upright from their seats and looked as if they were making a run for the radio in the truck when Brolin rushed in firing like a banshee. Fucking guy was nuts. He must have thought he was in some video game. Yet the way he handled himself, I had to wonder if he wasn’t telling the truth about having a military background. Shooting at the best of times required a steady hand but when you throw running into the mix it became a hell of lot harder. But he handled it like a boss.

  The others rushed into the building as we fired rounds at him. One of them was hit, the other got inside. By now he would have been shitting himself. Alone, inside an armory. It didn’t matter that he had the means to kill. One person up against six, those weren’t good odds.

  “You might as well come out.”

  “Fuck you.”

  Brolin looked at me and laughed. “Guy must fancy himself as Rambo.” He pulled out a grenade.

  Lincoln immediately grabbed his hand before he pulled the pin. “What the hell are you doing? We came to retrieve the weapons not blow the whole bloody place up.”

  “It’s a fake, asshole.”

  “What?”

  “Trust me.”

  Lincoln released his grip. Brolin yanked the pin as he ran at the door. He gave it a swift front kick and fell back on his ass. I burst out laughing. What a guy. The grenade rolled a short distance away from him. Now for someone who said it was a fake, he sure as hell jumped up fast and made a run for it. I looked at Wren and then grabbed her and we fell to the ground.

  There was a massive explosion.

  “Brolin!” Lincoln shouted.

  “Shit, sorry, I must have got it mixed up with the real ones.”

  “Oh my god, you amateurs,” I muttered to myself before recalling several times when we had screwed up. It was par for the course in a war that no one was trained for.

  “Listen, we don’t want to harm you. Come out and you’ll live.”

  Right, like that was going to work. These guys didn’t negotiate. I pulled up my gun and crouched towards the front door. I stepped to one side and reached over and tried the handle. It was locked. I looked back at Lincoln. He shook his head and came jogging over. He pulled a shotgun around and fired several times at the lock. Splinters of wood burst all over the place, and the handle buckled. A quick jab with the butt of my gun and it opened. We knew he was going to open fire and sure enough he did, but that wasn’t the worst of it. It was the grenade that rolled out that had us hightailing it. Another explosion and then it went silent.

  “There is always one. One asshole who has to hold down the fort.”

  “I have this!” Axel yanked out a flashbang. I took it from him and got in close to the building. I gave it a clockwise twist and pulled the pin. I tossed it inside and then it exploded. Now I knew he wasn’t just going to come out of there. I took the chance and slipped in just after it went off. When the smoke cleared, he came into view behind a stockpile of rifle containers. I don’t think he even heard me come in as he was coughing and trying to get his breath when I unloaded a bullet in his head.

  “All clear!” I yelled as I my eyes drifted over the arsenal of weapons. I pressed ahead and got close to the man on the floor. Beside him was a radio, it was crackling. On the other end was the voice of Steadman.

  “Come in, Markus?”

  CHAPTER 23

  I IGNORED the radio and we began loading up the two trucks outside with as many weapons as we could.

  “Speed it up,” I said to Brolin who was dragging ass. “It won’t be long before they send men out to check on them.”

  “Let ’em and we’ll finish them off like we did these ones.”

  I stopped in front of him. “Just load up the truck.”

  “How do you want to do this?” Rayne asked.

  “Wren will go with you, I’ll take Brolin and Axel with me. She’ll show you who to distribute them out to.”

  “You think they are going to help?”

  “They will once they know that everyone is going to help.”

  I wasn’t sure, to be honest, that anyone was going to risk it, that’s why I planned on focusing on those who usually kept weapons at their homes. The ones who hadn’t relinquished their firearms. The last thing I needed to do was try to convince people to get on board. We ended up forming a line and passing crates of weapons between us until the trucks had more than enough to arm at least five hundred people. We couldn’t take it all. There was too much and not enough time.

  “Stay safe,” I said to Wren. I leaned in and kissed her. We gunned it out of there and began going from house to house in the immediate area. Wren and the others would head towards East Hampton and Montauk. When we arrived at homes, people didn’t need an explanation, they were just pleased to able to get a weapon and know that someone was doing something about our unwelcome visitors.

  Those who wanted to fight jumped in the back. We had visited fifteen homes by the time we encountered Fritz’s men. With the three of us up front and thirty men and women in the back fully armed we were fully ready for an assault.

  As we pulled out of a home and made our way up to Sag Harbor, we came around a bend and up ahead were two trucks blocking off the road. I hit the brake and our headlights lit up the faces of fifteen men.

  Brolin was about to get out and unload rounds but I started backing up.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Right now the best course of action is avoidance.”

  Problem was, the moment we started reversing they jumped in their trucks.

  “Fuck this shit.” Brolin pushed out of the vehicle while I was reversing and dropped down to one knee. He’d been the first to grab up a rocket launcher from the armory.

  “Do you even know how to use one of those?”

  “Point and shoot.”

  “Brolin, get back in,” Axel yelled.

  “Buckle up bitches, time to light up the night sky.”

  With the truck sideways, I pulled around and looked in my mirror. On one knee he waited until they were getting close before he hit the trigger. An explosion of smoke and fire as one of their trucks caught some air. The explosion echoed. If Fritz didn’t know they had trouble, he did now.
r />   “Holy crap. And that is how you do it, my friends, booyah!”

  Brolin gave a bow as if he had an audience before jumping back in. The moment his ass cheek hit the seat I slammed the accelerator down and tore out of there. From behind us we could hear gunfire.

  “Fuckers are shooting at us,” Axel said casting a glance in the mirror.

  “No. That’s our group.”

  As we peeled away, I watched as the second truck that hadn’t gone up in a ball of fire came to a grinding halt after our group unloaded a flurry of bullets that smashed up their windscreen and took out the driver, engine and front tires. Smoke poured out the front and those who had survived fell out the side doors.

  “Now the party has started,” Brolin started yelling like a banshee. This guy was going to get along with Baja. I was sure he was a long-lost cousin. He was certainly as crazy as Baja.

  We continued on our way going from house to house and distributing weapons even to those that chose to remain. Within another twenty minutes we had forty plus people in the back of the truck.

  “Johnny.”

  Then his voice came over the radio. Axel looked at me as I continued to drive. The truck bumped its way down a long driveway to the next house.

  “Seems I underestimated you.”

  “Yeah you did,” Brolin said tapping his hand against the door.

  “I have a friend of yours here who wants to speak to you.”

  Then her voice came over the speaker. “Johnny?”

  Jess? I slammed the brakes on and heard the load in the back slip forward. I grabbed up the handheld radio.

  “Jess.”

  Before she could say anything Fritz came back on the line.

  “Now I have tried to work with you but you continue to be a thorn in my side. Why would you withhold the cure from millions?”

  “You have no guarantee it will work.”

  “Listen, I’m going to give you one last chance to hand yourself in. If you continue to piss me off, I will have no other option than to kill the rest of your friends. Do I make myself clear?”

  I didn’t respond. My thoughts were all over the place. I was torn between handing myself in and what that might mean — death. No matter what anyone would say, it wasn’t an easy choice. There was no right decision to be made. I had no way of knowing that he wouldn’t execute them the moment I handed myself in.

  “How do I know you won’t hurt them?”

  “You have my word.”

  “Your word means shit, Fritz.”

  “You are wearing my patience thin. Perhaps you need some incentive.” He muttered something to one of his men and the next thing I heard was the sound of Jess screaming. But it wasn’t anything I had heard before. Fear shot through me.

  “Okay, okay. Enough. Leave her,” I yelled.

  The screaming continued for another twenty seconds before they stopped doing whatever it was.

  “Have I made myself clear? Now this is not up for negotiation. You come in. You bring the weapons back and all this trouble goes away.”

  “Where do you want to meet?” I replied.

  I heard him scoff. “Section A.”

  CHAPTER 24

  “YOU’RE NOT GOING to do it, are you?” Brolin asked.

  “I don’t have a choice. I saw him kill Rowan without even flinching. He’ll kill them.”

  “You can’t,” Axel said. “I know you care about your friends but think about this. This isn’t just about you handing yourself in. It’s about the lives of thousands. Those who he will force his will upon.”

  “I didn’t say all of us were going to hand ourselves in. Brolin, get me Lincoln on the radio.”

  While he was pulling out the radio that he’d brought with him to communicate with the others outside the gate, some of the folks in the back had come around to find out what was going on. Axel hopped out to keep them calm.

  “Lincoln,” I spoke into the mic and waited for him to reply.

  The radio crackled. He came on the line.

  “Put Wren on please.”

  A few seconds later Wren got on the line.

  I brought her up to speed on what Fritz had said.

  “No, Johnny, he’ll kill you and probably everyone that assisted.”

  “I need you guys to meet up with us. Before I hand myself in. Fritz doesn’t know that we are handing out weapons to the community. We need to keep doing it. I’ll bring in one of the trucks with some of the weapons. The rest of you are going to have to rally up anyone and everyone that will help.”

  “But...”

  I cut her off before she could go any further. I gave her the location where we would meet and then turned off the radio. I sat there for a few minutes staring out into the darkness of the night. We were parked down some deserted road. The night was warm and the sound of the ocean brought little peace to the turmoil I was feeling inside.

  CHAPTER 25

  BAJA

  MY STOMACH WAS REELING with fear.

  “What the hell is going on?” I muttered to Elijah before we were dragged out.

  One moment we had been sitting quietly inside the trailer, the next all hell broke loose and we heard gunfire and explosions. Twenty minutes later Jess was dragged out of the trailer and then we heard her screaming. It was so bad I wanted to throw up. When they finally dragged us out I saw what they had done to her. They had sliced her with a knife down her back multiple times. She was laid on the floor sobbing and cowering below them. She looked as if she had pissed herself with fright.

  They tossed us to the ground like rag dolls. Our hands were still bound. Anyone who spoke up was immediately slammed in the face with the butt end of a rifle.

  “What’s going on?” I asked as we could hear the sound of gunfire erupting from behind the walls. One of Fritz’s men stepped forward and went to jam his gun in my face when he was stopped by Fritz.

  “Enough.” He stepped in front of us and walked up and down before being called back to his trailer. I had no idea what game he was playing. Was this some mental form of torture? Had Johnny managed to rally some people together to fight back?

  My knees were beginning to ache from kneeling on stone. Ten minutes must have passed before a light swept over us from an approaching truck. I squinted to shield my eyes from the glare. My eyes darted between the men who were holding their assault rifles at the vehicle. When it finally came into view, I saw who was inside.

  Johnny.

  CHAPTER 26

  I LET the truck idle there for a minute or two while I mustered up the courage to get out. My stomach churned inside of me, adrenaline kicked into overdrive.

  “Get out of the vehicle,” one of the men said.

  I saw several of the men go around the back of the truck and look inside. There was no one in there. They had all left with Wren and Lincoln. The risk factor just went up but I knew if we pulled this off we’d be able to regain control of the community.

  Finally, Fritz and Steadman came into view at the front, their faces lit up by the headlights.

  “Don’t do anything stupid. Come on now.”

  Maybe it was because I was hesitating too long but Fritz motioned to Steadman and he went over to Jess and picked her up by her hair. When I saw what they had done to her the world around me came caving in. My chest tightened and I clenched my hands.

  I pushed open the door and slowly slipped down.

  One of his men cautiously approached and began to pat me down; when he made it to my jacket he ripped it open and saw what I had done. Wrapped around my body was a belt of twenty grenades. I didn’t have wire going through the pins or any kind of device that would allow me to explode all of them. All I needed was one grenade and that one was in my right hand. The pin had already been pulled. If it went off, so would all the others. The men jumped back and started placing distance between us. I knew he wouldn’t shoot me. He needed me. I held up the grenade in my hand.

  “Now let her go.”

  Steadman raised
his gun.

  “Don’t shoot, you idiot, we need him.”

  “That’s right. You need me. But I don’t need you.”

  “You wouldn’t dare. You’d be killing yourself and your friends.”

  I chuckled like a man drunk. “Fritz, the fact that any of us are still alive is a miracle. We should have died back in my old town but we didn’t. Now I for one have lost more than enough people to push me over the edge. And believe me. I am at the edge. I have been standing at the edge for over a year just waiting for the one moment to end it.” I turned around taking in the view of all his men. “And I can’t see a better time to end it, than here with you fuckers.”

  “You don’t want to do that.”

  “Don’t I?”

  Jess stared on with a blood-soaked shirt and jeans. Fritz studied my face as if trying to see if I was bluffing.

  “So this is how it’s going to go. You are going to let them go, and then you are going to turn around and head out the gate. Do you understand?”

  Baja broke into a grin that turned into laughter. He went to get up but Steadman smacked him back down.

  “Hey!” I shouted. “You do that again, and it will be the last thing you do.”

  “You’re bluffing,” Fritz said.

  “Are you willing to take that risk?” I began walking closer to him and he started backing up. I heard the sound of guns cocking.

  “Don’t shoot him.” The expression on his face was full of frustration. “You’re not helping anyone here, Johnny. What I’m trying to do…”

  “… is save humanity?” I finished off what he was about to say. “Yeah, yeah, we’ve heard that line countless times. If that’s the case, where are the other five immunes?”

  “They’re dead,” Annora said.

  “That was unavoidable.”

  “Really, five times?” Baja said. “I don’t call that unavoidable. I call that a fuckup. You might want to quit your job as a brain surgeon because you suck.”

  In the quiet tension, the truck with Wren and the others in pulled up near mine. Everyone in the back jumped out including the people they had collected. All of them were armed. They began fanning out with weapons aimed at Fritz’s men. Three more trucks arrived with even more of the community. Each of them were ready to fight.