The Collapse Trilogy (Book 1): Free Fire Zone

by Rod Carstens

  “Ma’am, the gunships are turning off to make a run on something,” the pilot said over the intercom.

  “What!” Muller twisted around in her seat so she could look out the window. Sure enough, there were the two gunships banking for runs on something she could not see on the ground. Long red lines of tracers were leaving the ships as they made their firing runs. Anke keyed her mic. “Headhunter to Guns.”

  “Guns here. Go.”

  “You broke formation. You have a mission to complete,” Muller snapped.

  “We have time until those replacements arrive. Besides, we have standing orders of our own for targets of opportunity in Free Fire Zones. We have what looks like a whole gang in the open.”

  “This area won’t be an official Free Fire Zone for several more hours,” Muller said.

  “Details.”

  Muller could see them climbing after their first run, flipping over and diving back down, tracers illuminating the night. No discipline. She was just glad that they were far enough away from her primary target not to give him any warning.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  Resource Security Force

  Team Sixteen

  Vin Tanner

  2131 hours

  Tanner’s gloved hands clawed at the rubble as he tried to bury himself as deep as he could into the bricks and rubble. He smashed his fists into the bricks, using the knuckle busters to move the rubble out of his way. The tracers were turning the night red as the gunships made repeated runs. A round tore into the ground not a foot from his head. It made a small volcano of dirt and debris when it hit the rubble, covering him with dirt and concrete. Tanner squirmed deeper under bricks and cinder blocks.

  The screams of the gang filled the night as they were caught in the open by the gunships, and the roar of the roar of their mini’s tore at Tanner’s ears. The gunships paid special attention to the two cars, making sure they tore them into useless pieces of metal that no longer even resembled vehicles. There seemed to be no end to the gunships’ runs. Every time he thought they were finished, another gang member would jump up from his hiding place and try to run. None made it. Tanner could hear two of the gang not ten feet from him.

  “I’m going. I can’t take it anymore! They’re using thermal, I’m telling you!”

  Tanner knew how he felt. It was everything he could do not to move, and he had been trained.

  “No, goddamn it. Wait.”

  But the guy jumped up and ran for the building. It was only twenty yards. Maybe he could make it. If he could, then Tanner might risk it.

  He didn’t make it. In fact they not only hit him but they hit the other guy too. The rounds ripped them to pieces. Part of the torso of the men who had been lying close to Tanner landed next to him. When one of the gunships finished its run, the other was right behind it, covering the ground the first gunship had missed. These two were real pros. Each run got closer. The only reason Tanner was still alive was that the gang had shifted its search farther away from him in the empty lot. Otherwise he would have been caught in the same cauldron of tracers and shrapnel as the gang members. He lay there waiting for a tracer round to find him. They were landing all around him. His luck couldn’t last much longer. They made pass after pass until there were no more screams, only the roar of the gunships. They circled the area one last time. Finding nothing moving, they turned away and flew off.

  Tanner cautiously lifted his head. There were bodies and body parts everywhere. The .50 caliber rounds had not just killed the gang members, they had ripped them apart. Some were missing their upper torso. Others had no legs. It just depended on where the round had struck them. Shaking, Tanner slowly got to his feet. He found his knees were weak as he began to walk, then run through the carnage. Several survivors were slowly sitting up or trying to stand. One was walking in circles, blood streaming from a massive head wound. One was simply staring into the night, as if he had seen something that was too frightening to comprehend. Tanner kept moving. His legs grew stronger as he ran. He ducked around the corner and headed down the long, empty, dark street. Just as he rounded the corner a couple of shots rang out, but they weren’t even close. They could have been gang members putting someone out of their misery or just settling old scores. He continued to run down the sidewalk in full view. He didn’t have time to be cautious. He could only hope that Cat and Matos were still alive.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  Resource Security Force

  Team Sixteen

  2140 hours

  Cat could hear the gang members in the next room. They were chipping away at the concrete wall. They must have found something they could use as a pick. From the sound it appeared they were making progress. The rest of the gang members were at the end of the hall and were now firing almost continuously. They must have gotten some reinforcements. If I were them, I would be about ready to make my move, she thought. It didn’t look like Vin was going to make it back. She would do Matos first, then save the last bullet for herself. But before that happened, she was going to make these fucks pay.

  Suddenly the firing from around the corner increased in intensity, but it wasn’t directed at her. Then she heard an automatic weapon. It must have been Vin. Cat took advantage of the gang’s attention being on Vin and leaned out of the doorway. A figure was backing up into the hall. Cat fired a three-round burst. Her rounds caught him in the side and threw him against the wall, where he slowly slid down and slumped on the floor, leaving a large blood smear.

  The gang members down the hall were more concerned with Vin behind them than with what she was going to do. If she moved quickly, she just might catch them out of position. She made her move. She grabbed two grenades off of her MOLLE and ran down the hall. As she passed the door to the room next to hers, she threw in a grenade. Then she threw the other one hard against the wall so it bounced around the corner. She turned and dove back toward her room, and the grenades exploded as she landed on the floor. Debris and shrapnel chipped the concrete over her head. Screams and cries from the dying and wounded reverberated off the concrete walls. She heard Vin’s automatic fire increase while the gang’s became sporatic. The grenade had done its job. Cat stood and went to the door of the room next to hers. Three gang members were down. Two were dead, and the other was dying. She pulled out her pistol and walked over to the one still alive. He was young maybe eighteen. He looked up at her and snarled.

  “Fuck you, bitch.”

  Cat raised her weapon, but he died before she had to decide if she was going to finish him off. This was one shitty world. A kid like that shouldn’t have been a gang banger.

  She heard a couple of shots from down the hall. She recognized the sound; they were from Vin’s weapon. After the echoes of the last shots slowly died away, there was a deadly quiet. The silence seemed deafening after the explosions and gunfire. Cat was standing in the hall when Tanner cautiously peered around the far corner. Seeing her he rushed over and pulled her into his arms. She forgot how mad she was with him and returned the embrace with just as much emotion. It had been a very close thing. Much too close. They stood holding each other for some time before either was able to say anything.

  “Are you hurt?” Tanner finally asked, looking her up and down at arm’s length. “I thought I’d lost you when I found them on the stairs like that.”

  Cat leaned back in his arms and looked directly into his eyes. “Where the fuck have you been? That was too goddamn close.”

  “Yeah, no shit.” Tanner stepped back, a huge smile on his face. “How’s Matos?” he asked.

  “Better. Blood pressure up and his pulse is down. I’ve got him sedated now. The supplies?”

  “They stripped the caches.”

  “Fuck,” Cat snapped. She pulled the cigarette pack Tanner had given her earlier. It seemed like that had been a long time ago, but it had been only a few hours. Cat pulled the last cigarette out of the pack and lit it, then threw the crumpled pack against the wall in leftover frustration. She took
a long drag before handing the cigarette to Tanner. “What now?”

  Tanner blew a thick stream of smoke toward the ceiling and handed the cigarette back to Cat. “We can’t stay here. Somebody’s bound to have heard this firefight and will come looking for scavenge. Can Matos travel?”

  “Yeah, I think so. It was a through-and-through wound, but it made a mess out of his thigh. I was more concerned about shock than anything else. I got enough fluids and drugs in him that I think I got that whipped. So with a little help, I think he’ll be fine. Slow, but fine until we can get somewhere he can really rest.”

  “You bring him around while I see if those guys in the hall have anything usable.”

  Cat went back into the room and knelt next to Matos. She checked his blood pressure, pulse, and breathing. Everything was within normal limits. The sealant was holding and she had the wound bandaged good and tight. Tanner came back empty-handed.

  “We can’t go on like this,” Cat said as he entered the room. “We’ve been lucky so far. Without the supplies from those caches we’re going to lose our firepower superiority soon, and then we’ll be as good as dead.”

  They were both silent for some time, each lost in their own thoughts of how to get out of this mess.

  “We can’t join a gang,” Cat laughed, breaking the long silence.

  “No, we can’t. We could try and walk away. Just disappear.”

  Cat glanced over at Matos. She frowned before she said, “We would have to wait until he was strong enough to move and that would take a while. That’s assuming he doesn’t develop an infection or complications. That is a nasty wound. Meantime how do we survive?”

  Tanner began to pace. “There has to be something. Some way…” he said. “It would be one thing if we were just walking away. It’s a whole different ballgame when they’re after us.”

  Cat looked at him and said, “So the real question is why do they want to kill us? You can’t pull together a Spec Act Team with tiltrotors that quickly. They had to be on standby. Then you said something or someone else. Think. What would set them off?”

  “I just protested the Free Fire Zone declaration. I said it didn’t meet the criteria. And if they did it I would turn in my papers after writing an IIRS.”

  “Somebody throwing a tantrum is not enough to trigger all of this. Could it be something in our sit rep?”

  “No, I don’t know why. There was nothing in my reports or yours and Matos’s. It was a really quiet mission. They cut us short after I made the last report.”

  Tanner paused a moment before he said, “Nothing really to report except that one group of settlers.”

  “What about them?” Cat asked.

  “It was my last OP. The settlers were very unusual. Very well organized and armed. When a gang tried to raid their settlement, the settlers ambushed them and sent them packing. It looked like an ambush we would have set up.”

  “Did you report that?”

  “Yes, that was in my last report. I had reported on their activities before, but I hadn’t seen anything like that before in all the years out here. As soon as I reported the ambush, they cut our mission short for the Free Fire Zone declaration.”

  Cat and Tanner suddenly looked at each other.

  “Those settlers. There’s something about them that scares the big guys,” Cat said.

  “But what?”

  “I don’t know, but I bet you that’s it,” Cat replied.

  Tanner stared at her for a long moment. “You’re right. That has got to be it. Something or someone in that settlement is the primary target for the Spec Act Team. We’re just an add-on.”

  “What in God’s name could they have or know?” Cat asked.

  “I don’t know, but with Matos down and no supplies they might be our only chance.”

  “We don’t have time to observe them until we understand what’s going on. We’ve got to get answers quick if we’re going to survive.”

  “Maybe we should pay them a visit and ask nicely,” Tanner said.

  Cat looked at him, “They’d shoot us on sight.”

  “We’ll just have to make sure they don’t.”

  Matos groaned, then his eyes slowly opened and he smiled feebly. Cat and Tanner knelt next to him.

  “Welcome back, old friend,” Tanner said.

  “Thanks,” he said weakly.

  Tanner looked back at Cat and said, “The settlement isn’t too far from here.”

  “Well, you takes your ticket and you takes your chances,” Cat said with a smirk. “Let’s get going.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  Special Action Team

  Patrol Area Bravo

  2155 hours

  Lieutenant Muller didn’t see the replacement tiltrotor until it banked to take up a position off her left wing. In the darkness and without landing lights, it was all but invisible.

  “Headhunter Six, this is Sergeant Moore reporting as ordered with replacements,” her radio crackled. The tiltrotor slipped into an orbit just outside her own.

  “Very good, Sergeant,” Muller replied, then switched her radio to a secure frequency for a patch to Steiger.

  “Headhunter Six to Headhunter Actual.”

  “This is Actual, go.”

  “Our replacements have arrived. We are now headed for our primary.”

  “Check, Headhunter, sounds good. What about your secondary targets, any further word on them?”

  “Yes. Not too long ago my electronics man picked up a mayday from one of them. They must have spilt up and gotten in trouble, or why else would they risk a transmission? As I told you before, they will not last. The computer gives them a week at the outside.”

  “The computer had better be right, Headhunter, or we will both be in trouble. Actual out.”

  Muller twisted in her seat and stared out at the black, deserted city. She wondered just how long they could last. She knew those streets, and in Wild Zones they were more dangerous than most could understand. The East-West Siders or some other gang would find them. Their weapons alone made them high-value targets. Still, she was frustrated by not being able to take an assigned target out. It was the first time in her career, and she intended to make it her last.

  “Transport One, this is Headhunter Six,” she said into her mic.

  “This is Transport.”

  “All right, it’s time. I want to ground three blocks west of the target. Have Transport Two ground three blocks to the east.”

  Muller hinged her mission computer down from her MOLLE. She typed in her orders to the replacement sergeant. Okay, now it’s time to focus on my primary, Muller thought as she snapped the computer back into the holder on her vest. Let’s just make sure we don’t let this one get away. The two transports, followed by the two gunships, made wide turns and disappeared silently westward.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  Resource Security Force

  Team Sixteen

  Rule Settlement

  2300 hours

  Tanner had scouted the hotel the settlers were using several times during his time in the OP. He had lived above them for a week. The entrance glass was completely gone, so there was a huge opening in the buildings façade. There were four entrances if you counted the front, but Tanner knew that was not an option—it could and would be easily covered by guards. The other three entrances were steel doors the settlers had installed. One on the west side in the alley and one on the east-side alley. Finally there was a rear entrance. They must have felt good about those doors, because they had no guards when he scouted the building.

  He crept slowly down the to the left of the building. It was deserted and trash filled, but if you looked carefully you could see a path had been worn in the papers, wood, plaster and other trash that covered the ground. He followed the path to the steel door. It had two separate deadbolt locks. On his recons he had been able to see people entering a service hall on each side of the lobby. So he knew this outside door would lead to that hallway then anot
her door into a main room behind the front desk. First he had to pick the lock on the outside door. Then he would slip into the hall.

  He squatted down beside the wall next to the door. It had started to rain again. Even in the rain it was hot under his helmet and mask. He pulled off his helmet then his mask and let the cool rain wash away the sweat. He had been so close to getting out of this. Now who knew when he would, get out? If the settlers accepted them, then maybe they could find a way to survive. With some luck they could surprise them enough to control the situation. Then Tanner had to convince them he and his team meant no harm to their settlement. It was a very long shot but it was the only one left. Tanner checked both ends of the block carefully before he started on the lock.

  He pulled out a small L-shaped tool, slipped it into the keyhole, and turned the lock clockwise. It moved just enough to let him know that was the right direction. Next he slipped the pin tool carefully on top of the L tool. He felt for each pin and pressed upward. The tongue of the L-shaped tool held the pins in place once they were pushed up. He came to the last pin and the lock opened. Then he did the same for the other lock. He was in. He knew Cat was a better lock picker than he was and would be ahead of him. He knelt outside the door into the building listening carefully. Nothing. He listening carefully eased the door open and slipped into the hall, then closed and locked the door behind him. If the settlers didn’t accept them, it wouldn’t matter if it was locked or not—they would be shooting their way out.

  He slipped silently down the hall. He could faintly hear voices. They became louder as he approached the door into the main room. Tanner knelt next to the door and put a small shaped charge on the door handle. He didn’t care if it was locked or not. He wanted the bang and flash to get their attention.