Right to Rule: Hunter Wars Book Five (The Hunter Wars 5)

by SD Tanner

  Gears stood looking at both of them for a moment. “Now ain’t the time to be discussin’ this. We gotta go.” They all walked towards the door that led out of the suite and back into the corridor. “It ain’t like I’m listenin’ to ya, but we’ll head back to the base and sort it out there.”

  Walking back to the elevator, he pressed the button to go down again, but Ip kept walking toward the door at the far end of the corridor. Standing by the double doors, she stared back at them pointedly.

  “What now, honey?” Gears asked tiredly, as he walked toward her.

  Ip glared at Gears and appeared to say nothing. “Ip reckons we need to get in there.”

  He walked over to the door and opened it, giving Pax and Gears a baleful look. “I’ll bet the other door wasn’t locked either.”

  This time there was no gunfire and he watched as Gears and Pax entered the room, alert and ready to shoot anything that came near them, but the room was silent and still. Like Ruler’s suite, this one was equally as luxurious, but with red and gold toned curtains and furniture. It appeared to have an identical floor plan to Ruler’s suite, and he walked with his brothers to the master bedroom. There was a large California king-size bed, but the quilt and pillows were strewn about and it was obvious someone had been sleeping there. The view from the bedroom was panoramic and he could see over the top of the shorter buildings and across the city.

  Walking across the room, Pax stood outside a closed door. “Is this the bathroom? I need to take a piss.”

  “I really don’t think it matters where you do that, Pax,” Gears replied.

  Pax glanced around the room as if contemplating where he could relieve himself, then he shrugged. “Nah, I wanna see the bathroom.”

  Sighing, Gears walked over and took position by the door with his gun aimed. Standing against the wall next to the door, Pax leaned over and twisted the handle, but it was locked. He jiggled the handle. “Someone must be in there.”

  “We could just leave,” he suggested hopefully. “You can take a leak anywhere.” To his surprise, Pax began to kick at the door and he shouted, “What the hell are you doing? Just take a leak somewhere else.”

  Pax gave him a baleful look. “Shaddup, TL. I wanna see what’s in here. Must be something interesting or it wouldn’t be locked, now would it?”

  Ip was sitting on the end of the bed looking sulky and bored, while both Gears and Pax kicked at the door until the lock began to tear and it sprang open. Despite himself, he was curious too, and while keeping an eye on the double doors of the bedroom, he listened to his brothers as their voices echoed in the bathroom.

  “Woah!” Pax exclaimed. “Fancy place to take a dump!”

  “Don’t shout at me, Pax, I’ve got a wife to do that.”

  “Well, I’ll be damned. It’s okay. We won’t hurt you.”

  “Don’t crowd her, Pax. Can’t you see she’s scared?”

  “Well, bein’ crowded by a gorilla like you ain’t gonna help.”

  “Shaddup, Pax.”

  “Get out, Gears!”

  Gears walked out of the bathroom and stood watching the open door. Still trying to keep an eye on the main door to the suite, he strained to see who they’d found in the bathroom. Pax came out with his arm around a striking woman with platinum blonde hair. She was dressed in a long silky white nightgown, with a matching soft floating robe, and she looked wide-eyed. Her brilliant blue eyes made it clear she was one of the infected and he wondered what she was doing here. She certainly wasn’t someone they’d infected at their CDC, he would have remembered seeing a woman who looked as stunning as her. Ip walked across to the woman, and while she hugged her warmly, he was surprised the frightened woman hugged her back and began to cry. While Ip held her firmly, it was obvious they were communicating telepathically and the woman began to calm down. Once Ip pulled away the woman looked at them and smiled shyly.

  Not understanding what was going on, he asked, “Who is she?”

  Pax was staring at the woman with a stupid-looking grin on his face. “It’s BD. She’s back.”

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: Rock and a hard place (Captain Ted)

  Hundreds of people were sprinting down the wharf, some were covered in blood and all were screaming and terrified. Who was living and who was hunter? Without knowing, he couldn’t just order his shooters to open fire on them. All five transport ships had docked at the wharf and everything was going well. Thousands of people had disembarked, and he had nearly seventeen thousand people already being directed to the houses in Cowes for the night. At first the people had streamed out of the ship and walked over to the other side of the building on the wharf. There they were given their food parcels and assigned to a house. Combat shooters and scavengers were providing assistance to maintain order while people began to walk to their assigned houses. He’d been monitoring the work all day, but Kat had it all under control and he’d been more than happy with the progress.

  It was the last ship to be docked, everyone was tired and even he was looking forward to the day ending, but while he watched people disembarking, he’d heard the faint sound of gunfire from deep inside the transport. Then all hell had broken loose. People began to run from the ship, some threw themselves overboard, and without fully understanding the problem, he’d ordered combat shooters to get lifeboats into the water. Now he was watching hundreds of people running towards the area behind the building and he had to make a split-second decision. Did he assume there were hunters in the mix and order the birds and shooters to open fire, or did he hope they were all survivors and let them onto the island. If there were hunters in the mob and he let them onto the island, he could lose everyone and in an instant. He decided a single solution was not a solution.

  “Get shooters into the crowd. Identify the hunters and kill ‘em. Bring all the birds and other shooters back to the wharf area.”

  Immediately the scavengers and combat shooters left their positions and began to advance on the crowd running in their direction. He unhooked his own weapon and prepared to join them when Logan appeared at his side. “You need to get in the air and control operations from there.”

  He batted a combat shooter on the shoulder and they both jogged across to a waiting bird and climbed aboard. The pilot was ready to take off and they immediately lifted into the air. He looked down at the scene on the wharf and saw Logan was right. From the air, he got a much better understanding of what he was dealing with. He could see Logan pushing his way through the crowds and heading to board the transport. The shooters were making quick visual checks of the people running towards the parking lot before taking aim and shooting what he assumed were the hunters in the crowd. More shooters were running from the housing areas to join the battle, and he instructed his pilot to hover over the transport so he could assess what was happening on board.

  He was only twenty feet above the main deck and he saw hunters were emerging from the various doors from the lower decks and attacking the living. People were instantly being reborn as hunters and attacking more of the living. Combat shooters were trying to target the hunters, but their shots were going wild and they were accidentally shooting the living. Desperate to escape the growing chaos, some people were jumping overboard into the freezing water. Looking across the whole wharf, there were lifeboats already in the water and streaming toward the ship.

  “Take me as low as you can.”

  The pilot did as he was asked and now he was only ten feet from the fight on the deck. He waved his arms at the living at the railing. “Jump! Jump!”

  People were looking up at him and then throwing themselves from railings to the cold water below. As more and more people jumped off the ship, they were replaced by more living escaping from the lower decks. He continued to wave at them shouting. “Jump! Jump!”

  The living continued to leap from the railing. With their heads vibrating manically, the hunters followed them, only to land in the water, flail uselessly and sink. Hunters couldn’t drown, but they
couldn’t swim either. Once overboard, they would sink to the bottom of the sea, and a few might be cast back onto the beaches like living driftwood, but he decided that was a problem for another day. The shooters in the lifeboats had reached the transport and they were already pulling survivors from the water.

  He needed to check the situation on land. “Go back to the wharf.”

  The situation at there was deteriorating. In the crush of the crowds, the shooters were not successfully stopping the hunters from making it past the buildings. More shooters were taking up positions in the parking lot and trying to target the hunters. Hunters were catching people running past the buildings and attacking them. Their victims were instantly reborn as hunters and the problem was growing exponentially more dangerous by the second. If the hunters breached the wharf and the parking lot, there’d be no way to contain them, and within minutes, he’d lose the whole island. He needed to make another split-second decision and it meant killing the living along with the undead. His head spun and a part of him resented having to be the one to decide, but an even bigger part of him knew this was the job he’d signed up for. To have the compassion to protect, but the strength to know when he couldn’t protect everyone equally.

  Before he concluded his decision, he asked, “What’s the ETA on the birds.”

  “Two minutes out,” his pilot replied steadily.

  Through his radio, he said, “Axel, pull the shooters in the crowds back now.”

  “Roger that. Are you gonna take out the wharf?”

  “Have to.”

  The shooters began to work their way back from the wharf and join the crowd heading to the parking lot. As they went, they were shooting fairly wildly at the crowd, and he was sure they were already killing the living as well as the hunters, but they didn’t have much choice. Meanwhile, the shooters in the parking lot were forming a rough perimeter designed to pen the hunters into the wharf. Some of the living were making it past the endless gunfire, and he assumed the shooters were still trying to be discerning. It wasn’t always working, and as they made their way through the perimeter, some people had clearly been shot.

  Four birds that had been parked or moving around the island came into his view. He ordered his pilot to line up two of the birds with him and send the other two to the transport ship. Before he ordered them to open fire, he said into his radio, “Logan, get off the ship.”

  “I'm not on the ship. I figured you’re gonna sink it.”

  “Axel, pull the life boats back.”

  Now the birds were in position, he ordered, “Open fire on the wharf.” As he issued the order, he moved into position behind the M240 machine gun, and he and the shooter with him, prepared to fire on the wharf.

  Taking a deep breath, he followed his own orders and opened fire. While the people were running, it was impossible to tell the living from the dead, but under a barrage of gunfire, those that fell immediately had obviously been alive. The ones that didn’t die, despite taking endless rounds, were clearly the hunters. While he fired round after round, he estimated that maybe half of the people on the wharf had been alive, and he'd been responsible for the deaths of at least five hundred people, but he gritted his teeth and continued to follow his own orders. Once he saw the crowds on the wharf were now at a controllable level, he turned his attention to the transport ship.

  Hunters and the living were still emerging down the gangway and onto the wharf in a constant stream, and he knew there were likely to be a thousand or more to come. Each transport ship had held over four thousand people and he estimated he’d only seen a couple of thousand escape.

  “Fire missiles at the base of the boat. We need to sink it.”

  “Seriously?” A pilot asked through his headset.

  “Don’t fuckin’ question me and follow your orders.”

  “Yes sir.”

  People were still leaping from the railings of the transport ship and there were more people trying to swim towards the shore. There wasn’t much he could do to help them other than hope they’d be far enough away before the ship began to sink. Two birds lined up side by side on the opposite side of the ship and fired Hellfire missiles into the middle and each end of the hull. With her hull breached, water began to rush into the base of the boat and the transport tilted away from the wharf. Slowly the ship slipped further until she was almost lying on her side in the water, and at this angle, she was no longer in contact with the wharf. With the gangway having fallen into the water, the invasion of the living and the hunters onto the wharf stopped. All that was left was a muddled group of the living, hunters and people who were injured or dying of gunshot wounds. Now, he’d stopped the problem from escalating, there was a chance at least a few of the survivors could still be saved.

  “Axel, get the lifeboats back out to rescue them, and tell the shooters to try not to shoot the living on the wharf.”

  “Roger that.”

  From the bird, he watched more people emerge from the lower decks and scramble out of the doors. The boat was tilted and the top deck was now pointing toward the sea. People were sliding down the deck and crashing into the railing that was now nearly underwater, and then they fell splashing into the freezing water. Hunters followed them, and not understanding what was happening, they were falling down the slippery deck and slamming roughly into the railing, before also landing in the water. The sinking transport ship was creating a suctioning effect, and if the people couldn’t swim away, they were being dragged down by the water. People were disappearing and not resurfacing.

  “Axel! Tell the lifeboats not to get too close to the ship. It’s sinking and they’ll be sucked down with it.”

  “Roger that. Fuckin’ fine mess this is.”

  “Not now, Axel.”

  “Roger that.”

  The combat shooter who joined him on the bird began tugging at some netting on the back wall. Immediately understanding the shooter’s intent, he helped drag the heavy netting away from the wall and they went to the doors.

  He called to the pilot. “Take is down as low as you can go.”

  Throwing the netting down so it dragged in the water, he and the shooter secured it to hooks next to the doors. It wasn’t a guaranteed plan, but it was better than nothing. People immediately began to swim towards the netting, and rather than try and pull them into the bird, he waved at more people to grab hold of the net. The rotors from the bird were causing the water to spray wildly, and survivors were fighting the suction caused by the sinking boat, and the buffeting of the water created by the bird. Despite this, some people were managing to cling to the heavy netting that was now waving across the surface of the sea. While their pilot flew low and slow, more people grabbed onto the net and were gradually pulled away from the sinking ship towards the waiting lifeboats. Obviously the pilots in the other birds understood what they were doing and began lowering netting into the water.

  Relieved they were able to do something to help the people escaping the transport ship, he now needed to take control of the wharf. “Take us back to the wharf.”

  They flew low over the wharf and saw pretty much everyone was down. It wasn’t a large wharf and there were bodies everywhere. Even from a distance, he could see they were covered in blood and some people were clearly still alive and trying to move. Merged with the bodies of the dead, the dying and the injured, were downed hunters still reaching for them. Trying to rescue the injured living was going to be dangerous, but they had to move quickly before anyone left alive died of their injuries, or fell victim to the downed hunters surrounding them. All the shooters had achieved was to stop the hunters from making it to the island. There was a life and death battle still happening on the wharf, and he was determined to save as many people as he could. After ordering the pilot to land, he jogged back to the perimeter and found Axel.

  “We need as much medical support as we can get, but first we need to kill the hunters on the wharf.”

  Axel gave him a grim look. “Roger that.”
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  Leaving Axel to sort out the medical teams, he waved over several combat teams. “We’re gonna go onto the wharf and kill the hunters. I don’t want the medical teams in there trying to take care of the injured living until the hunters are all down.” Looking around, he asked, “Where’s Logan?”

  “He headed onto the wharf already.”

  He and the combat teams walked onto the wharf to finish the job.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN: Little man, big problem (Angel)

  Jacob was sleeping. The plastic chair she was sitting in squeaked as she stood up and silently moved towards the door of his room in the CDC.

  “Where are you going?”

  She walked back to his bed, and tilting her head, she said softly, “I thought you were sleeping.”

  Opening his eyes fully and yawning widely, he replied, “Dozing more than sleeping.” Struggling to sit up, he added, “I’m bored lying in bed.”

  She looked around the room and saw the wheelchair one of the nurses brought in earlier that day. “Wanna go for a wheelie?”

  Following her gaze, he looked at the wheelchair and chuckled. “Hell yeah!”

  In this new, post-virus world, no one was overweight or even carried a few extra pounds, and she figured she could get him into the wheelchair without calling for another nurse. She wheeled the old-fashioned metal and leather chair over to his bed and locked the wheels. Releasing the sides, she helped him swing his damaged legs over the edge of the bed.

  “Are you sure it doesn’t hurt?”

  Jacob thumped his thigh with a closed fist. “Can’t feel a thing.” Frowning for a moment, he looked at her and said, “That’s probably not a good thing, right?”

  “It would be best if you weren’t injured at all, but if you are then having no pain is probably the most you can hope for.”