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

by SD Tanner

  With both fists clenched like meaty hams, he stood over his brother. “What the fuck are ya doin?”

  TL was sweating and breathing hard, but quickly climbed to his feet. Now standing and still glaring at him, he was clearly contemplating another assault. Tasting his own salty blood in his mouth, he sniffed and squared up with his fists. “Alright, asshole. Bring it on.”

  While he prepared to land his own punch, he heard Pax shout. “Are you two girls comin’? Or do me and Ip gotta do all the goddamn work around here?”

  Glancing to his left, he saw Pax was cradling his gun, and chewing on a mouthful of food. Ip was sitting on the platform of a waiting bird, swinging her legs and calmly eating a snack bar. Looking back at Pax, he watched him swallow his mouthful of food and then he yawned widely.

  Now feeling stupid, he felt the tension leave his body. Looking at TL, he asked, “Are ya done?”

  Still looking defensive, TL asked angrily, “Are we going to the ship?”

  Pax shook his head. “Course we are, ya dumbass. You only hadda say.” Walking over to the bird, he grumbled, “Women are less trouble.”

  “What the hell did you punch me for?”

  TL’s shoulders slumped. “I dunno. I just wanted to punch somebody.”

  “Why’d you punch me? Why not Pax?”

  “You were closer.”

  Once they were all seated on the bird, he ran his hand over his face and around his jaw, testing the extent of the damage TL had done. His jaw was going to hurt for a few days and he was pretty sure he’d given him a black eye. Jackass, he muttered to himself. When they were younger, he and Pax were always scrapping over something, but never TL. Concluding he’d had worse injuries, he hoped TL was beginning to come to terms with Lydia’s death, and that maybe his outburst was a good sign.

  While he and TL were fighting, Pax had organized someone to get the medical teams ready for the survivors, and made sure the bird they were on carried more ammo, food and water. Having given their food and water to survivors in New York, none of them had eaten or drunk much for the past twenty-four hours. While the bird headed out to the ship, he reloaded his tactical vest with ammo and ate and drank from the supplies. Chewing on a stale health bar, and gulping water from a plastic bottle, he realized he was very hungry and thirsty. The cold water made his mouth sting, and running his tongue across his cheek, he felt a jagged and still bleeding tear where TL had punched him.

  Watching him wince, Pax chuckled. “You’re gonna blow up like a balloon!”

  Lisping slightly, he replied, “Shaddup, Pax.”

  Pax was right and his face was going to look like hell by tomorrow. Ip began to giggle and he turned to her. “Not funny.”

  Ip speaks: Poor love, a state you are in. The kind one won that spin.

  “Still not funny, honey.” Dismissing them both, he thought about the ship and what they needed to do next. “Honey, you’re gonna have to control the hunters so we can land the bird. Then we’ll head to our suite and see if Lydia’s baby is still there.”

  Feeling TL bat him on the shoulder, he saw him shake his head. “He’s not Lydia’s baby, Gears, he’s my son.”

  “Well, it’d be real helpful if you gave your son a name, TL.” Inwardly he was pleased to hear he was finally taking ownership of the boy. The poor kid was adrift in a world where everyone cared about him, but no one had taken him on as theirs to raise.

  Pax was still loading ammo into his pouches. “Even with Ip, this is gonna be dangerous.”

  “Yeah, we’ve gotta keep our shit wired.” Punching TL on the shoulder, he asked, “You and me done with the bullshit?”

  “It never started, Gears. You were just the closest asshole to punch.” Holding up his bruised and bloodied fists, he added, “I ain’t hitting you again. You’ve got a head like concrete.”

  Pax snorted. “That’s ‘cos it’s full ‘o concrete, dude.”

  “You shoulda punched Pax. Mighta knocked some sense into ‘im.”

  While they were still arguing, Hatch began to circle the ship. Forgetting their banter, they moved so they could peer out of the window and door to see what was happening on the deck. The helipad was empty and he assumed some people must have escaped by bird. In the water, there were half a dozen lifeboats full of people, and the birds they’d watched leaving the base at speed were hovering over the water. He assumed they were in radio contact with the surrounding ships and guiding them to the stranded survivors in the water.

  The main deck was swarming with their own people, still dressed in ACUs and casual clothes, but clearly now newly born as hunters. Many were drenched in blood, and even from a distance, he could see the lower half of their faces were stained with the blood of recent kills. This was the reality of losing the ship. Their friends, acquaintances, and even the people they didn’t like were now reborn as undead hunters. He sighed deeply knowing that Mom, TL’s baby, Mackenzie, Max and her unborn child had been on the ship and were now hunters. Killing his own foster mother was nothing he’d ever wanted to contemplate, but he wouldn’t leave her to suffer life as a hunter.

  “Hatch, take us down. Honey, sort the hunters on the helipad so we can land safely.”

  Ip speaks: This is the cost we must bear to see that man is treated fair.

  I know, honey, he thought, but some days it’s beyond reason. With the bird hovering eight feet above the helipad, she lightly touched his face before scooting across the floor, and dropping through the door and onto the deck. As soon as she landed on her feet, the hunters drew away from the helipad leaving it clear for Hatch to land safely.

  “Hatch! Head back to the base and get your air support sorted and then come back here and pick us up. We’re gonna be here a while sortin’ this out.”

  “What if you need an emergency evac?”

  “We’ll flag down one of the birds with a flare.”

  “Roger that.”

  Turning to TL, he asked, “This is your show, bro’. Whatdaya wanna do first?”

  “Go to our suite. If my boy’s anywhere, that’s where he’ll be.”

  Looking genuinely concerned, Pax asked, “You know he’s dead, doncha?”

  He watched as TL’s expression hardened. “Yes, but it’s my responsibility to take care of my son, and if the best I can do by him is end his suffering quickly, then that’s what I’ll do.”

  Acknowledging his brother’s obvious love for his son, he slapped him lightly on the back. “Let’s go do what needs to be done.”

  Along the deck were pools and smears of bright red blood, still fresh and wet. Slipping slightly, and looking down, he was walking through a dense pool of blood. He felt his face tighten into a grimace. Newly born hunters were pressing against Ip’s hunter guard, and he recognized almost every face. Some of them were people he knew by name, and he knew all of them well enough to know they lived on the ship with him.

  Looking grim, Pax observed unhappily, “This feels real personal.”

  “Yeah, it does.”

  Standing on his toes, Pax craned his neck to peer over the clusters of hunters. Knowing he was looking for Mom, he said, “I’ll take care of Mom.”

  “Nah, Gears, you’ve got enough shit to deal with.”

  “No, Pax. Pop would wanna know I took care of her.”

  Ip speaks: Stop the fight over who cares most. It is my job to make them all ghosts.

  With a sigh, TL said, “That’s true Ip. Your way is the kindest way.”

  Stopping in surprise, he turned to TL. “Did you jus’ hear Ip?”

  Ip speaks: The kind one is awake at last. Perhaps now we can make the Devil the past.

  He didn’t know what that meant, but he did believe it was important in some way. For now he didn’t have time to ponder the implications of this change in dynamic, and he focused on getting them safely through the ship. TL’s son would no doubt be dead, but he was right when he refused to let him bomb the ship. He hadn’t really meant that he would, he’d said it more out of fru
stration than intent, but if it stirred TL to finally connect with himself, then it was worth a few bruises.

  The ship was a tight space, and even with Ip controlling the hunters, it was going to be dangerous to navigate their way through the narrow corridors with doors on either side of them. Regardless of how they felt about these people, they would have to shoot them to save their own lives. Shooting newly born hunters was never a pleasant task. Infected, but not fully transformed, they still looked human and bled blood. Shooting their own was going to feel like murder, and it wasn’t anything he wanted to do. Thanks to TL’s battering, his face was starting to hurt badly and he could feel one eye swelling. Putting his discomfort aside, he stepped off the main deck and into the bar.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: Déjà vu (Captain Ted)

  He knew his bases and something wasn’t right. When they landed there seemed to be an air of panic at the Marine supply base. With his hand on Luke’s shoulder, he guided the young man and Gray through the crowd, and they headed toward the communications room at the top of the main warehouse. The flight from the Isle of Wight had been quiet. The plane was loaded with as many of the severely injured as it could carry and a few nurses to help keep the patients comfortable. Landing at the Navy submarine base, he’d tried to raise the CDC on the radio, but got no response. The comms person had then tried to raise the ship, and to his surprise, they got no reply there either. Something was wrong and he hoped someone in the communications team at the Marine supply or Naval base could brief him.

  “Ted!” A voice called out through the crowd. “Ted! Hold up!”

  Turning and looking for the owner of the voice, he saw a young woman pushing her way through the crowd toward him. It was Cutter’s girlfriend Tina and he was relieved to see her.

  When she caught up to them, sounding as worried as he felt, he asked, “What the fuck is going on, Tina?”

  Tina was a short, lean woman, with a strong muscular face and cropped hair. She was always blunt to the point of appearing rude. “The ship’s gone. So’s the CDC.”

  “What do you mean by gone?”

  “I don’t have all the details. All I know is we’ve got patients being airlifted to this base, and rumor has it the CDC was infected. And that’s not the worst of it. We got a garbled message from the ship saying it was infected and to stay away. Roger took off with the birds to go and investigate, but our comms are down, so I dunno what’s going on.”

  “What the hell…’ He left the words hanging while he began to think through their predicament.

  If the CDC was gone, then all of the injured survivors he’d just sent there would have to turn around and brought back to the Marine supply base. There were no hospitals at any of the bases, which meant there was very little they could do for the severely injured, and in losing the CDC, they’d just lost their one and only hospital. With his approach to logistics, there were medical supplies at all the bases and the islands. At least it meant they had medications and basic supplies to keep people comfortable, while they sorted out how to get the hospital facilities working again. Of course, that assumed they still had the medical personnel that had worked in the CDC.

  He refocused his attention back to Tina. “Where are the medics?”

  “Here. Well, not all of them. I don’t know how many we lost, but I do know we still have doctors and nurses. They came back with the patients and they’re still bringing people here from the CDC, so I don’t think we have a final head count.”

  “I need you to set up an emergency area for the patients. I have more coming from the Isle of Wight. Right now they’re heading to the CDC, but they’ll turn around and come here, so get ready for them. Some are in a bad way. Tell the medics to do what they can. There’s medical supplies in the warehouse and, if you can’t use the radio, then send a messenger to the Naval base and get them to send their medics and medical supplies here too.”

  Tina nodded and was about to follow her orders when he put his hand on her arm. “Wait. Do you know what Cutter was planning to do with the ship?”

  “Roger didn’t say. He flew out straight away to assess the situation and we can’t raise him on the radio, so I dunno what’s happened.”

  “But the radio message said the ship was infected?”

  “Yeah, that was pretty clear. Gerry radioed and said the ship was infected and to stay away.”

  First the Isle of Wight, now the CDC and the ship. What the hell was going on, he wondered? There was no way they’d gotten this unlucky. Maybe Gray was right and they really were infiltrated.

  Gray was quietly standing next to him and as if to confirm his own opinion, he said matter-of-factly, “Ruler must have sent his demons into the bases.”

  Before replying to Gray, he ordered, “Tina, go and get the medical site organized.”

  Tina didn’t answer, but immediately began to push her way through the crowds, as she headed for the warehouse next to the helipads.

  He turned to Gray. “I need to head out to the ship to help Cutter.”

  “You need to destroy the ship. It’s full of hunters and at least one of them is a demon.”

  He looked at Gray in horror and he realized he was right. If the ship was infected, it probably wouldn’t have been by a hunter. A hunter wasn’t smart enough to smuggle itself on board, and it was unlikely anyone had the ability or the reason to take one onto the ship, but a demon super hunter could have easily concealed what it was and found a way to get aboard. It was obvious now that at least one demon super hunter had smuggled themselves aboard the transport ship headed to the Isle of Wight. Assuming the same tactic was used to board their cruise ship, then the demon super hunter would still be on board. No one other than Ip could go onto the ship. A demon super hunter would be able to control the newly born hunters and it would be suicide for anyone else to even try, but she was in New York with Gears and his brothers.

  “Shit. We might as well blow it out of the water.” His shoulders dropped and he added unhappily, “It’s lost.”

  “It’s already gone. All you’ll be doing is making sure no one else dies because of it.”

  Luke looked up at him and asked, “Does that mean everyone on there is dead too?”

  “Yeah, Luke. It’s a bad day here too.” Straightening his back, he turned to Gray. “Take care of Luke. Get him somewhere to sleep and some food. I’ll come and find you once we’ve sorted the ship.”

  Nodding again, Gray asked, “Where’s Gears and his brothers?”

  As far as he knew they were still in New York. Gears told him they were likely to be gone for two weeks and he wasn’t expecting him back for at least another five days. While they were on their mission in New York, he had no way of communicating with them. Once again the weight of being in command wore heavily on him, but he knew Gears wouldn’t want to lose any more lives than he already had. He wasn’t looking forward to briefing Gears when he got back from New York. So far, between the Isle of Wight, the ship and the CDC, it looked like he’d might have lost up to four thousand five hundred people.

  “They’re out hunting Ruler and they’re not due back yet, but I need to go and sort the ship now. We can’t leave our people to suffer this way.”

  Most of the birds were out working, but he found one that was still being loaded with fuel, weapons, ammo and supplies, and he was surprised it wasn’t clean and already loaded. Hatch drilled into his flight teams all birds were to be fully loaded at all times and ready to take on any mission. He didn’t have time to ask why this bird was filthy and was still being fully restocked. Climbing on board, he instructed the pilot to take him to the ship.

  Once they were in the air, he asked, “Do you have an update on the ship…or any update at all?”

  The pilot replied through is headset. “No, sorry sir. I wasn’t on duty when we got word. As soon as I heard there was a problem, I came out to the helipad and all the birds were out except this one. It had just landed back, but I don’t know where the hell it’s been ‘cos it
had nothing left on it other than its missiles. It’s taken me a few hours to get it fully stocked and fueled again, but it’s still dirty and Hatch’ll have my ass.”

  He looked around the interior of the bird, but it looked like any other. The gun was mounted and ready to fire, racks of M4s sat against one wall, there were half a dozen seats, and boxes of ammo and supplies were stacked and secured against the back wall next to a bundle of netting and other tools they might need. There was no blood on the floor and nothing to indicate the bird had seen any action other than it was dirty, but that in itself was surprising. Hatch was very strict about keeping the birds clean, maintained and well stocked. Shrugging to himself, he decided it wasn’t enough of a mystery for him to worry about.

  “Can you raise Cutter on the radio yet?”

  “Yes sir.”

  “Ted?” Cutter asked through his headset.

  “Yeah, what’s going on?”

  “What are you doing here?” He asked, sounding relieved.

  He wasn’t in the mood to play twenty questions. “Does it fuckin’ matter.”

  “Nope. We’ve got five lifeboats in the water and the bird had about ten people in it. I’ve sent it to the Marine supply base to drop them off. I’ve got four birds here and we’re directing local ships to pick up the people in the lifeboats. We’ve got some people in the water, but the lifeboats have picked most of them up. We think about five or six hundred people managed to escape, but it doesn’t look like there’s anybody left alive on the ship. All we can see are hunters.”

  “Well, if there is anyone left alive, they won’t be for long, not with that many hunters on board.”

  “Should we mount a rescue mission?”

  “No. There’s no point. There’s got to be a demon super hunter on board. It would be suicide to send anyone there and what would be the point? Everyone’s dead and anyone who steps foot on that ship will be dead too.”