by SD Tanner
Ip thinks: I found the man who belongs to me. I see his mind and he sees me. We are happy now he and me. But I must follow for finally he flees. The bald ones hold the enemy clear. I have their will, my men need not fear.
***
He shouted at Mackenzie, ‘Good job! Now get us the hell outta here!’
As they made their way along the hangar wall towards the door, they watched several hunters launch straight for the interior door of the hangar that led to the living quarters. The door wasn’t designed to take the strain of hardened bodies repeatedly slamming into it and was starting to splinter. Suddenly the door exploded outwards and he could hear the gunfire coming from the other side of the door. It stopped the initial attack, but now there was no longer a door and hunters were still coming in through the hangar side door. The hunters headed straight for the now disintegrated door to the living quarters.
Hunters were still running in through the hangar side door they needed to leave through and Mackenzie shouted, ‘How the hell do we get past them?’
Ip grabbed Gears and pulled him towards the hangar side door. He wasn’t sure what she was doing, but he shrugged at Mackenzie and they followed them. When they reached the door, the hunters pulled away and let them through. He knew hunters avoided Ip, but they didn’t avoid anyone she was with. Usually Ip protected anyone with her by acting like a shield and threatening or killing the hunters. Tonight the hunters were getting out of their way and running past them as if they couldn’t see them. All around them, they could hear gunfire and the screams of men falling under the attack of the hunters.
He shouted to Gears, ‘What the hell is goin’ on?’
Sounding as confused as he was, Gears shouted, ‘Ya know what I know, dumbass.’
Ip speaks: The bald ones were mine. I had their will, but whispers came and made mine still. Stop your whispering the bald ones must kill.
Super hunter: You will not meddle for these beasts are not yours to peddle. For you are one and we are many.
Ip speaks: I cannot win I know that true, but I am not a friend for you. Now the bald ones do not listen when I speak. Now the bald ones seek my men and we face defeat.
They were 10 yards from the bird and he could feel the wind as the rotors were ramping to speed and getting ready for take-off. Clearly the bird was good to go and it looked like they were going to get what they came for. Suddenly, a hunter that was passing Gears, spun around and launched itself at him. Gears body slammed the hunter using his forearm across its throat to avoid the bite and Ip flicked out her hand, catching the hunter and it fell back from Gears dropping dead to the ground.
Pushing Mackenzie towards the bird, he roared, ‘Go! Go! Go!’
Mackenzie launched himself into the bird, scrambling wildly and pulled himself onto the metal platform. The hunters around them were turning to attack them and Ip was snarling and darting between them, killing any hunter she could get within her reach. As he got to the door of the bird, he punched out at the hunters crowding him, and Mackenzie grabbed him by his shirt and yanked him into the bird. Gears was following closely behind him and was using his body weight and his fists to slam the hunters away from him. Once he was within reach, he and Mackenzie grabbed Gears and yanked him into the body of the bird. As his feet left the ground, Gears lunged and grabbed Ip who was still killing any hunter that came near them.
He roared at Hatch, ‘Go! Go! Go!’
Hatch immediately took flight. As the bird lifted unsteadily into the air, Gears, who was barely on board himself, relied on Pax and Mackenzie to pull him to safety while he held Ip in a tight bear hug to prevent her from falling. They all watched as the ground fell away from under them. He half-wondered if the Major’s men would fire on the bird as it left, but from the air he could see they were preoccupied with the hunters still streaming through the hole in the fence. Tracer fire could be seen coming from windows and, on the ground, there was a full-scale battle in progress. Gears was still tightly holding onto Ip. He grabbed several headsets and handed a pair to Gears.
Once Gears and Mackenzie were on radio, he said, ‘I think we jus’ made an enemy.’
Shrugging, Gears replied, ‘They were already an enemy. We jus’ got ourselves a tactical advantage.’
As they headed home, Hatch started singing, ‘Those magnificent men and their flying machines they go uppity up up they go downdity down down.’ It was like listening to a howling dog, but no one bothered to tell him to shut the hell up.
CHAPTER ELEVEN: Mission Brief (Gears)
Marching into the mission briefing room, he was in a foul mood. They’d gotten in late last night and, parking the bird on the roof of the Base, they’d used the roof entry hatch to climb down to the reception area. No one had been in the mood to talk. They might have the bird, but the mission hadn’t gone well and they’d barely escaped alive. He wasn’t sure what he was angry about, but he was sure he was mighty pissed about something.
He didn’t feel like sitting down, but he sat down heavily in his chair, accidentally sloshing his coffee all over the table. To stop himself from swearing, he sighed deeply and hoped the extra oxygen would settle his fraying temper. In addition to the usual team, they’d asked Hatch to join their meeting. He thought the man was off his meds, but he could fly and that was good enough for him. Ip was absent even when she was there and he’d left her to asleep in their quarters.
Sniffing grumpily, he asked, ‘What’s new?’ Answering his own question, he said, ‘We have a bird. And we have a heavily armed enemy only 130 miles away.’
Looking tired, Pax pulled a face and said, ‘They dunno know how to use them weapons, and if ya can’t use ‘em, then ya ain’t got ‘em.’
Glaring at Pax, he thought, that’s not the problem. Not knowing how to use them was a temporary condition and he knew that. Continuing to glare at his brother, he said grimly, ‘I know that, but how long do ya think it’ll be before they find some asshole that can use ‘em. They don’t make them weapons to be used by geniuses, Pax. Lotsa people know how to use ‘em.’
Pax chuckled and asked, ‘Given weapons are ya thing, Gears, did ya just call yourself stupid?’
Irritated by Pax’s obvious amusement, he snapped, ‘Not now, Pax. This is goddamn serious. They could bomb the shit outta us.’ He jutted his chin out at Pax and said sternly, ‘Here’s the bottom line, they will find someone who knows how to use them armaments. They do know where we are. They will attack us. It’s only a question of time, and it will be sooner not later.’
Everyone quietly sat watching him and clearly no one knew what to say to his blunt and grim prediction for their future. The Base defended them against hunters and hostile civilians, but it didn’t protect them from an attack with military grade weapons. It simply wasn’t a situation they’d predicted or planned for.
Kat broke the silence and asked meekly, ‘Do you think you shouldn’t have gone to their base?’
He heard her fear and saw how quickly it cowed her. He knew a lot of people at the Base looked to the three of them to be sure of their step, and immediately wished he hadn’t been so brutally honest.
In a softer tone, he answered, ‘No, Kat. We needed to go there, if only to see a vulnerability we hadn’t planned for. Forewarned is forearmed. Now we know, we can plan.’ Pulling a grin, he winked at her and said, ‘And now we got a bird. That changes the game in a good way.’
Seeing Kat’s fear broke both his bad mood and the shock in the team. People began talking at once until Benny shouted loudly, ‘I have an idea!’
‘Yeah, alright,’ Pax said dryly. ‘No need to shout like ya jus’ got ya first hard on.’
Clearly excited, Benny ignored Pax and said, ‘We need to plant a spy. A honey pot. Someone who can tell us if and when they get a weapons guy and if they plan to attack.’
Mackenzie caught Benny’s enthusiasm and added, ‘Then we can nail that asshole first.’
Max suggested uncertainly, ‘Or we could just attack them now.’
Pax argued, ‘No, no, no, that’s a waste of resource and an asshole like him makes his own trouble. If we’re lucky, someone else’ll kill him for us. We got enough shit to do without starting a war we don’t have to have with Major major asshole.’
Agreeing with Pax, he thought, fighting the Major would be dangerous and a fight best avoided. Nodding, he said, ‘That’s true Max. Never fight a battle until ya have to.’
Thinking forewarned is forearmed, he liked the idea the idea of planting a spy and looking around the table, he asked, ‘Who wants to be a spy?’
Grinning mischievously, Pax replied, ‘I know someone who’d be perfect. Course she’s not speaking to me right now, but I’ll use my charm.’
TL said curtly, ‘You don’t have any charm, Pax.’
Pax gave TL a dirty look and said smugly, ‘I got plenty of charm, and if ya was a woman you’d know that.’
Groaning, TL replied, ‘I feel ill now.’
‘We all do, TL,’ Lydia added.
Ignoring his brothers, he said, ‘Good idea, Benny.’ Turning to Pax, he said. ‘Get it done.’ Looking around the table again, he asked, ‘What’s new?’
Lydia spoke first and said, ‘We’re still looking for medical equipment, but we need Ip to clear the hospital of hunters so the scavengers can get in.’
Nodding to Lydia, he said, ‘No problem. Get it done tomorrow. I’m taking Jordy to the Ranch to set up the perimeter and I wanna bring Ip with me, so I’ll need her in the next few days.’
Turning to Lydia, TL said, ‘You’ll need to work with Pax for the medical scavenger run. Hatch and I are going to scout what else is beyond our current reach.’
Flicking his head at TL, he said, ‘Okay, but can ya do your first scoutin’ run tomorrow? I need to get the Ranch up and runnin’ asap. The sooner we can relocate civvies the better, particularly with Major major asshole so close. I want the Ranch ready for civvies in the next few days and the fastest way for us to get there is by air.’
Looking at Lydia, he asked, ‘What’s the deal with the CDC?’
Lydia replied, ‘They’re running Ip’s test results now. Next they’ll start work on replicating the counter virus and a viable method for transmission.’ She paused and then added, ‘But due to the mutating nature of the hunter virus, we’ll need regular samples from Ip.’
While he hesitated to answer Lydia, TL said, ‘Ip didn’t seem too concerned about the tests we did in the lab.’
It didn’t agree with him to have Ip to keep going back to a lab where she’d been so badly hurt. Subjecting her to endless medical procedures didn’t seem right either, but he knew they needed the outcome.
Rubbing the scar on his face, he thought through his options, but couldn’t think of any that worked and said, ‘Okay, but ya take the samples from her anywhere but that damned lab, and one of the three of us has to be with her when ya do it. If she doesn’t wanna do it, then it doesn’t happen. No exceptions.’
Lydia said nothing, but nodded to show she understood. Giving TL a stern look, he silently warned his brother to monitor the situation closely. TL flicked his head slightly and he knew TL got the message. Up until that moment, Hatch had been idly spinning around in his chair and didn’t seem to be paying any attention to the meeting. He was surprised when Hatch suddenly spun his chair to face the table again and said, ‘Ya want reach, then ya want that winged Black Hawk back at the Major’s base. She can do 1,300 miles without refueling or Pax can use that extra fuel to load ‘himself some Hellfires for the 4th of July.’
He hadn’t told Hatch about the winged Black Hawk and he was pretty sure Pax hadn’t either. Looking at Mackenzie, he asked, ‘Did ya tell him about that bird?’
Hatch winked at Mackenzie and with mock seriousness, he said, ‘I’m only psychic when I’m shitfaced, and this place is a dry dock.’
The meeting was over and he walked the Base looking for Ip. She was alone in the mess hall, eating a late breakfast and he walked over and sat next to her. Smiling at him, she offered him her porridge and while they shared the meal, he asked, ‘What happened out there, Ip? Ya seemed to have control of them hunters and then you lost ‘em.’
To his surprise, she flashed him an angry look. Ip was aggressive when she killed hunters, but she only ever killed hunters to protect people. As far as he could tell, Ip had a full range of emotions, but anger was not one he’d ever seen. She obviously wasn’t happy about what happened at the Major’s base either, but he couldn’t even begin to guess what had gone wrong from her point of view. With one hand, he gently massaged the back of her delicate neck until he felt her tension ease.
***
Ip thinks: I hear rulers they whisper to my will. What do you want I ask them still.
Ip speaks: You took the bald ones from my will and they very nearly had their fill. I do not want to speak with you so go away and be still.
Super hunter: We are you and you are we. We want you here together we will be.
Ip speaks: Where is here I want to know?
Super hunter: We are very near come see us now. We will not harm you for we are friend.
Ip speaks: I fear that you do not speak truth. For I do not rule and nor do you.
Super hunter: We tell you now that you must come. For, if you do not. We will come to you.
CHAPTER TWELVE: A rose by any other name (Pax)
Walking down the wide corridor towards Blonde Distraction’s quarters, he could see just how busy the Base was becoming. Over two-thirds of the one-time storage rooms were now homes for the survivors. People set up folding chairs along the wide corridor, and they were chatting and laughing loudly while children played around them. As he walked by, people called out to him happily. For all his rough edges, he was a popular man at the Base and well respected for teaching them how to protect themselves. It always pleased him to hear their happy banter and he grinned and waved as he weaved his way towards her room.
Each storage room had a roller door as wide as the room. With so many people sharing the space, the unventilated rooms tended to become stuffy and usually the doors were open during the day. Even when they were sleeping, most people left their roller doors open at the bottom by a foot or two to allow air to circulate. This place is a fire hazard, he thought, TL really needs to find us another base, but decided he had enough of his own problems and he was looking at one of them right now. Blonde Distraction was folding clothes in her room and, as usual, he was struck by the sheer appeal of the woman. For all their hardships, she still moved with a sexual grace that held him prisoner.
Blonde Distraction looked up from her pile of clothes and, seeing him, she asked abruptly, ‘What do you want?’ Giving him a filthy look, she asked, ‘Another booty call, Pax?’
Other than being the sexiest woman he’d ever seen, he thought there was something else about her that always captured and held his attention. Whenever he saw her, she made him smile and he was grinning when he said, ‘No, but I need your help with somethin’.’
Frowning at him, she asked, ‘Are you trying to be rude?’
Shaking his vehemently, he said, ‘No, I really do need your help. It’s somethin’ important for the Base.’
Turning to face him, she was clearly still skeptical, but resigned to having to hear him out and she said defiantly, ‘I’m listening.’
Shaking his head, he said quietly, ‘Not here, this is on the QT. Let’s take a drive and we can head to the depot. I wanna check on the teams out there anyways.’
Blonde Distraction eyed him distrustfully and said, ‘Are you just trying to get me somewhere alone?’
Geez, he thought, who the hell wrecked this woman so she only sees the worst in a man, but he said candidly, ‘No. You said no and no means no.’
She shrugged by way of reply, and grabbing her coat, they left the room together. On the way to the depot, he pulled the truck into a quiet spot he knew. It was the backyard of a once isolated homestead, and sometimes he liked to stop there just to have som
e time to himself. The backyard was wild and overgrown, but there were two La-Z-Boy lawn chairs in good condition under the shade of a pecan tree. Just beyond the large tree was a small stream. Often he would lie back on a La-Z-Boy in the shade and listen to the sound of the water trickling by. It was one of his secret luxuries, and he hadn’t even told his brothers about the spot, but for some reason he wanted to share it with Blonde Distraction. They each sat down on a La-Z-Boy and he pulled water from his pack and handed her a bottle. Their relationship, if it could be called that, had always been in the dim cloying world of the Base and he’d never seen her in daylight. He noticed she had a few light freckles across her cheeks and thought they were a sexy contradiction to her voluptuous body.
Reminding himself that she was off limits to him, he said seriously, ‘We have a problem. There’s a guy with an army about 130 miles north of here. He’s got weapons he could use to destroy the Base. He doesn’t know how to use ‘em yet, but he’s gonna and when he does he’s comin’ for us.’
Shaking her head in disgust, she asked accusingly, ‘What did you guys do?’
Hearing her accusing tone, he said sharply, ‘Nothin’!’ Pausing to reflect, he added honestly, ‘Well, we did steal a bird, but he was comin’ for us before we did that.’
Looking unsurprised by his admission, she said flatly, ‘So, what’s this got to do with me?’
