by SD Tanner
Nodding, Nelson said, ‘According to the beliefs about demons, that would be possible, but nothing I’ve ever seen about a hunter makes me believe they have souls. I suspect the hunters are simply the still moving remains of dead humans, so I guess a demon could take over the body of a hunter.’
He wasn’t sure that stacked up with everything he’d seen so far and said, ‘The super hunters have human organs and the hunters have black goo in ‘em. Why’s that?’
Nelson shrugged and replied, ‘I don’t know. Maybe not all hunters evolve the same way. Maybe a small number of them retain their organs, and these are the bodies the demons can possess. It would make sense. The hunters that retained organs must be closer to being human.’
He hated not having clear answers to problems, but he particularly hated the way his problems seemed to get worse by the day. The constant changing in dynamics was getting on his nerves. All he wanted was a clear enemy to fight, so he could win a war.
Rubbing the scar on his face, he said dourly, ‘It don’t matter who we’re fightin’. Hunters, demons or human enemies, the problem remains the same. We need to find ‘em, kill ‘em and restore our superiority, so we can live our lives in peace.’
Nodding, Nelson said, ‘That’s true, Gears. Today was the first time we’ve had the upper hand, but how many more Ips or Isaacs can there be?’
Shaking his head at Nelson, he replied, ‘Not many. They were artificially created, and from what Louise and Ian told us, it was pretty hit and miss whether the designer virus worked. Ip was one of seven subjects and the only one who was able to survive the designer virus to create a counter virus, and even then it came at a very high price to her.’
Looking across at Ip, Nelson asked, ‘Is she still human? Is Isaac?’
Shrugging, he replied, ‘Ya are what ya think ya are, Nelson. They both believe they’re human, so I guess they are.’
Pax added, ‘But accordin’ to Lydia, they’re both still evolvin’, so who knows what they’re gonna become.’
Looking confused, Nelson asked, ‘If that’s the case, then what are they?’
It was a fair question, but not one he’d bothered to think about and he said, ‘They’ve done nothin’ but help us, so I guess they’re our friends.’
Looking grim, Nelson asked, ‘And if they evolve and stop being our friends?’
He didn’t know what would happen if Ip and Isaac became their enemy. He couldn’t imagine Ip turning against them and he couldn’t imagine him being willing to harm Ip no matter what she became.
Shaking his head, he sighed deeply and said, ‘I dunno.’
CHAPTER TWENTY THREE: How angels are born (Gears & Pax)
‘Get up!!’
Pax kicked his and Ip’s bed to make sure he’d heard him, then stormed across to TL’s room and did the same thing. Both he and TL met Pax in the lounge looking tired and a little confused.
Looking at him, Pax said abruptly, ‘Put ya pants on, Gears!’
Returning to his room, he muttered, ‘Ya said get up. Ya didn’t say get dressed. Ya gotta talk specific if ya want specific things.’
Standing in the kitchen, setting up the coffee machine, TL turned to Pax and asked, ‘What’s the problem?’
Still sounding annoyed, Pax replied, ‘I think Gears shoulda known to put his pants on. It’s implied as part of the whole get up thing.’
Sighing deeply, TL said bluntly, ‘It’s 5 in the morning, Pax. Why do we have to get up at all? With or without our pants.’
As if he’d just remembered they didn’t know what he knew, Pax replied, ‘Oh, right.’
Strolling back to the lounge wearing his ACU pants, he said, ‘This betta be good, Pax. This betta not be like the time ya woke us up ‘cos ya didn’t know how use to the coffee machine.’
‘No, this is serious,’ Pax replied. ‘I lost BD.’
He drawled, ‘Yeah we know. She dumped ya for bein’ ungentlemanly.’
Rolling his eyes at him, Pax said sarcastically, ‘I doan believe you’re in any position to talk about bein’ a gentleman. People talk around here ya know.’
It was too early to get into it with Pax and he replied bluntly, ‘Shaddup Pax, and if ya got a point would ya mind makin’ it, or I’m goin’ back to bed. Without my pants!’
Exasperated, Pax shouted, ‘I just told ya. I lost BD!’
TL came from behind the counter of the small kitchenette area in their suite holding three cups of coffee. Unloading packets of sugar and powdered milk from his pajama pants, he sat down at the dining table with them and said, ‘Why don’t you start from the top, Pax.’
Pax added sugar and powdered milk to his coffee and said, ‘BD is our spy in Major major asshole’s base. I bin flyin’ up most days for a 4am radio call. I went there this mornin’ and she didn’t answer.’
Sipping his coffee, he asked, ‘Does she always answer?’
Shaking his head, Pax said, ‘No, she can’t always get away somewhere private.’
‘So what’s the problem?’ TL asked. ‘Maybe she couldn’t get somewhere private today.’
Shaking his head vehemently, Pax said, ‘Nah, I saw her a few days ago and she said that little weasel ya picked up from the Ranch turned up at Major major asshole’s base.’
Frank really pissed him off and he said irritably, ‘Ya mean Frank?’
Shruggin, Pax said, ‘Guess so. Anyways, he told Major major asshole about the ship. Apparently he’s a racist little shit and he was pissed off he hadda share a cabin with people he didn’t wanna share it with.’
Leaning into Pax, he glared and asked in a low and dangerous voice, ‘Why is this the first I’m hearin’ about Frank compromisin’ the safety of this ship?’
Sticking out his chin, Pax glared back at him and said equally as aggressively, ‘I didn’t think it was relevant. We was gonna attack Major major asshole when he could use them armaments anyways.’
Yawning, TL said amiably, ‘Both of you cut it out. What’s this got to do with BD? What’s her name anyway?’
Shrugging, Pax said, ‘I dunno. She wouldn’t tell me, but I think Frank mighta told Major major asshole about her. I mean, she didn’t think Frank recognized her, but what if he did?’
‘She had sex with you, but she wouldn’t tell you her name?’ TL asked incredulously. ‘Is that what I’m doing wrong? I expect to know a woman’s name before I have sex with her. I mean Gears doesn’t know Ip’s name and that’s working out well.’
Grumbling, he muttered, ‘Ya kicked me outta bed for this shit. So, she missed her check-in call. So what? She’s done it before. Why’s it matter this time?’
Clearly feeling agitated by their lack of concern, Pax and stood up abruptly banging into the table and spilling their coffee everywhere. Shouting angrily, he thumped the table with his fist to emphasize his point, ‘It fuckin’ matters! We need to bring the attack on Major major asshole’s base forward to right fuckin’ now!’
‘Woah! What the hell is wrong with you, Pax,’ TL said calmly. ‘I’m supposed to pick up Izzie and her people today. We agreed to do that.’
Pax furiously shouted at TL, ‘Screw that!’ BD is one of our own! She has priority!’
Putting his hand up to calm Pax, he said steadily, ‘Pax, think this through. We really need to get her out before we attack Major major asshole’s base. If we don’t, she could get hurt or killed. Takin’ that base ain’t gonna be easy, Pax. They got fifty odd heavily armed shooters, and we don’t got no arty or real air support.’
‘Ya don’t get it, Gears!’ Pax shouted angrily. ‘It’s too late. They already got her. We gotta go today! In fact, we gotta go now!’
Shaking his head, TL said pointedly, ‘You have no evidence of that, Pax. She didn’t check-in, but that doesn’t mean she’s in trouble.’
‘I doan care!’ Pax boomed angrily. ‘Ya assholes drag me out on yer never endin’ dumbass shit that makes no fuckin’ sense to me, but I go ‘cos ya ask me to. Now I’m askin’, so ya gonna step up a
nd do it my way!’
As brothers they had rules and Pax was calling them to order. The rule was, if one of them needed the others, they stepped up regardless of the risk, or whether they agreed, or even understood. Knowing the rules, he replied mildly, ‘Yeah, alright. No need to get all cranky jus’ ‘cos ya were up early.’
‘Geez, Pax,’ TL agreed. ‘Chill. I’ll go get Benny and sort Hatch.’
Walking out the lounge and back to his room to get ready, he called over his shoulder, ‘Meet ya at the bird at 0700. Bring the teams.’
They got to the Base by 0800 to pick up the two gunners for the bird and head out to the depot. He and Pax were checking the two Strykers were loaded with the right gear for the attack. Pax kept the weapons and ammo simple and it didn’t take long. None of his people were experienced and he’d no guaranteed supply of anything outside of what was in the depot. Overcomplicating weapons, overcomplicated the training and supply and Pax decided he didn’t have time for that.
Each driver climbed into position through their hatch, and he and Pax climbed into their respective Strykers with their teams. He had Max, Benny and four experienced combat shooters Luther, Tony, Danny and Jose. Pax had Mackenzie, Ethan, Danny, Livvie, Aiden and Logan. Other than Max and Benny, he wasn’t familiar with his team, but Max had worked closely with them all. Pop was following them in a truck and was going to act as shooter on the roof of their usual observation building. He wasn’t a sniper, but with fifty years hunting experience, he was a pretty good shot.
It took three hours to reach the Major’s town and they stopped both Strykers about half a mile from the Major’s base. He climbed up to the observation spot at the top of the building with Pop and radioed Pax, ‘Two sentries on the roof of the warehouse. Two sentries on the roof of the living quarters. No machine guns. Front gate is open. About ten shooters outside the buildings. Doesn’t look they are taking deliveries today. Not too much movement around the warehouse. I assume most of ‘em are out or they’re inside the buildings. Three trucks parked next to the fence east of the main gate. Four trucks parked next to the fence west of the main gate. Looks real quiet down there.’
Pax replied, ‘Ya ready to go?’
‘Yeah. Let’s go.’ He replied.
Driving the Strykers to the Major’s camp, they watched as Hatch flew the bird over the base and the gunners fired on the sentries. Within seconds, they were at their positions and his Stryker was driving through the main gates to the side entrance of the living quarters, and Pax was crashing through the back fence and into the warehouse.
***
The driver of a Stryker only has 90-degree vision, which makes it difficult to navigate without a lot of practice. With such an inexperienced driver, crashing into the warehouse would have probably happened even if they hadn’t planned it that way. The gunner was under instruction to shoot the offices on the right side of the warehouse. They didn’t want to destroy the supplies in the warehouse, and they particularly didn’t want to risk setting off the armaments that were on the far wall opposite the offices. As Gears pointed out, that would be like a huge chain reaction bomb going off that even a Stryker wouldn’t protect them from. The gunner opened fire with the .50-cal M2 and it tore the flimsy offices apart. If anything had been alive in there, within minutes it would have been dead.
Now confident they should be able to get out of the Stryker safely, Pax directed the team to unload from the back and said, ‘Go. Go. Go.’
The team ducked between the Stryker and the now destroyed offices. As they got behind the Stryker, gunfire erupted at them from the left of the warehouse. Pax radioed the gunner in the Stryker to shoot in the direction they were taking fire. While he did that, Pax quickly peeked out to see if he could identify how many shooters there were. The sound of the .50-cal M2 in the high roofed warehouse was deafening and the sound was echoing around the walls and adding to the volume.
After a few minutes, Pax assumed the shooters were dead or gone and he radioed the gunner, ‘Ceasefire. Ceasefire.’
Waiting to hear if any shooters dared to fire again, Pax turned to Mackenzie, Livvie and Aiden and said, ‘Get ready to move to the hangar. Wait until Gears has the living quarters fully engaged, and then get into the hangar.’
Mackenzie nodded and said, ‘On it.’
They needed to make sure none of the Majors men tried to escape through the hangar. They would shoot anyone who was stupid enough to stick their head out the door, but he didn’t want anyone shooting into the hangar, otherwise the birds could be damaged.
Signaling to Danny, Logan and Ethan to start moving forward with him, they provided one another covering fire as they ran low and fast to a crate near the back entrance where the shooters had been. When they got to the back entrance of the warehouse, they could see two dead men, but he was pretty sure there’d been more than two shooters at that location. With his back against the wall next to the door, Pax stuck his gun outside and around the door and fired randomly to see if he could attract fire. Hearing nothing, he quickly stuck his head and gun around the corner. He saw a shooter lying in a pool of blood clutching at his stomach. Hearing gunfire coming from the living quarters, he figured Gears had started taking the building.
Radioing Mackenzie, he asked, ‘You in position in the hangar?’
Mackenzie replied, ‘Yes. Got the door covered. Birds are safe.’
***
His team had driven straight into the Major’s base without any trouble, which was surprising. He’d thought a strafing from the bird, combined with the sight of a Stryker bearing down on their gates might tip them off they were under attack, but they’d not reacted quickly. By the time they started firing, his gunner was dumping a shedload of ammo into the windows of the living quarters and they were almost at the side entrance. When they reached the entrance, he and the team unloaded from the Stryker and they rammed the door open, firing directly into the entranceway to clear a path.
The entranceway led to an open area that looked to be a cafeteria. To their left was a staircase that led to the next floor. Gears instructed, ‘Benny. Tony. Danny. Secure that room.’
He heard them open fire into the cafeteria and they took cover behind the entranceway wall. He could hear the enemy shooters returning fire. He led Max, Luther and Jose up the stairs with him to take the top level. He figured this was their sleeping area, so he was expecting a lot of small rooms that might be difficult to clear. Reaching the top of the landing, he felt bullets whip past his head and he opened fire in the direction of the shooter. As he fired, Max dropped low next to him, still shielded by the wall of the stairwell and fired. There was a half open door opposite him and he stepped over Max, who was still shooting, and slammed across the narrow hall, pushing the door fully open and firing into the room. There were three shooters in the room, but they were diving for cover as he fired. He killed all three before they got a shot off.
Max was joined by Jose and they were firing down the corridor, holding shooters in their rooms. He could see there were five doors leading off the corridor and he called to Max, ‘Going for the door on the left. You two take the right. Luther you’re with me, but watch our six.’
He pulled out a flash bang and threw it down the corridor, and followed it to the next open door. Using the wall as cover, he threw a grenade into the room. Behind him, Max and Jose did the same at the door opposite. Max was firing forward into the corridor and Luther was monitoring the stairwell while he and Jose unleashed firepower into the rooms. He could hear bullets thudding into the wall next to him from within the room, but that quickly stopped once his bullets made contact with the shooter. Having cleared the room, they moved forward to the next door and again they cleared the room with a grenade, followed by a barrage of gunfire directly into the room.
Reaching the last room, he heard someone call out, ‘Don’t shoot. We give up. Who the fuck are you people?’
He shouted, ‘Throw ya weapons out.’
Sounding surprised, the v
oice answered, ‘What? All of ‘em?’
Puzzled, he shouted, ‘How many ya got?’
The voice replied, ‘About twenty M4s.’
Almost laughing and relieved they’d surrendered, he asked, ‘How many of ya are there?’
The voice replied, ‘Two.’
He called, ‘Put ya hands on ya head and walk out one at a time.’
The voice asked, ‘You promise you won’t shoot us?’
Shaking his head, he called, ‘If I was gonna shoot ya, I woulda done it by now. Jus’ get out here.’
A man emerged from the room with his hands on his head. He stepped forward and, with one hand, yanked the man down onto his knees and turned to Jose and said, ‘Zip tie this idiot.’
Another man emerged with his hands on his head. Yanking him onto his knees next to the other man, he said to Jose, ‘And this idiot too.’
He couldn’t hear any fire coming from downstairs. Luther and Max were at the top of the stairs making sure no one made their way up. Turning to Jose, he said, ‘Gonna go check below. I’ll let ya know when ya can bring these idiots down.’
Jose replied, ‘Okay.’
Heading down the stairs with Max, he left Luther and Jose to watch the zip tied prisoners. Radioing Benny, he asked, ‘What’s your situation?’
Benny replied excitedly, ‘Got five guys down here. Danny got hit. I think he busted his armor.’
Sighing, he tried to hide his frustration and asked, ‘Did he bust himself?’
Benny replied, ‘Nah, he’s fine, but Tony got shot in the leg.’
Heading down the stairs, he said dourly, ‘Maybe ya shoulda led with that, Benny.’
Reaching the cafeteria, he saw five men on their knees with their wrists zip tied behind their backs. He thought Benny sounded like an idiot, but he always seemed to get the job done right. Radioing Jose and Luther, he told them to walk the prisoners down. He was about to radio Pax, when he heard Pop through his earpiece, ‘Bob, ya got trucks pullin’ outta the base. Whatdaya wanna do?’
Answering his father, he said, ‘Leave ‘em. We don’t want ‘em. Saves us the trouble of dealin’ with ‘em if they jus’ fuck off.’
