Hunter Wars Omnibus Edition (Books 1 - 3)

by SD Tanner

  These guys have been busy, he thought. It made him wonder how he’d achieved so little, but he realized that wasn’t relevant. He just needed to get on board with these guys and he asked, ‘So, are there more of her type who can kill hunters?’

  ‘Yeah,’ Gears explained. ‘We need to go find ‘em. Ip can see what they see and what they have seen. Their memories. We use that to find the super hunters. They’re the ones we gotta focus on killin’, ‘cos they’re the ones makin’ the hunters such effective killers. Plus we gotta find the rest of Ip’s people, ‘cos they help the alliances deal with the hunters.’

  He leaned back in his chair and nodding at the four of them, he said, ‘Okay. What do you need me to do?’

  Gears replied, ‘That depends. What can ya do?’

  ‘I’m a fighter and I got these boats sorted,’ he replied candidly.

  ‘That’s a good start. How many people are out on the water?’ Gears asked.

  He turned to Jake for the answer and Jake said, ‘About two to three thousand, but it’s hard to keep a census.’

  TL asked, ‘What condition are they in?’

  Jake shook his head and replied, ‘Not good. We’re low on all supplies. People aren’t living under good conditions, and we need to get them to land.’

  Nodding, Gears said decisively, ‘Then we have the same priority. We need to find an island that can sustain up to two thousand people to grow crops and farm animals.’

  ‘What if there are no animals left on the island, Gears?’ TL asked.

  As if stating the obvious, Gears replied, ‘Then we’ll get ‘em off the land and take ‘em there.’

  He roared with laughter and everyone looked at him in surprise. Still grinning, he said, ‘You’re fuckin’ Noah dude, and your ark is a luxury cruise ship.’

  Snorting, Pax said, ‘I always said ya have a God complex, Gears.’

  ‘Shaddup Pax,’ Gear replied mildly. ‘Ya such a freakin’ idiot.’

  TL turned to him and Jake and said, ‘They’ll be bitching at one another for a while, so I might as well give you the tour of the boat. I’m guessing you might want a hot meal. The kitchen serves us three squares a day.’

  They never bothered to think about it much, but he knew he and his crew were pretty hungry. They tended to give generously to the people on the boats and never left quite enough for themselves. He guessed that was one of the reasons the people followed his lead. Times were tough and they’d done what they could to help everyone out there.

  Nodding at TL, he asked, ‘Mind if we bring some guests for dinner?’

  Gears replied for TL and said bluntly, ‘They’re welcome, but they ain’t bringin’ any weapons onto my ship.’

  He nodded and confirmed, ‘Aye aye, Captain.’

  Chortling happily, Pax said cheekily, ‘Captain Quirk!’

  ‘Shaddup Pax or I’ll kill ya,’ Gears replied with mock menace.

  ‘Yer a miserable asshole, Gears,’ Pax grumbled.

  Over the next few hours, boats kept arriving at the ship and they brought aboard over a hundred people for dinner that night. Harry, their qualified nutritionist and now cook, seemed to have his team of kitchen hands working overtime to put together so much food. Fortunately the cruise ship kitchens were designed to cater for over a thousand people. They told him they were still reliant on long life foods rather than anything fresh. Based on the meal they were served, he thought Harry did a pretty good job with what he had. That night he was served a stroganoff with carrots and mashed potato, and tinned fruit for dessert. Hearing they were hungry, Harry had the kitchen provide takeaway packs of soda drinks and health bars.

  The ship originally had three restaurants, but now they only used the main restaurant for meals. The tables that were once for two, four or eight guests had been pushed together to create long tables much like a cafeteria. Harry still used the buffet set up. Food was brought out in large silver trays and kept warm in the serving area. He was told Harry designed his meals based on a balance of nutrition and a minimum calorie intake. He thought maintaining sufficient food supplies for so many people could not be easy given everything was being flown or shipped in. Gears said he’d agreed with Pax and Harry that hungry people were detrimental to their mission and gathering supplies had a priority.

  Tonight his people were mixing enthusiastically with the people from the ship. He was worried some of them might still be angry about the war on the water, and once they were all seated and eating, he stood on a chair and called their attention.

  Raising his hand and his voice to get their attention, he said, ‘Okay, peeps. I get we haven’t had the best fuckin’ introduction. Let’s be fuckin’ fair about this. You started that shitstorm.’ He paused, glared around the room daring anyone to disagree and when they didn’t, he continued, ‘These guys are organized. They’re going to get a fuckin’ island and take care of people. Take a good look around you, peeps. You can live this fuckin’ well too, but you gotta cooperate, so bury the grudge and get on with living.’

  No one commented and most kept eating. It seemed there was nothing to talk about. He sat down, nodded to Gears who nodded back and he said, ‘They’re all yours, Gears.’

  Looking a little surprised, Gears asked, ‘Ya goin’ somewhere?’

  He didn’t want to fight Gears for leadership of the survivors. In fact he didn’t want to fight Gears for anything. As far as he could tell, Gears and his brothers had pulled off a miracle and he wanted to join them, not challenge them. He replied honestly, ‘Nah, but you’re doing a better fuckin’ job than I am, so they’re yours now.’

  Nodding, Gears turned to Kat and said, ‘Actually they’re yours, Kat.’

  Pax was chewing on his dinner, but snorted so hard he spat food back onto his plate and said, ‘Ya gettin’ gifted at delegatin’, Gears.’

  ‘Shaddup Pax,’ Gears replied casually.

  ‘It’s no problem,’ Kat interrupted. ‘Lucie and Pop have been running the survivors on the ship anyway.’ Turning to Pax and TL, she said, ‘I’ll need some people to help me get out to each boat and start working out what they need.’

  He listened while Chris, his least favorite person from the boats whined, ‘We need everything. Got no food, no water, no medical and half the boats are falling apart.’

  Kat turned to him and said, ‘Some people will need to be brought to the ship and we can put together a care package for the other boats but…’ Turning to Gears and TL, she said, ‘We need to move people to an island as quickly as possible.’

  Pax interrupted and said, ‘Kat, ya need to identify who can do what. More supplies means more scavenger runs, and more scavenger runs means more combat shooters.’

  ‘I know, Pax,’ Kat answered calmly. ‘I’ll build up a list of who we’ve got. I know the drill.’

  As the night wore on and people kept talking, Gears suggested they stay on the ship for the night. As everyone started to move off to the crew rooms to sleep, he saw Chris was talking intently to a short trim woman from the ship. He watched as they started to make their way to the exit. In his experience, Chris was the first to complain and the last to lift a finger to do anything. He didn’t like the man and never had. Turning to Gears, he pointed at Chris and asked, ‘Who’s the woman Chris is with?’

  Grimacing, Gears replied dourly, ‘That’s Anna.’

  Judging by Gears tone and expression, he assumed Anna was not a popular person and he said, ‘Huh. Well, she’s keeping good company. Chris is a fuckin’ asshole.’

  CHAPTER THREE: Sometimes wrong is right (Gears)

  ‘Bad doctor. People hurt.’

  He sighed. It was never easy talking to Ip through Isaac and it was five o’clock in the morning. He looked around the room and saw Gerry, their stammering radio expert, had set himself up a cot in the comms room where he was talking to Isaac. Gerry spoke like a news presenter on the radio, but the rest of the time he was a stammering shaking wreck. Gerry lived in his bunker for months after the virus erupted
and managed to make contact with survivor groups. Through Gerry they found their alliance partner, Nelson, and Izzie’s group. If Gerry wanted to sleep in the comms room that was fine by him.

  He’d woken less than an hour ago to find Ip was not sleeping next to him like she always did. After searching the three-bedroom suite he shared with his brothers, TL and Pax, he found her on one of the large furnished balconies. Ip was usually a contented, curious and easy-going woman and he was surprised to find she was crying. Despite being held prisoner in the CDC and damaged by the designer virus so badly her mind no longer worked like theirs, he’d rarely seen her upset. Not having a language center, she couldn’t tell him what was wrong. He’d brought her to the comms room to talk to her through her ‘brother’ Isaac. Isaac could talk to Ip telepathically and, although he’d been infected with the same designer virus at another CDC, he still had some ability to talk. He would ask Isaac his question, Isaac would communicate with Ip telepathically and then Isaac would tell him Ip’s answer. It was a tedious process, but it was the only way they could talk to her.

  TL went with them to the comms room. Standing with his arms crossed, looking worried, TL asked, ‘So Ip’s found another person like her, but she’s still being held prisoner and being experimented on?’

  He was worried as well. He loved Ip and her capacity to be so content in the face of any danger or pain. To find her distressed, meant whatever she was seeing through this other woman’s mind was bad. He stroked her hair and said to TL, ‘Yeah. This CDC is somewhere north of Jacksonville near Yulee. We gotta go at first light and check it out.’

  Nodding to him, TL said, ‘I’ll go kick Hatch out of bed and have the bird ready to go in an hour. I’ll let the teams know the bird and Ip are not available for scavenger runs today.’

  Based on what Ip told them through Isaac, this CDC was inside a large building surrounded by fields near Yulee. It would take over two hours to get to the location, and even then, they still had to find the right building. He needed to find another doctor to work on the counter virus. If this CDC still had a working doctor then it might prove useful, but if the doctor turned out to be some sadistic asshole, then he just might kill him. Lydia and the two lab techs they’d found at the CDC where Ip was infected, weren’t getting far with replicating the counter virus. When they’d been attacked at the Walmart near Nelson’s base a few weeks earlier, the counter virus Lydia gave them to test, failed. If they hadn’t brought their fuckin’ big guns, everyone would have died. As it was, he and Nelson both lost a man in the fight.

  Knowing she could understand his thoughts, he still said aloud, ‘Honey we’re gonna go at first light.’ If nothing else, it made him feel better to say something decisive.

  Ip got up and sat in his lap, curling into his body seeking comfort from whatever it was she’d seen through the still imprisoned woman’s mind. Wrapping her in his arms, he said, ‘I need to go brief Lydia.’

  By 10am Hatch was flying him, Ip, Lydia and TL over Yulee. He considered bringing a combat team, but decided they were capable of dealing with whoever or whatever was at the CDC. He left Pax and Captain Ted to sort out the people on the boats with Kat, Lucie and Izzie. Watching out the crew window with his arm around Ip, he felt her launch forward as if intending to leap out. She was pointing to a plain looking building that sat lonely and abandoned next to an overgrown green field.

  ‘Hatch!’ He called. ‘Directly below.’

  ‘Yeah I see it,’ Hatch replied, and banked to land 150 yards from the building.

  They were disembarking when he felt rather than saw the bullets slam into the field in front of his feet. Pulling his feet back on board, he shouted to Hatch, ‘Go! Go! Go!’ Inwardly he felt a surge of annoyance at, once again, being attacked by some asshole he didn’t know.

  TL said dryly, ‘World’s really gone to pot lately.’

  ‘Ya don’t say,’ he replied sarcastically. ‘Hatch, circle the area. Let’s see which asshole hates us today.’

  Keeping his distance, Hatch circled the building while he and TL peered intently out of the door, looking for the shooters. They couldn’t see anyone outside and he said, ‘Must be shootin’ from inside the buildin’.’

  ‘Yep,’ TL replied. ‘There’s no cover down there. What do you wanna do?’

  They could wait until nightfall and sneak up to the building, but he hadn’t planned an overnight run. The ship needed the bird back. He was hoping somewhere in the two to three thousand people on the boats, they would find another helicopter pilot. For now all they had was Hatch and the winged Black Hawk, plus there was another Black Hawk hidden in Gulfport. Refusing to be delayed, he said bluntly, ‘I’m not wastin’ the time. Let’s draw ‘em out.’

  TL understood what he planned to do and immediately positioned himself behind the M240 machine gun. Hatch flew in low and they strafed the building, being careful to avoid doing any real damage. Having made their point, he grabbed an M3 MAAWS anti-tank weapon and rested it on his shoulder. Hatch landed the bird 50 yards from the building and TL had his M240 targeting the front door. Hatch kept the rotors running for an emergency take off, while he held the M3 Goose ready to fire. He was making it clear to whoever they were, any further attack would be met with considerable resistance. They waited for a response. After a few minutes the unremarkable front door of the building opened, and a man in full ACUs stepped out with his gun pointing downward, but still within easy firing position.

  The man walked towards the bird and, with his free hand, waved at him. He lowered the M3, and eased himself out the door holding his own M4A1 within easy firing position. As he neared the man, sounding as annoyed as he felt, he shouted, ‘What the hell is your goddamn malfunction, soldier?’

  ‘Who the fuck are you?’ The man shouted back, sounding equally as pissed.

  He wasn’t in the mood for even trying to tone down his naturally terrifying countenance and said angrily, ‘Ya always greet people who ain’t done shit to ya this way?’

  The man was in his early forties, squat, mean-looking, bald with a nose so badly broken it was practically flattened to his face. The man frowned, his forehead formed a corrugated ridge to the top of his head and he resembled an angry bulldog.

  ‘We live in interesting times,’ he replied sternly.

  Not wanting to waste any more time arguing with the angry mutt, he asked, ‘This a CDC?’

  ‘Who wants to know?’ The angry mutt asked in return.

  Sighing, he eyeballed the angry mutt and said, ‘I ain’t got all day for this kinda shit. What say we agree we’re both tough motherfuckers and get this sorted?’

  The angry mutt contemplated him for a moment and said, ‘I’m Mullen.’

  He already knew that. The angry mutt’s name was stenciled on his nameplate and sighing again, he tried to be patient and said, ‘I know that. I can read.’

  Looking slightly surprised, Mullen replied sarcastically, ‘Really?’

  Not wanting to reignite the hostility, he said steadily, ‘Accordin’ to my sources, this is a CDC and ya holdin’ a woman prisoner here. Is that true?’

  This time Mullen looked genuinely surprised and said abruptly, ‘I’m not holding anyone prisoner here, but yeah this is, or was, a CDC and there’s a woman here who can’t leave.’

  Mullen’s answer didn’t make any sense to him. Why couldn’t the woman leave? Frowning, he asked, ‘Who else is here?’

  He watched as Mullen was clearly trying to decide whether to continue to be uninformative or to trust him. Mullen made his choice and, shouldering his M4, he turned back to the door of the building and waved someone out. A tall and lanky man in ACUs walked out with his weapon shouldered and introduced himself as Ben. Introductions done, Mullen said, ‘Let’s talk inside.’

  He, TL, Lydia and Ip walked into the building and sat in the now dusty and unkempt reception area. Perched uncomfortably on the tiny reception chair, Mullen said, ‘This was a CDC and it still would be, but there’s no one left to repor
t to and all we have left is Doctor Michael Farrington and two test subjects.’

  ‘Who’s Farrington?’ TL asked.

  ‘He was the CDCs top scientist of Pathogen Genomics research,’ Mullen replied. Nodding his head towards Ip, he added, ‘I’m guessing she’s one of their test subjects.’

  ‘She was,’ he replied, making it clear that was the past view and not the present view of her position.

  Mullen glanced at him sharply and, sounding frustrated, he said, ‘I’m with you on this. I don’t like it either, but downstairs we’ve got two like her and one can’t be moved. If I could have, I’d have taken Tessa out of this hellhole, but Tessa won’t leave without her daughter.’

  ‘I don’t understand,’ he said, and he could see Mullen was genuinely concerned. ‘Start from the top.’

  ‘Me and Ben were both reservists in the same unit,’ Mullen explained. ‘About two days after the virus hit, we were both ordered to come to this CDC to guard it. That was the last order we had. We met Farrington and he told us to stay up here and stop anyone or anything that came near the building. We’d only been here a week when everyone, but Farrington left. Said it was a lost cause and they were going home, but we went to the underground lab and he asked us to stay. Said he had critical research that could save the world.’

  Looking puzzled, TL said incredulously, ‘All the staff left?’

  ‘There were only about ten of them by the time we got here,’ Mullen replied. ‘Once those bald bastards turned up, we started sleeping in the lab. It wasn’t safe up here. Then we found out what Farrington had been up to, but by then it was too late. Tessa and her daughter were infected. Tessa survived, but her daughter…’ Mullen stopped, looking visibly upset.

  Seeing his friend upset, Ben picked up the thread and said, ‘We would have left with them, but we don’t have anywhere safer to take them. And Jen wouldn’t survive being moved. She’s fragile.’