by SD Tanner
The target location was a large cookie factory with an attached warehouse on the outskirts of Dothan, Alabama. The factory and warehouse was fenced off with a large front gate that was open. The generous car park inside the fence line must have once held several hundred cars, but was now empty. Parked next to the warehouse were several large trucks, with the company cookie logo emblazoned down their sides.
‘Do ya think those trucks are full?’ Pax asked hopefully.
Captain Ted replied, ‘The cookies would be stale by now.’
‘Dunno about that,’ Pax replied. ‘Cookies doan go off.’
Rolling his eyes, he asked, ‘Do ya think you boys should be thinkin’ about cookies right now?’
As if he was pointing out the obvious, Pax replied, ‘Cookie quality is important, Gears.’
He ignored Pax and looked down at the layout of the factory and warehouse below them. The high metal fencing meant it would be impossible to retreat to a safe distance from the buildings. Other than the parked trucks, there were no vehicles they could use to enter the buildings. That meant they would have to go in on foot, but knowing super hunters liked to surround themselves with well over a hundred hunters, getting through the hunter packs would be too dangerous.
As if reading his thoughts, Pax said, ‘We could jus’ blow it from the air.’
Shaking his head, he replied, ‘We could but it’d create a hell of a mess and there’s a good chance we’d miss the super hunter.’
‘What if we just blow a fuckin’ wall?’ Captain Ted suggested.
That’s not a bad option he thought, changes the dynamic and it’ll get some light inside the building. Nodding, he asked, ‘Which wall?’
The factory was a square single story building with a reception at the front end. The warehouse was twice the height of the factory building and, although it was equally as dirty looking, it was a newer building that must have been added to the original factory. At the back of the building, leading off the warehouse, was a large concrete loading platform with double doors into the factory. He guess they manufactured the cookies, then moved them straight to the warehouse for storage and from there to the loading docks for distribution by truck. He could see the sign on the building and it read, “Yum Yum Cookies”. In small writing, underneath the sign was, “Sugar free. High fiber. Wheat Germ”.
Also reading the sign, he laughed and sounding disgusted, Pax said, ‘That’s not a fuckin’ cookie.’
Captain Ted agreed and added, ‘Maybe we oughta burn the building down.’
‘Bet those hunters go regular,’ Hatch observed dryly.
Still laughing, he said, ‘At least they’ll be willing to die after eatin’ that crap.’
Scanning the site, they tried to decide which wall might be the easiest to bring down while offering the greatest light into the building. After bickering with one another, they agreed taking down the back wall of the loading bay and factory would open the entire back area of both buildings. Hatch fired a Hydra rocket at both walls and they disintegrated, throwing dust into the air while collapsing the wall and roof. Once the dust settled, they surveyed the damage. Both walls disintegrated, but the roof collapsed in on both buildings, effectively forming another somewhat messier wall.
Unnecessarily, Pax remarked, ‘That didn’t work.’
‘Ya think,’ he replied sarcastically.
Optimistically, Captain Ted suggested, ‘Maybe we should do it again?’
‘How would that help?’ He asked dourly.
‘I don’t fucking know,’ Captain Ted replied and asked, ‘Have you got a better idea?’
He didn’t, but he didn’t want to keep wasting armaments either and he said, ‘Maybe we should think first and then act?’
Pax snorted and asked, ‘Didn’t we just try that?’
‘I don’t think randomly firing missiles at it is gonna solve the problem,’ he said bluntly.
‘Will ya boys hurry up and make up your mind?’ Hatch asked. ‘Flyin’ around is circles is makin’ me dizzy.’
‘Maybe we should fucking gas it,’ Captain Ted suggested.
‘Ya got any gas, dumbass,’ he replied and then immediately wished he hadn’t.
The combat shooters started laughing and, shaking his head, he thought, we are not doin’ well today. Once they settled down, he said, ‘Ya can’t gas somethin’ that don’t breathe.’
‘How do ya know they doan breathe, Gears?’ Pax asked curiously. ‘Super hunters got organs. Maybe they do breathe.’
Maybe they do, he thought. Lydia said the super hunters were closer in type to Ip than a hunter and Ip breathed like a human. Maybe the super hunters needed air too, in which case they could gas them. We don’t know enough about our enemy, he thought, we need to rectify that.
‘We should capture the super hunter,’ he said. ‘Let Lydia loose on its ass.’
‘That woman scares me,’ Hatch remarked. ‘I wouldn’t wanna be stuck in a lab with her.’
He knew what Hatch meant. For all her beauty, Lydia had a clinical quality to her that made her seem slightly mechanical. He didn’t feel sorry for the hunter she trapped in her lab, but he wouldn’t trade places with it either.
‘Maybe we can get Ip to scare a bunch of ‘em out,’ he said thinking out loud. ‘Then we go in, shoot anythin’ that moves and capture the super hunter.’
‘Dunno, Gears,’ Pax argued. ‘If the super hunter has control of ‘em then they won’t be blinded in daylight. There could be over a hundred of ‘em in there.’
That is true, he thought. Under the direction of the super hunter, the moment they landed the bird the hunters would swarm them in the car park. They needed to get the hunters out of the building and then they could go in and capture the super hunter. Bait, he thought, we need somethin’ to bait ‘em out while one of us goes in with Ip to capture the super hunter.
‘Who wants to play rabbit?’ He asked.
‘I doan like the way yer thinkin’, Gears,’ Pax replied warily.
‘Nah it’ll be fine,’ he assured Pax. ‘We can draw ‘em out of the site and then close the gate. Hatch lands the bird in the car park, picks us and the super hunter up and we’re good to go.’
In disbelief, Pax replied, ‘But the rabbits will be surrounded by hunters.’
‘No, Pax, ya idiot,’ he said rudely. ‘The rabbits stay on the factory side of the fence. Bird can strafe the hunters to keep ‘em back while the rabbits close the gate.’
Now sounding confused, Pax complained, ‘That doan make sense, Gears.’
‘Yeah, it does,’ Captain Ted said. ‘You need two sets of rabbits. One to draw them out. One to close the gate. But the ones that draw them out are going to need a getaway car.’
He grinned at Captain Ted and said, ‘Now ya thinkin’.’
Hatch brought the bird down about half a mile from the factory site. They found a working pickup truck for the second set of rabbits. Captain Ted was to lead the second set of rabbits and he drove the pickup truck back to the factory site with two combat shooters. Pax was to lead the first set of rabbits to close the gate once the bulk of the hunters were drawn out of the building. They decided Pax’s team would need to kill any hunters left on the factory site and he got four combat shooters on his team. He and Ip would go into the building together to find and capture the super hunter. His main concern was the super hunter could still control the hunters once he was caught. He figured, he could blind the super hunter and if it couldn’t see them, then maybe it couldn’t control the hunters.
The car park at the rear of the buildings was the only space that was wide enough for the bird to hover. Hatch held the bird just a few feet from the ground and Pax and his team were at the door of the bird, ready to jump and run once the bulk of the hunters were outside the gate.
Pax ordered his team, ‘Two to close the gate and the rest to cover ‘em.’
Captain Ted’s team roared up in the pickup truck through the front gates and up to the reception area. They honk
ed the horn and had the radio playing at full blast. Even over the noise of the bird, he could faintly hear, “Simply the Best” by Tina Turner. The effect was immediate. Hunters burst from doors, windows and the now ruined back walls of the factory and warehouse and headed straight for the pickup truck. Pax and his team waited until the hunters were in full flight and focused on the pickup truck that was now reversing rapidly back through the gate. Pax and his team dropped the few feet from the bird to the ground and sprinted to the gate. Three shooters immediately took position to give cover to the two people closing the gate. Without waiting to see how well they were doing, he stepped from the bird to the ground, then turned and Ip landed untidily in his arms. Quickly setting her down on her feet, he got his gun into position and they both headed into the factory through a gap in the now ruined back wall.
It was dark and, despite claiming to be sugar free, smelt like sweetened vomit. He could hear the sound of gunfire outside and assumed Pax was holding his own. There were a few hunters left in the building, but they wisely kept their distance from Ip. She walked quickly into the warehouse side of the building, up a flight of stairs and he saw the super hunter was standing watching the car park from the window. As usual, it didn’t turn or acknowledge his presence. Shouldering his weapon, he grabbed its left arm and twisted it behind its back. Putting his right arm around its neck, he swept its leg out from under it and he dropped it to the ground. Jamming his knee in its back, he grabbed its right arm, paired it with its left arm and zip tied it. He pulled a t-shirt he had tucked into the back of his ACU pants and wrapped it around the super hunters head.
With some satisfaction, he said, ‘Betcha didn’t expect that, asshole.’
Hauling the super hunter up, he mostly dragged it back down the stairs the way he and Ip had come. He could hear they were still shooting outside, only now he recognized it as the rapid fire of the M240 on the bird. He decided to exit through the warehouse and finding a door furthest away from the sound of the gunfire, he and Ip left the building with as little fuss as they entered it ten minutes earlier. Walking out, still dragging his newly zipped and blinded prisoner, he saw the hunters were once again blinded by the daylight. Pax and his team were already back on the bird using the M240 to make a mess of the hunters as they stumbled about.
‘Pax, we’re out. Look right,’ he said, and with his free arm he waved at the bird.
‘I gotcha,’ Pax replied happily. ‘Did ya bring me a present?’
While the combat shooters fired at any hunters that got too near the bird, he, Ip and the zip tied super hunter climbed aboard. Hatch took off to collect Captain Ted and his team. There was a large two-story roof top car park about a mile from the factory and they saw Captain Ted and his team waiting by their truck. Hatch landed the bird and he and Pax stepped out to greet the team.
‘Well?’ Captain Ted asked.
‘Yeah,’ he replied.
‘Can I give it to Lydia?’ Captain Ted asked.
Confused by the request, he asked, ‘Why would ya wanna do that?’
‘I might get lucky,’ Captain Ted said hopefully.
Pax winked at him and said, ‘She does like her presents.’
He didn’t want to hear any more about getting lucky with Lydia and growled, ‘How many times I gotta tell ya not to wink at me, Pax. There’s somethin’ seriously wrong with both of ya.’
Captain Ted snorted and said to Pax, ‘This from the man who just used our asses as bait.’
He was about to tell them to get their idiot asses back on the bird when a truck appeared at the top of the ramp. All of them immediately aimed their weapons at the truck and it braked sharply. A hand appeared from the driver side window and a woman’s voice shouted, ‘Don’t shoot me!’
With their weapons aimed at the truck, they circled around it, ready to fire and he called, ‘Get outta the truck!’
Three doors opened and a man and a woman in their late sixties climbed out from the passenger side doors.
One of the combat shooters ordered, ‘Get face down on the ground now!’
A younger, tall, slim, dark haired woman climbed out of the driver side. Another combat shooter was shouting at her to lie face down next to the truck
Two more combat shooters were checking the truck for any other people. As they leaned towards the open door on the passenger side, a large shaggy haired brown dog launched out growling and bowled the combat shooter to the ground. Alarmed, the combat shooter shouted, ‘Get it off me.’
Pax walked over, hauled the dog off by its collar and said, ‘Relax. It’s just a dog.’ Still holding the dog by its collar, he called to the combat shooters, ‘Good work. Now get ‘em on their feet and let’s see what we got.’
He helped the older woman to her feet and Captain Ted helped the older man up. The younger woman immediately ran to the older couple and asked, ‘Are you okay?’ Seeing the older couple were fine, she whirled on him and said angrily, ‘Is that how you greet everyone you meet?’
Understanding how she felt, it was a fact of life they mostly only met people who wanted to kill them and he looked at her sternly and said, ‘Sign of the times. Who are ya?’
The older man answered for the young woman and calmly said, ‘I’m Jacob. This is my wife Luanne and this is my daughter Amelia.’
Nodding, he introduced the team and Jacob explained, ‘We were with a larger group until a few weeks ago, but they’ve left.’
‘Where did they go?’ He asked.
‘Red River County, Texas,’ Jacob replied.
‘Why?’ He asked.
‘They were promised protection,’ Amelia said. ‘A man came to our camp and he said there was a self-sufficient base there for survivors. He gave them food, so they believed him and left with him.’
‘Why didn’t you go?’ Captain Ted asked.
Luanne spoke for the first time and said simply, ‘I didn’t trust him. He was lying.’
Jacob nodded and said, ‘When you’ve been married for forty-two years, you learn to listen to your wife.’
‘Hmmph,’ Luanne huffed. ‘It takes forty-one years for a husband to learn that.’
‘Oi,’ Jacob exclaimed. Waving one hand at his wife, he said, ‘Even when I do what I’m told I’m in trouble.’
Thinking they reminded him of Mom and Pop, he grinned at the older couple and asked, ‘Were they happy to let ya go?’
‘They didn’t know we left,’ Jacob said. ‘But I don’t think they would have let us go if we asked.’
‘Did they have any hunters with them?’ He asked.
‘Oh yes,’ Jacob replied. ‘That’s why people went with them. The man told them they would be safe with him. That he could control the hunters.’
‘Did ya see a hunter wearing body armor with him?’ He asked.
Jacob shrugged and said, ‘No, but all the hunters look the same to me.’
It sounded like they’d escaped the recruiter and he asked, ‘Do ya know where the guy went after he talked to ya group?’
Sounding surprised by his question, Amelia said, ‘I think he went with them. Why wouldn’t he?’
He rubbed the scar on his face and said, ‘Cos he usually doesn’t. He seems to be recruitin’ people.’ Turning to Pax, he said, ‘At least we know where they’re goin’ now. We need to drop that super hunter off at the CDC and get back to the base.’
After explaining to Jacob and his family who they were, they were keen to go back to the Naval base with them. It’d been a pretty good day. TL and Nelson were not at the Naval base. They’d gone back to Atlanta with the scavenger and combat shooters to work with Wolfie and his biker gang to set up their new base. TL radioed Gerry to give him an update and Gerry passed the update on to him.
He, Captain Ted, Pax and Ip headed to one of the kitchen containers for a late dinner at one of the hard wearing plastic tables that surrounded the kitchens.
Between mouthfuls of food, Pax asked, ‘How’s TL doin’.’
‘They found a site an
d they’re gonna clear it over the next few days,’ he replied yawning. ‘Once it’s cleared we need to get Gerry out there to set up comms. TL has a scavenger team lookin’ for more of these containers to use as accommodation.’
Chewing on a mouthful of chili beef, he said thoughtfully, ‘Red River County is near the Ranch. We know that area real well. Wonder where they are out there?’
Pax shrugged and said, ‘It’s not near anythin’ useful.’
He nodded and said, ‘We should do a flyover. See if we can find ‘em.’
‘Why do we fucking care?’ Captain Ted asked.
‘Cos they know about us,’ he replied simply. ‘So we oughta know about them.’
Looking confused, Captain Ted asked, ‘What do you mean they know about us?’
He replied grimly, ‘They shouldn’t care enough to know about us, but they do. I wanna know why.’
‘They been chasin’ Ip for months now,’ Pax added. ‘That’s why we mostly keep her off the mainland.’
Captain Ted looked at Ip who eyed him back, then dismissed him and he asked, ‘Do you think she’s one of them?’
‘Doan be stupid,’ Pax remarked casually. ‘She’s killed more of ‘em than we have.’
‘Maybe that’s why they want her,’ Captain Ted suggested. ‘Cos she keep killing ‘em.’
‘Don’t think so,’ he replied. ‘They won’t kill her and they’ve had plenty of chances to. Even today that super hunter coulda killed her, but they never do.’
‘Fuckin’ weird,’ Captain Ted remarked.
‘We should do a flyover,’ he said again. ‘Let’s go see the old homestead.’
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: Looking for souls to steal (Anna)
There was something about Scratch that intrigued her. He was so in control of himself, so confident. She watched as Scratch climbed out of his bunk and got dressed. ‘Where are you going Scratch?’ She asked meekly.
