Hunter Wars Omnibus Edition (Books 1 - 3)

by SD Tanner

Sounding concerned, Captain Ted asked, ‘Do you think he knows what he’s got to do in there?’

  He shrugged and said, ‘He’s cleared buildings before, but nothin’ as complex as this one.’

  They settled down to wait for Isaac and he could hear Gears talking to Isaac through his radio mike. Gears was listening to what Isaac was finding in each room, giving him instructions and encouraging him to be thorough. If it were Ip in there, they would have been busy shooting fleeing hunters by now, but no hunters came out of the building. He fidgeted restlessly, felt useless and worried while he waited impatiently.

  Clearly also bored, Captain Ted said, ‘We should start clearing other buildings.’

  He shook his head and said, ‘There’s no point, dude. We can’t secure the buildin’s and the hunters would get back in. It’d be a lotta risk for nothin’.’

  ‘If Ip was clearing the building, we’d have plenty of hunters to shoot at,’ Max agreed.

  While they were chatting, Gears stormed around the corner of the hotel towards them and blocking his mike, he said in a low and angry voice, ‘Shaddup. Isaac can hear ya.’

  Knowing they should be supporting Isaac, he blocked his own mike and said, ‘Sorry.’ Turning to his team, he said, ‘Isaac’s our guy and he’s doin’ what he can and we need to back him up.’

  Looking embarrassed, everyone nodded sheepishly. It took Isaac nearly two hours to go through every room and kill the hunters and when he came out of the hotel, he looked pale, tired and shaky.

  Gears sat down with him in the assault vehicle and gave him water and a snack bar. Putting his big hand on Isaac’s slender shoulder, he said, ‘Ya did good, son.’ Turning to him and Captain Ted, he said, ‘Let’s get in there and see what we got.’

  He, Captain Ted, Gears and the six strong shooter team entered the hotel through the front entrance. It opened into a very small, old-fashioned looking foyer with a tiny reception room. Holding their guns ready to fire, they walked through the ground floor of the hotel and found nothing but dead hunters sprawled in every room. It appeared Isaac had been slow, but thorough. The hotel was dusty and stank of vomit, but nothing was moving.

  ‘Let’s check the next floor,’ Gears ordered.

  Climbing the stairs, still with guns ready to fire, they walked the next level and again, Isaac had been thorough. The staircase was in the middle of the hotel and there was a corridor to the left and the right of the stairs. As instructed by Gears, Isaac wedged open the door of every room while he cleared it. Looking down the dusty and worn looking hallway, he saw every door was open allowing the sunlight to light up the corridor and he could see the dust swimming in the rays of sunshine. He and Captain Ted led one team down the corridor to the right, and Gears led the other down the corridor to the left. The second floor was as still as the first and he was feeling more confident that perhaps he worried for nothing.

  ‘Stay alert,’ Gears ordered, as they moved to the third floor of the hotel.

  The third floor looked much like the first. Again, he and Captain Ted led the team down the corridor to the left, whilst Gears led his team to the right. Every door down the corridor was open and other than the noise they were making, the hotel stood silent. Looking around the last room along the corridor, he saw nothing but an overturned bed, broken furniture and a smashed lamp lying on the floor. Either someone had partied in the room or at some time a hunter was in it. Now the room was motionless and all he saw was dust floating silently in the sunshine. He walked to the window and could see the four assault vehicles parked out the front with their seventy shooters lounging about, clearly enjoying the sunshine. Some shooters had even removed their tactical vests and feeling a surge of annoyance, he opened the hotel window and roared, ‘Put ya fuckin’ gear back on!’

  He watched them scrambling, grabbing their gear and struggling to put their fully loaded vests on and through his mike, he said, ‘Combat leads, get ya goddamn teams back on alert!’

  He was about to advise them they would all be pulling sentry duty for the next month when he heard shouting from behind him. Spinning around with his gun ready to fire, he fired. One of his shooters, a guy called Mark, was running straight at him and snarling. At point blank range with his M4A1 on continuous fire, he watched the head of the young man he once trained, burst blood as bullets punched through his face. As the carotid artery exploded and sprayed, he felt the blood splatter across his face. Mark fell to the floor, his body still jerking and he jumped over the young man and ran through the door.

  ‘Get back!’ Captain Ted roared, and he immediately pulled back into the room.

  Hearing gunfire down the corridor, he assumed Captain Ted was shooting hunters and said, ‘Ted! Sit rep now!’

  ‘Lost two shooters,’ Captain Ted said shouting over the gunfire. ‘Stay put. We got this.’

  He was about to object when he heard the sound of gunfire outside and jumping over the still moving body of the young man, he looked out the window and saw hunters converging on the hotel. Fuck, he thought, there’s a super hunter on the island.

  ‘Where are ya, Pax?’ Gears asked steadily.

  ‘Top floor window,’ he replied. ‘Corridors jammed. Ted’s sortin’ it.’

  From his higher position at the window, he could see Gears coming out of the hotel entrance. Gears said, ‘Stay there. Monitor the situation. Direct your shooters. We need to get ‘em back to the ferry. We gotta super hunter out here.’ Gears added, ‘Ted, clear the corridor and pull Pax out before ya leave.’

  ‘Roger that,’ Captain Ted replied.

  He watched Gears move to the front of the perimeter and join the combat, steadily firing at hunters and directing the shooters in front of the hotel entrance. He began to order shooters back into the assault vehicles and it looked as if they should be able to hold the hunters back long enough to get the shooters safe in the vehicles, or so he thought. Being unable to see down the left side of the hotel, he couldn’t have anticipated the massive influx of hunters that suddenly exploded into the perimeter they had just formed. Within seconds, their perimeter filled with hunters, vibrating manically and attacking shooters who up until that moment were firing in the opposite direction. The scene disintegrated into chaos in front of him and there was nothing he could do other fire from the window.

  Captain Ted joined him and said, ‘We gotta go!’

  He didn’t want to go. Shooting from his position meant he was able to kill attacking hunters and save his shooters and he said, ‘You go. I’ll catch ya up.’

  Gears bellowed through the mike, ‘Move your ass, Pax. Don’t make me come up there and kick ya fuckin’ ass down those stairs. Do it and do it now!’

  As he continued to fire, Gears said again, ‘I mean it, Pax. Ya will not die doin’ somethin’ pointless. Now move your fuckin’ ass.’

  ‘Yeah, Pax, come on,’ Captain Ted said. ‘If you stay, then I stay. If you stay, then Gears stays. You sure you want to do it this way?’

  He blinked and he knew they were right. He didn’t have enough ammo to kill all the hunters and he couldn’t save his shooters from where he stood. Cursing, he pulled away from the window and said, ‘I fuckin’ hate you guys.’

  When he got downstairs to the ground floor, he saw Gears was still out front, firing steadily and driving hunters back while directing shooters into the assault vehicles, but it was chaotic. Being the only truly experienced combat veteran on the ground, Gears was fighting a losing battle trying to cover the shooters and get them to safety. He joined his brother and together with Captain Ted, they held a much smaller perimeter and protected the few remaining living shooters climbing into the vehicles.

  Still firing steadily he, Captain Ted and Gears climbed into an assault vehicle and slamming the doors shut, he ordered, ‘Get us the fuck outta here.’

  He could hear Gears talking to the combat lead on the ferry, ‘There’s a super hunter on the island. Ya need to defend the ferry. Take up combat positions. We’re on our way. ETA ten minutes.
Keep talkin’ to me. I need to know you’re still clear of hunters.’

  He could hear the combat lead on the ferry ordering the shooters into position. Above him the gunner was steadily shooting hunters anywhere near them and the vehicle was slowly moving back towards the marina.

  Looking through the screens in the assault vehicle, he saw hunters were converging on them and said, ‘We gotta a problem, Gears. The hunters are followin’ us to the marina.’

  ‘Yeah, I know,’ Gears replied calmly. ‘One problem at a time, Pax. Let’s get to the marina and work how we board the ferry when we get there.’

  They watched the screens intently and he could see more and more hunters were gathering around the vehicle. They were only five hundred yards from the marina and it would be a matter of minutes before the hunters would be close enough to board the ferry.

  Clearly drawing the same conclusion, Gears said into his mike, ‘I need ya to pull the ferry away from the marina or you’re gonna be boarded.’

  ‘How will you get back on the ferry?’ The combat lead asked.

  ‘Follow your damn orders,’ Gears said firmly.

  ‘Roger that,’ the combat lead replied.

  Glaring at him, Gears said, ‘Don’t ya train your kids to follow orders no more?’

  ‘Shaddup Gears,’ he said rudely. ‘How are we gonna get back on the ferry?’

  ‘Yeah, Gears,’ Captain Ted added. ‘This is a Marine assault vehicle, not the bat mobile.’

  Gears snorted and said, ‘I thought these assault vehicles were amphibious.’

  ‘Yer jokin’, Gears,’ he said, unable to believe his brother could be stupid enough to think they could just float the hunk of metal back to the ferry.

  Gears grinned and said, ‘Shit, Pax, jus’ how fuckin’ stupid do ya think I am?’ Turning his attention to the fifteen shooters who were crammed into the vehicle with them, Gears said, ‘We’re gonna have to ditch this not-so-amphibious vehicle off the marina. Lighten your load, strip your gear down and get ready to swim.’

  In the tight space of the vehicle, the shooters began awkwardly trying to unbuckle their vests and belts and remove their boots. Turning his attention back to the ferry, Gears said, ‘Ya better be movin’ and we’re gonna need ya to pull us out of the sea. Throw out lifeboats and get some netting down the side of the ferry.’

  They reached the marina and he could see through the screens that the ferry had pulled a short distance from the land. The crowd of hunters was growing and they really were going to have to run the assault vehicle off the marina and into the sea. Struggling past the shooters who were still unloading their gear, he called to the driver, ‘Pick up yer speed. We need to get a little lift.’

  ‘Did you not listen to me?’ Captain Ted asked dryly. ‘This is not the fuckin’ bat mobile, and this bitch will not fly.’

  ‘Doan be so negative,’ he complained. ‘Have ya ever driven one of these bitches off a marina?’

  ‘No,’ Captain Ted replied.

  ‘Then ya doan know shit,’ he said rudely.

  Gears was holding of the door and was bracing himself to push it open as the vehicle left the marina. He joined Gears, putting his weight against the door knowing it was critical they got it open before the vehicle became too submerged.

  As the wheels of the assault vehicle left the wharf and they were momentarily airborne, Captain Ted said, ‘I know fuckin’ physics, Pax, and this bitch won’t fly. It’s a gravity thing.’

  ‘We’re flyin’ now, dumbass,’ Gears shouted as he heaved against the door and the vehicle slammed into the water, with its nose pointing downward, but after being briefly airborne, it belly flopped into the sea.

  They struggled to heave the door open, but once opened, he and Gears started pushing the shooters out of the cab of the vehicle and into the water that was still swirling with the impact. Over the sound of the people, the water and the creaking of the assault vehicle, he thought he could hear the crack of gunfire. With only two feet of clearance left between the water line and the inside roof of the vehicle, they pushed the last of the shooters out and he, Captain Ted and Gears swam into the water. Once outside the sinking vehicle, he saw shooters were lined along the deck of the ferry and were firing at them. Next to him, he heard a shooter in the water cry out in pain and saw the woman was shot. He grabbed her and put his arm around her chest, tipping her on her back and holding her afloat.

  Still holding the injured woman, he began to swim away from the marina and towards the ferry and that’s when he saw the problem. Hundreds of hunters were swarming the marina and tumbling into the water, thrashing about. With the sheer force of the number of hunters behind them, they were getting close to the shooters who now stranded in the water. The shooters on the ferry were shooting at the ones closest to them and desperately trying to protect them from the hunters.

  ‘Yer gonna be okay,’ he told the still conscious woman. ‘Lifeboat is on its way. We’ll getcha on board and patch yer up good.’

  The woman didn’t reply and he hoped he was right. He couldn’t tell where she was shot, but her body was limp and she wasn’t even trying to swim. He worried she was badly hurt, but just as he promised, a lifeboat quickly came into view and he called to the boat, ‘I got an injured shooter! Get yer ass over here. She’s got priority.’

  Following his orders, the lifeboat swung towards him and as it drew near, he swam over and helped push as they pulled the woman onto the lifeboat. Once they had her, he swam to where the shooters were still swimming away from the hunters thrashing in the water. He saw Gears was pulling shooters further away from the hunters and between the shooters on the ferry, Captain Ted and Gears, it looked as if they had the situation under control.

  It didn’t take long for the shooters on the lifeboat to get them all on board and very quickly they climbed the netting and were back on the deck of the ferry. Now exhausted, he watched from the deck while they lifted the woman he saved onto the ferry. They brought a doctor with them and he knew she was in safe hands. Lying back on the deck, trying to catch his breath, he saw Gears was lying just a few feet away, also catching his breath.

  Seeing he was watching him and sounding tired, Gears said, ‘Go on, Pax, tell me ya told me so.’

  ‘I can’t, Gears,’ he replied honestly. ‘We hadda try, but now we know.’

  Sitting up, Gears shoulders slumped and he said, ‘We can’t take that island without the army of the weird. All those buildin’s and the forests and a super hunter. We’re fuckin’ screwed.’

  ‘Yup,’ he replied blandly, as he climbed to his feet. He put his hand out to Gears and said, ‘Give ya a boost.’

  Gears grabbed his hand and he pulled his brother to his feet and said, ‘We gotta go do a head count. See who we lost.’

  Sighing, Gears clapped him on the shoulder and said sincerely, ‘I’m real sorry, bro’.’

  ‘Yeah, I know,’ he replied honestly.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN: Bad company (Hull)

  Eric Hull was a mean bastard. Everybody said so, and he was proud to be described that way. Even as a young boy growing up in Derby in the UK, he was always the roughest, the meanest and the toughest bastard in the playground. Scorning the drug scene, he became fascinated with guns and all things green and mean and chose to join the British Army at his earliest opportunity. Being fit and with little sympathy for weakness, he excelled at the physical demands of the job and after two years of intense training, qualified for the Special Air Service, most commonly known around the world as the SAS.

  The SAS were a Special Forces unit attached to the British Army and had a reputation for covert, high-risk and often unconventional missions. Little was known about their actions and he was given more than a few free beers based on the Regiment’s reputation, rather than his actual work. Hull spent five years in the SAS, before being quietly kicked out for undertaking one too many missions a little too enthusiastically and being caught with a small arsenal and top-secret documents in his home. He thought
the Army were soft and believed in fighting fire with fire. If your enemy were underhanded then so should you be. It was common sense and he’d no time or respect for the pudgy little bastards who told him otherwise.

  At the time of the outbreak, he was in the US visiting a woman he met online. He couldn’t remember the woman’s name, but he wanted somewhere to stay while on holiday and servicing her was a cheap option. At six foot three inches, built like a granite block, his look appealed to women and when he wanted to be, he could be charming and attentive. With his rough, but good looks and a quick wit, he never had any problem pulling the ladies and he was with the woman when the outbreak hit. Realizing she would be a liability, he simply walked away from her, armed himself and enjoyed the battleground the US became.

  Having no real interest in joining any group, he travelled around taking what he needed or wanted and moving on. Acting like a shark had appealed to his sense of independence, and being vicious complied with his belief you should fight fire with fire. Having gotten used to how the new world operated, he had no concerns about his ability to survive. For as long as he was willing to take what he needed from others, his survival was never at risk, but he was bored. It was nine months of roaming about and in that time he picked up the occasional female travelling companion, but pickings were getting lean in that arena. There were fewer surviving groups of the living and less easily accessible supplies. In more recent times, the hunters were becoming a problem even in daylight and that was cramping his style.

  He ran across Gray in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. There was a large army base in the area and he was foraging for supplies. He thought Gray was a sleazy jerk, but he said he had a partner who could control the hunters. That hadn’t made any sense to him, but having observed the hunters for months he knew their behavior was changing and there seemed to be more going on than something as simple as zombies shambling about eating people. He was bored, running out of women and feeling a bit purposeless and Gray offered him a direction, so he took it. Gray told him he was the new President of the United States and referred to himself as the POTUS. As POTUS, he wanted an army to both control his growing group of refugees and take down any renegade groups that sprung up since the outbreak. He didn’t care about Gray’s ambitions, nor did he have any interest in leading an army, but Gray had access to women, supplies and as an added bonus, he could control the hunters. It was a good enough offer and Gray promised not to get in his way. He would have free hand to do as he pleased providing he delivered a functioning army.