Wasteland Rules: Born to Fight (The World After Book 2) (10 page)

   “There is no justifying racism and hatred, Rora.”
He answered, shaking his head. “Some people just need something or someone to
hate to make them feel better. That’s the beautiful thing about a bullet, it is
the ultimate equalizer. Rule #17, bullets don’t discriminate.”

   “We should stop them.” She insisted.

   “We don’t have time to deal with this. We need to
get out of here. Get on the first patrol boat, I’m going to sabotage the others
and then join you.”

  She nodded silently and quickly left the
warehouse. Derek spared the room another glance and shook his head. Eighty
years after the Nazis had performed their vile acts in Europe and nothing had
really changed. The Aftermath had brought out the worst in people, but this was
beyond the need to survive. These guys got off on inflicting pain and
suffering. At least destroying their warehouses and the chemicals would strike
a heavy blow against the Order. For now, it was all he could do.

   Derek disabled the other patrol boats as Rora got
on the first one. He opened up the housings on the outboards and cut all the
distributor leads on the engine inside. Then he hustled over to the remaining
patrol boat and slipped on board as a technical rolled into the yard. He and
Rora hid on the boat as laughing soldiers spilled out of the vehicle. They
dragged two people out of the back of the SUV. He felt Rora’s fingers dig into
his arm as they realized both were handcuffed and both were black.

   It was a male and female, probably a couple based
on their body language. Both had been beaten and were bloody. Their hands were
handcuffed behind their backs and they were obviously dazed from the beating.
The man looked to be in his late thirties with a shaved head and a slim but
muscular physique. The woman was younger. Tall and slender, she would have been
beautiful if not for the bruises on her face. The man tried to interpose
himself between her and one of the soldiers as they moved to grab her. The
soldiers laughed and knocked him to the ground and then kicked him a few times.
Both were then dragged into the third warehouse.

    “We have to help them!” Rora whispered
frantically. “We can’t let those monsters hurt them.”

   Derek knew what would happen to the pair inside
the warehouse. After the Order thugs were done, he assumed they would kill the
couple. He wanted to help them, but he didn’t want to risk getting caught. The
fuses were slowly burning down and would probably ignite in a few minutes, that
didn’t leave much time if he did want to help.

   “We can’t Rora. I want to save them but we cannot
jeopardize our mission.” He explained.

   “We have to do something!” She insisted,
literally stamping her foot. “I’ll do it without you if I have to.”

   He didn’t answer, furiously thinking over the
timeline and logistics of taking two more people. It would be very tight and
would create the problem of having to watch over two more people. He was torn.
He wanted to help but it significantly increased the risks of getting caught,
and he didn’t want to replace them in the warehouse.

   “There isn’t a rule against it, is there?” Rora
demanded.

   “Not exactly…” He hedged.

   “Then you have no reason not to do it.” She said
with finality and exited the boat.

   Despite his better judgment he followed her. They
crept to the door of the warehouse and slipped inside. The five Black jackets
were so focused on their impending entertainment that they didn’t notice the
door open and close. All five were in varying states of undress surrounding the
helpless couple. The man had been strapped to the chair and the woman had been
thrown on the mattress. Two of the soldiers were in the process of removing her
clothes. Derek turned to Rora to whisper instructions, but before he could
speak she screamed in anger and charged the soldiers.

   He cursed to himself and chased after her. She
had the combat knife in her hand and a look of complete fury on her face. The
surprised soldiers turned towards the source of the interruption. The first one
barely had time to react before Rora tackled him and stabbed him repeatedly.
Blood sprayed as she continued to stab him even after he was dead. The other
four soldiers recovered quickly and reached for weapons.

   Derek killed two with his knife before they could
draw their pistols. He slashed one’s throat and threw his knife at the other.
It buried hilt deep into the Black Jacket’s throat and he collapsed silently.
The remaining men were on the mattress and had removed their pants and their
weapons. The woman took advantage of their distraction to kick one in the face,
stunning him and knocking him back. Derek tackled the other as he lunged for
his pistol. Scrambling to a mounted position on the stunned soldier he smashed
elbows to the man’s face. He kept it up until the man went limp.

   Derek jumped to his feet and surveyed the
situation. Rora was sitting atop the body of the man she had slaughtered
quietly crying. There was a story there but they didn’t have time to explore
that. The black couple was looking at him with hope in their eyes. And the
remaining soldier was rolling around on the floor groaning and clutching his
bloody nose. Derek went over and slit his throat without any hesitation. He
ignored the horrified looks of the couple as he freed them.

   They rushed into each other’s arms and hugged
fiercely. Derek left them alone as he helped Rora to her feet. She looked at
him with teary eyes and he gave her a quick hug to comfort her. Then he put his
hands on her shoulders and looked her directly in the eyes.

   “Let it go. He deserved to die for what he has
done.” He quietly told her.

  She nodded slowly and looked past him at the
couple. The two had finished hugging and were looking at Rora and Derek for direction.
Derek waved for them to follow and headed for the door. They didn’t have any
time to waste so he exited without looking around first and headed for the
marina. The others followed, but pulled up short when he suddenly stopped.

   Two guards were examining the damage to the
patrol boats and both spotted them when they exited the warehouse. They dove
for cover behind one of the boats and opened fire on the group. Derek and Rora
returned fire, but their escape route was now cut off. There was only one other
way out.

  “Get in the truck!” He screamed at Rora and the
couple.

  Sirens began to blare as they piled into the
vehicle. The gunfire had alerted the Black Jackets that something was wrong.
Bullets bounced off the armor of the technical as they sped away. As they drove
past the office buildings Derek could see men spilling out. They were mostly
half-dressed but they were all armed. Fortunately the assault rifles and
pistols couldn’t penetrate the truck’s armor. Derek floored the accelerator and
raced towards the gate. The guards at the gate fired on them with little effect
as the technical smashed through the gate and out onto the city streets.

   As they passed through the gate, the sky lit up
behind them. They all looked back to see two giant fireballs climbing hundreds
of feet into the sky. The burning chemicals in the two other warehouses blew
the buildings apart and sent debris thousands of feet from the complex. Rora
whooped in excitement as they watched the burning buildings shrink in the rear
view. Derek laughed. He loved blowing stuff up. The couple looked at them like
they were crazy. And maybe they were.

June 19, 2029

Baton Rouge, LA

   Derek broke the awkward silence. “So how did you
get captured? What were you doing in Order territory?” He asked.

   “We were trying to get to Texas to join family
there. We had a boat but it broke down near New Orleans and we had to put
ashore. Some rednecks in airboats grabbed us and traded us to those thugs.” The
man explained.

   “Thank you so much for rescuing us.” The woman
gushed gratefully.

  “Our pleasure.” Rora assured her and gave her a
small hug.

   “We can’t take you to Texas but you can have our
boat when we are done with it.” Derek offered.

   “Where is your boat?”

   “Nearby, but we need it to go back to Florida. Or
we can drop you off along the way?”

   “Anywhere is better than here.” The man replied.

   Their conversation was interrupted by the rattle
of gunfire hitting the rear of the vehicle. They looked back to see three other
technicals, similar to the one they were in, following them. All three were
firing their guns at the stolen truck. Their guns probably couldn’t penetrate
the technicals armor, but they could damage the tires or get lucky and have a
few rounds go through. Plus, they needed to shake their pursuers before they
got to the boat or they wouldn’t be able to escape.

   “Get up on that gun!” He ordered Rora as he
swerved down a side road.

   She clambered through the hatch in the ceiling to
the machine gun mounted on the roof. Racking the slide to chamber a round she
prepared to fire on their pursuers. Derek swung the vehicle around the corner
making two hard rights and a left to get them back on the main road. Rora
opened fire on the following technicals as they screeched around the corner in
hot pursuit. Bullets ricocheted off the front armor of the pursuing vehicles to
no effect.

   “Shoot at the tires.” Derek called up to her.

  She redirected her fire to their tires with some
success. One of the technicals lost control and swerved into a telephone pole.
It knocked the pole down and flipped into the air. The vehicle came crashing
down onto the road in an explosion of metal and glass and flipped over several
times before coming to a rest upside down. The other two technicals were still
hot on their tail and began to concentrate their fire on the fleeing technicals
tires. Derek could feel the tires begin to shred and fought to maintain
control.

   He left the main road and started swerving down
the side streets in an attempt to lose the technicals chasing them. Rora
dropped down into the back and she and the couple help on for dear life as he
roared along the side streets at breakneck speed. The technicals hung close and
continued to fire on them, but Derek’s evasive maneuvers were causing them to
miss most of the time.

  He drove onto the sidewalks and through back yards
sending debris and dirt flying as they raced through the neighborhoods. He
swerved back and forth dodging mailboxes, parking meters, and tree stumps. One
of the chasing technicals struck a mailbox and flipped end over end behind
them. Rora cheered but Derek was grim faced. They still had one pursuer hot on
their tail and they had wasted a lot of time trying to lose them. Other
vehicles would be joining the chase soon if he couldn’t lose them.

  He saw an old golf course and turned hard to drive
onto the course itself. The technical followed hot on their heels. Dead trees
whizzed by as they accelerated out into the open. Both vehicles caught air and
they launched off of rolling hill after rolling hill, the vehicle’s shocks
barely compensating as they bounced hard after each landing. He was driving as
fast as he could but the other driver was keeping up with him. Then he saw it.

   Ahead of them was a sand trap. In the dark it
would be almost impossible for the other driver to see it, even if they were
wearing night vision goggles. He drove straight for it at full speed. At the
last minute Derek wrenched the wheel hard to the right. The truck almost tipped
over, but he managed to keep it on two wheels and then regain control. They
narrowly avoided the sand trap. Their pursuer wasn’t as lucky and crashed into
it headfirst in an explosion of sand. The impact jammed the technical in and
they only spun their tires trying to get out.

   Satisfied he had lost them; Derek pulled on to
Nicholson Drive and floored it. There was no sign of pursuers behind them or
anyone in front of them but there must be others that were out on patrol that
were looking for them as well. They would probably block the main road but
Derek had to take a chance, it was the most direct route to the boat. He was
starting to think they were in the clear when the storefront they were passing
exploded outward into the street.

   A heavily armored truck blasted through window in
a shower of glass and out into the street barely missing them. It hit the
street and then turned to come after them. Suddenly it turned on bright lights
mounted on the vehicle, almost blinding Derek. Before the lights had come on he
had caught a glimpse of the thing. It looked like an SUV on monster truck tires
with a steel plow mounted on the front. It must have a powerful engine because
he could hear the throaty roar as the vehicle accelerated behind them. It
caught up alarmingly quickly and he realized they couldn’t outrun it. It was
designed to handle rough terrain so the previous trick wouldn’t work.

   Or would it? He swerved into a parking lot and
headed for a steel pylon filled with concrete. Stores had added them to prevent
people from driving vehicles into the store and robbing it. It should stop the
monster truck behind them. He pulled the same trick of swerving at the last
second and watched in glee as the monster technical rammed the pylon. But
instead of stopping the truck, it merely sheared the pylon of the ground with
its plow and crashed into the store, metal and glass flying everywhere.

   “What is that thing?” Rora screamed.

   “They call it the Uberwagen.” The man explained.
“We heard them bragging about it on the ride to the barracks.”

   Derek circled back out of the parking lot and
headed back on to the main street. As he exited the parking lot a hail of
bullets struck their vehicle. He slammed down the accelerator and raced away as
two more enemy technicals joined the pursuit. He could hear the deep roar of
the monster truck as it resumed the chase. It blasted past the other two
pursuers and closed rapidly with the escaping truck. Derek tried to swerve from
side to side and lose it but it kept closing. With a final burst of speed it
surged forward and rammed the back of their vehicle.

   The truck lurched up into the air and sent Rora
and the couple sprawling. The woman screamed in fear as she flew onto the
floor. The lights from the monster truck shone through the vehicle and were so
bright they lit up the entire truck. Derek could see the fear in the faces of
his passengers. The monster technical rammed them again and Derek almost lost
control. A third ram shattered the rear window and bent the rear door in. A few
more strikes like that and they would be run off the road.

   Derek did the only thing he could think of. He
slammed on the brakes and spun the wheel while accelerating. The truck turned
180 degrees and swung to the side of the ramming monster truck. Then he let go
of the brakes and raced back the way they had come. He headed straight at the
other two technicals, playing chicken. Despite the others’ attempts to get him
to turn away he determinedly kept straight at them.

   Bullets sparked off the hood and the grate over
the front window as the oncoming vehicles tried to dissuade him. They got
closer and closer and he realized that maybe they would be too afraid to turn
away themselves. That was ok, he had another plan. Seconds before impact, Derek
turned on their headlights. The bright lights blinded the drivers of the enemy
vehicles and they instinctively turned away. He drove between the two
technicals, it was so close the side view mirrors were knocked off of all three
vehicles.

   He turned the lights back off and quickly turned
down a side road. He watched as one of the two technicals lost control, ran off
the road and struck a tree. The other driver managed to get control and circled
back. Derek could see the bright lights of the monster truck coming back also.
He needed something that would get rid of these two so they could get to the
boat and escape before more pursuers showed up. He headed through some fields
to try to buy some time while he came up with a plan.

   Time to ask for help. He flicked the phone on and
dialed the Voice. “I need some help.”

   “It’s nice to talk to you too, Major.” The voice
answered smoothly.

   “No time for small talk. We have a situation
here.” Derek snapped.

   “I can see that. You can’t shake that big one can
you?” The Voice asked.

  Derek started to ask how he knew that but bit his
tongue. It was obvious that whomever the Voice was he had access to satellite
surveillance. That was unusual since all the satellites had been supposedly
taken over by the Collective during the Collapse. That event had triggered the
Aftermath. The Voice also had access to a secure communications system. Both of
which were unaffected by the device, so it was unlikely he was connected to the
Collective. Yet the U.S.T.G. wasn’t his employer since they were after the
device as well. Who was this guy?

   “Yes, they have proven very persistent.” Derek
agreed through clenched teeth. “Any suggestions on how to lose them?”

  “Give me a minute.” The Voice instructed him. A
few long seconds passed.

   “Got it.” The Voice returned. “There is a creek
that runs perpendicular to your current path. A road crossed it but the bridge
is out. You should be able to jump the creek and possibly leave them behind.”

   “Easy peasy.” Derek mumbled to himself.

  He changed course and headed towards the road the
Voice had indicated. As they raced through the empty fields he just managed to
avoid a rusty old tractor abandoned in the middle. The monster truck never even
slowed it merely knocked the tractor aside like a piece of chaff. The crushed
tractor flew several hundred feet and crashed to the ground. The other
technical avoided the flying tractor but lost some ground.

  Derek coaxed a little more speed from their truck
and roared by a large barn as he pulled onto the road. The monster truck
disappeared from view briefly and then reappeared suddenly as it smashed
through the walls of the barn like they were paper. Wood and metal sprayed
everywhere as the monster technical came right at them and struck the escaping vehicle
a glancing blow. They all hung on as it spun around wildly on the pavement. He
managed to regain control and head for the bridge as the pursuing vehicle came
back for another pass.

   It pulled in behind them as they accelerated
away. The bridge was only moments away and Derek held his foot down to the
floor as they approached. They hit the bridge and launched into the air. The
couple screamed as the left the ground and hung almost suspended in air across
the creek. It seemed like an eternity before they crashed down onto the other
side. The suspension groaned as they bounced several times and sparks hot out
behind them as the undercarriage struck the pavement.

   Amazingly, the monster truck followed them over
as if the creek was no obstacle at all. Its suspension and giant tires handled
the landing with ease. Its driver gunned the engine and came after them as if
to let them know he was still there. The other technical’s driver lost his
nerve at the last minute and skidded to a halt on the other side of the missing
bridge.  Now it was just them and the monster technical. Unfortunately, nothing
had even slowed it down so far.

  “Next idea!” Derek practically yelled at the
Voice.

  “There is a railroad bed ahead with an underpass
too low for that truck to pass under. You can lose them there.” The Voice
replied calmly.

   Derek wasn’t sure; but it was their last chance,
so he kept the accelerator down and focused on avoiding the monster truck
repeated attempts to ram them. He managed to avoid all but one attempt. But
that one attempt lifted their rear wheels of the ground and caused a worrisome
grinding noise. He feared the frame might have been bent. The next blow would
probably break an axle and disable them. He gritted his teeth as he aimed the truck
at the approaching gap in the railroad bed.

   They shot through and monster truck veered off to
avoid having its top ripped off. Derek breathed a sigh of relief, but that
relief was short lived as the monster truck suddenly came crashing down from
the sky. It had driven up the side of the bed and launched itself off the bed
to land behind them and continue the pursuit. What couldn’t this thing do?
Worse still a turret that Derek hadn’t noticed earlier kicked into operation
and began to fire on them. It looked like the monster truck was done playing
with them.

   The slower rate of fire and size of the flash
indicated a much heavier weapon than a machine gun, probably a 20mm auto
cannon. The rounds hit the armor with a heavy thud and a few penetrated to whine
through the cab. Luckily no one was hit, but the truck wouldn’t be able to
withstand too many rounds of that size. They were almost at the boat, but they
were running out of chances to lose this pursuer. That cannon would chew the
lightly armored boat to pieces before they could escape.