Wasteland Rules: Kill or Be Killed (The World After Book 1) (19 page)

June 14, 2029

Near Jonesboro, Arkansas

  She was still passed out in the den when he got
back. He dragged her and their gear out to the truck. He threw the gear in the
bed and splashed some water on her to wake her up. She moaned and started to
come around. While she woke up Derek looked her over. Her color was returning
and her eyes quickly focused once she opened them.

  “Where are we?” She asked groggily.

  “Still in the wasteland being chased by everybody
under the sun…but I did get us a ride. Sorry, no air conditioning.” Derek
replied cheerfully.

  Rora laughed and got up. She looked over the
rusted, dirty truck with obvious disgust, but it meant she didn’t have to walk
so she kept quiet. She climbed into the cab, ignoring the torn and stained
seats with the foam popping through. Derek jumped back in and fired it up. They
turned around and headed towards the hopefully secret route that the station
owner had told Derek about.

  They drove cross country for a few miles until
Derek picked up the dirt track the station owner had generously called a road.
It wound back and forth amongst some low lying hills before coming out into the
open. Weeds and scrub pines concealed much of the tracks and it didn’t look
like anyone had been down it in years. The pickup rattled and shook as they
made their way down into a shallow valley. They could see the rail line ahead
of them running eastwards on a raised embankment.

  The town, also a generous description, appeared
ahead of them as the road paralleled the tracks. It looked more like a
refueling stop and train station with a few small wooden buildings instead of a
town. It looked pretty run down, with several of the buildings rotting and
collapsing into themselves. Weeds had overgrown most of the buildings and not a
single window remained intact. It looked like it had been abandoned for decades
just like the man had said. But unlike the man had said; Derek didn’t see any
easy way up onto the embankment to drive along the tracks.

  He slammed on the brakes several hundred yards
short of the edge of the little town and scanned the buildings. It would be a
good place for an ambush. Plenty of cover for men and vehicles to hide in and
nowhere for the victims to run, they would be trapped by the steep embankment
on one side and the rough terrain on the other. He sat for a moment considering
their options. The tracks were probably the quickest and most undetectable way
out of the area, but not if the hunters were there waiting for them. But how
could they know where Derek and Rora would be going?

  Rora interrupted his thoughts. “Rule #12?”

  Derek smiled, she was a quick learner. “That’s
what I’m thinking…”

  His response was cut short when he saw a glint of
light, a reflection off of a scope. He ducked down in the cab and pulled Rora
down with him. The bullet ripped through the seat where his head had been a few
seconds before, followed by the crack of a high powered rifle. Derek threw the
truck in reverse and mashed the accelerator with his hand. They lurched
backwards over the rough terrain before he swung the wheel and spun the pickup
around. The wheels and frame screamed in protest as the beat up old truck
bounced around.

  He put the pickup back in drive and raced away
from the now revealed ambush. More shots ricocheted off the back of the pickup
as they fled. Looking in the rear view mirror, Derek could see several vehicles
appear from behind the cluster of derelict buildings. An armored pickup with a
machine gun and two lightly armored SUVs started chasing them. When Derek saw
the CB antennas on the pursuing vehicles he realized his oversight.

  The station owner was part of the group. He had
the same bandanna and he hadn’t been tied up or roughed up by the hunters. Nor
had the man on the roof had anything other than his weapons. You wouldn’t leave
your gear behind unless you trusted the station owner not to steal it. The
bastard had set him up for the ambush and then let them know he was coming with
the CB the antenna on the roof had been connected to. Surprisingly clever for
what appeared to be hillbillies.

  It quickly became apparent that while they had
avoided the ambush, the trap was still sprung. The bounty hunters’ vehicles
were newer and better suited for the terrain. They were gaining quickly on the
beat up and rusted out pickup Derek and Rora were trying to escape in. They
would have to do something to lose their pursuers. Derek grabbed Rora’s shoulder.

  “You need to take the wheel.” He ordered.

  “What? I don’t know how to drive.” She screamed
back.

  “I need to get in the back and try to slow them
down.” He explained. “It’s very easy. You use the wheel to steer. The pedal on
the right makes us go and the pedal on the left slows us down. Keep using the
one on the right and try to avoid any obstacles.”

 With that he placed her hand on the steering wheel
and started climbing out the window. Whatever further protests she had were
lost in the wind. She reluctantly slid over and took the wheel as Derek got
into the truck bed. Grabbing the M-14 he took careful aim at the most dangerous
target, the machine gunner on the pickup truck. Derek was being bounced around
a lot, ruining his aim, but he had been in worse conditions on some of his
previous operations. He focused on breathing and zoned in one the gunner. He
fired several shots in close succession and was rewarded by the sight of the
gunner cartwheeling off the back of the pursuing truck.

  Any relief at removing that threat was tempered by
another few vehicles joining the chase. An armored muscle car and two dirt
bikes joined the other vehicles behind Derek and Rora. The muscle car had a
light machine gun controlled by the passenger and they wasted little time in
opening up on the fleeing pickup. Rounds rattled off the lift gate and bumper
forcing Derek to scrunch down into the bed. The truck was deflecting the rounds
now, but that wouldn’t last long, he had to disable that gunner.

  Grabbing the M4 carbine he unloaded the entire
clip at the car’s windshield, but the steel grating deflected all the rounds.
The machine gun continued to fire, a round grazing Derek and more rounds
shredding the back of the truck. Desperate, he looked around for something,
anything he could use to fight back. Then the answer literally hit him. A
surplus fuel can bounced off of him as he slid around in back of the wildly
gyrating truck. Digging around in the gear Derek procured the flare gun and
smiled nastily. Time to blow something up.

  He unscrewed the cap of the gas can and hurled it
out the back of the truck, directly in front of the approaching car. It bounced
a few times spraying gas everywhere and then lay on its side with gas pouring
out. Taking quick aim with the flare gun he fired at the makeshift firebomb.
The flare arced away with a hiss and landed right in the rapidly pooling
gasoline.

  The gas and can exploded with a violent roar
sending flame and shrapnel in every direction. The car tried to avoid it, but
it was too late. They drove right through the billowing fireball. The car
continued after them its front end ablaze, but the machine gun was silent.
Moments later it rolled to a stop with smoke pouring from under its hood, its
hoses and belts melted and its engine seizing.

  He grabbed the other can in the back and tried to
repeat his success, but the armored pickup avoided the fireball. He cursed at
that failure, but the other pursuers did drop back. He banged on the roof of
the truck and waved at Rora to go faster. She was driving amazingly well,
swerving around obstacles and still maintaining a good speed, maybe they could
lose these guys. That hope was short-lived as the dirt bikes roared past them,
one on each side. Derek grabbed the M4 and tried to reload and shoot them down
as they passed, but the bikers were too quick.

  His attention was draw back to the other vehicles
when the machine gun on the pickup began firing at them. A new gunner was
manning it and keeping their head down so Derek couldn’t snipe him as well.
That was good for Derek and Rora because he was just firing wildly with few
rounds hitting the rusty pickup. But they were running out of options,
eventually that machine gun would cut them to pieces when the gunner worked up
his courage to actually aim.

  That turned out not to matter. At Rora’s scream,
he whipped his head around to see the bikers had stopped ahead of them and were
stretching something across the road. Uh oh. He had ignored them as the lesser
threat and that had been a mistake. Derek dropped into the truck bed and tried
to grab hold of something. It didn’t matter. Rora had been doing an amazing job
of driving but couldn’t avoid whatever obstacle that the two bounty hunters had
strung across their path. Both front tires blew and she obviously lost control.
The pickup flipped up and over and came crashing down into the dusty scrub. It
rolled a few times before coming to a rest.

  Derek was thrown in the air when the truck flipped
over. He sailed several hundred feet before striking the ground hard. He tried
to tuck and roll as he landed, but the scrub pines tore at him and caused him
to flip end over end as he landed. From where he landed he could see the
crashed pickup. Barbed wire was wrapped around the wheels. That must have been
what they were laying across the road. Rora was hanging upside down from her
seatbelt in the truck. She looked unconscious from the way she hung limply. He
tried to get up but was too dizzy and out of breath from striking the ground so
hard to do so.

  He heard the screech of tires and the sound of
tires sliding to a stop on the rough ground. He heard the bounty hunters
yelling in jubilation and anger as they got out and approached him. Then all he
saw was boots as they surrounded him and started kicking him. Derek tried to
defend himself but he was too weak and there were too many of them. They were
screaming, “You kilt our kin, you gonna pay!” at him as they kicked him. The
last thing he saw before he blacked out was two hunters dragging Rora from the truck,
her head hanging and bloody.

June 14, 2029

Craighead County Prison

   He awoke looking up at a steel grey ceiling.
Derek reflexively sat up which caused rivers of pain to run across his entire
body. He groaned in agony as almost every inch of his body hurt and his head
swam. Slowing his breathing he managed to will away enough of the pain and
focus. He was sitting on a steel bed bolted to the wall inside a small cell.
Rora sat on the other bed watching him with great concern. She looked a little
banged up but otherwise in good shape.

  “Are you ok?” She asked anxiously.

  He checked himself before answering. Unbelievably
he didn’t seem to have any broken bones; even his ribs didn’t feel broken. The
body armor must have absorbed a lot of the crash damage and subsequent beating.
He was bruised all over and had a few knots on his head, but otherwise was not
too badly hurt. His face felt swollen and he confirmed that by looking in the
polished steel that served as a mirror.

  “It looks worse than it is. Nothing is broken.
I’ve been in worse shape.”

  She looked at him doubtfully before asking. “What
was worse than this?”

  Normally he wouldn’t share this story, but they
had been through a lot together in the last couple of days. He felt a bond with
her that he hadn’t felt in a while. So he decided to share what had happened to
him in China.

  “On my last mission for the U.S. during the
Collapse we were sent into China to mark possible nuclear weapons sites for
airstrikes. We were ambushed, possibly betrayed by a traitor in the command
staff, and we were surrounded by an entire division of elite Chinese troops.
Fortunately they were trying to capture us for propaganda purposes so they
didn’t just bomb us. We held them off for two days before we could be
extracted. I lost half my men and I was grievously wounded. I was shot five
times and badly burned by a firebomb attack. It took four months in an
intensive care facility with experimental treatments for me to recover.”

  Rora stared at him with her jaw hanging open. “You
must be very lucky.”

  “I’ve always been able to walk away from near
death experiences. I guess its luck.”

  “What else have you survived?”

  Derek ticked them off matter of factly. “Let’s
see; before this week I’ve been thrown out of a helicopter, ambushed by
Drinkers, shot about seventeen different times, stabbed fifteen different
times, run over by a car, almost drowned three times, and nearly blown up six
different times. There’s probably more but that’s all I can think of right
now.”

  “That’s…incredible. You must have a guardian angel
watching over you.”

  That comment triggered Derek to check his ear for
the phone’s earpiece, but it was gone. He also realized he wasn’t wearing his
body armor and they had taken all of his weapons and gear. In fact; all he was
wearing were his pants, boots, and a stained, white wife-beater. They must have
torn his shirt off of him when they took the body armor. That was upsetting,
that was his favorite shirt.

  “Where are we and what happened after they kicked
me unconscious?” He asked.

  “They were pretty angry about you killing three of
them so they probably would have beaten you to death but their leader stopped
them. He said something about a trial and they all backed off. Then they loaded
us in one of the SUVs and brought us here. It used to be the county prison.
They were bragging about how they got even with the Sherriff for hassling them
for so long. Sounds like they gave him some sort of trial and then ‘punished’
him. Once we got here, they stripped you of everything and then locked us in
here. They said they will be back soon for our trial.”

  “Did they hurt you?”

  “No, one of them started feeling me up but one of
the women stopped him and told him to save it for later.” Rora shuddered as she
recalled that.

  “Any idea who they are?” Derek inquired.

  “As best I can tell, they are an inbred clan of
hillbillies who have taken over the county. Before the Collapse they must have
been petty criminals of some sort to have constant run-ins with the law. Now
they also hunt bounties for extra cash. Most of the survivors in the area seem
related to them.”

  “Yeah, the station owner was one of them and I
didn’t realize it until too late. I wasn’t following Rule # 7 or #10, I didn’t
pay enough attention and I let my guard down.”

  “What are we going to do? You don’t have any
weapons.” Rora asked with great concern.

  “Fortunately, I did follow Rule #15 which is
always be prepared.” Derek replied flippantly.

   He stood up and stretched his aching muscles and
did a few quick exercises to get the blood flowing. Then reaching down to his
boot he pulled a slim piece of metal from the sole. Moving to the cell door he
examined the lock. As he thought, it was a simple key lock.

  “These old cells in smaller country prisons all
operate on a simple keyed lock. I’m going to pick it and we can get out of
here.”  He explained.

  “What about the bounty hunters, they aren’t just
going to let us walk out.”

  “We’ll cross those bridges when we get to them.”
Derek replied as he rotated and popped the muscles in his neck.

  It only took a couple of minutes for him to unlock
the door. He cautiously swung the door open. No alarm sounded so he motioned
for Rora to follow him and they headed out into a wide corridor that ran along
the cell block. The cell block held five cells and there was a solid steel door
at the end of the corridor. The door didn’t have a handle on their side and
looked like it could only be opened from the other side. This would require a
little more effort than he thought.

  Derek sent her back into the cell and shut the
door. He was going to have to ambush the hunters when they came for them and an
open door would be a sure sign of trouble. He and Rora had been held in the
last cell, so the hunters would need to go all the way down the corridor to get
to it. He picked the lock on the first cell and hid inside. He left the door
slightly ajar so he could get out quickly.

  He didn’t wait long. Three hunters came through
the steel door about fifteen minutes later. Two men in front dressed in more of
that ridiculous homemade armor and armed with shotguns. A purple haired woman
wearing a skimpy denim outfit followed behind them carrying shackles. Derek
waited until they had all passed and silently seized the woman from behind. He
snapped her neck with a vicious twist and threw her body into the doorway
blocking the door from shutting completely.

  The two men heard the shackles hit the floor and
turned around in curiosity. That turned to fear as Derek rushed at them from
behind. He smashed the bounty hunter on the right in his broken toothed jaw
with a powerful forearm shiver. The man crumpled to the ground his mouth a
bloody mess. The other hillbilly tried to bring his gun to bear, but Derek was
on him too quickly. They struggled for the gun, which went off. Derek clamped
his hand behind the slide so the hunter couldn’t chamber another round. Then he
kneed him in the groin. As the man loosened his grip on the shotgun Derek
snatched it from him and slammed the butt of the gun into the redneck’s face
knocking him out cold. Grabbing a knife from the belt of one of the men, Derek
slit both their throats. He looked up to see Rora watching him with wide eyes.

  “Rule #3 right?” She asked.

  He nodded. He was impressed when she didn’t get
upset and just calmly left the cell when he unlocked it. She was learning
quickly and adapting remarkably after having been sheltered for so long. After
exiting the cell she walked over to one of the dead men and gave him a swift
kick.

  When Derek gave her a questioning look she
responded. “That’s the guy that was molesting me. I hope he rots in hell.”

  He smiled and handed her one of the shotguns.
“Point this at one of them, pull the trigger, pump the action to reload, and
pull the trigger again until they are dead. Got it?”

  She inspected the shotgun for a second and then
nodded. “Seems simple enough.”

 “Killing someone is never simple, but you don’t
point a gun at someone unless you plan on shooting them. It gets easier after
the first time.”

  “I can see that.” She said pointedly, looking at
the dead bodies.

  Derek ignored the comment. “They probably heard
the shot and will come to investigate. Even if they didn’t hear it, someone
will come to see what happened to them when they don’t return with us. So we
need to get to our weapons and gear as quick as possible. Once we have that we
can steal a vehicle and get out of here…Any idea where they stored our gear?”

  “Yes, they put everything on the tables in the
visitor’s area near the entrance. Follow me, I remember the way.”

  “All right, let’s go.” Derek answered, impressed by
her new found confidence.

  Rora stepped over the dead hunters and led the way
through the series of corridors and rooms that made up the small prison. They
were able to open most locked doors with the set of keys Derek had taken from
the woman he killed. But they did have to back track a couple of times until
they ended up in the prison kitchens. The bounty hunters apparently still used
them based on the large number of dirty dishes scattered about. The filth was
unbelievable, with rotting leftovers and filthy dishes covered in cockroaches. Of
course they had survived the apocalypse like everyone had said they would.

  It was so distracting, they almost didn’t notice
the three men in Road Warrior-esque armor enter the kitchens. The hunters were
surprised by the presence of their former prisoners that they froze for a
moment as well. Derek broke the impasse by opening fire and Rora followed suit.
This caused the rednecks to duck behind racks of dishes before they returned
fire with pistols and a submachine gun. Bullets ricocheted off of pots and pans
and aluminum plates. The racket was almost deafening.

  The three bounty hunters exchanged fire while
trying to exit the room. Derek was pretty sure they had wounded two of the
hunters, but all three made it out of the room. The kitchens were a complete
mess after the gun battle. Rotten food was splattered everywhere, pots and pans
and plates were scattered everywhere; and a few lights flickered, having been
hit by stray rounds. There was an odd silence as both sides regrouped.

  Derek grabbed Rora and pushed her back the way
they had come. They were low on ammo and didn’t want to get trapped there while
the bounty hunters got reinforcements. As they exited back out the kitchens, he
was surprised by a young man with a red mullet wearing football pad style
armor. Derek blocked the first strike of the hunter’s large bowie knife with
the shotgun; but before he could shoot the kid, the bounty hunter kicked him in
the chest sending Derek back into the kitchen. He crashed backwards against a
steel prep table and nearly dropped the shotgun.

  Taking advantage of Derek’s temporary
incapacitation the young man rushed forward and tried to impale Derek with a
lunging strike to the chest. He barely managed to deflect the blow with the
shotgun and tried to smash the oncoming hunter in the face with the butt of the
gun. But the redneck managed to duck that blow and then grab the shotgun.
Slashing at Derek’s hands he forced him to let go of the shotgun, which the
hunter then tossed away.

  Seeing Rora out of the corner of his eye start to
raise her shotgun, Derek waved her off. “Watch the other doorway; I’ll take
care of this pup.”

  His opponent snarled in anger and struck again,
his blade striking the table when Derek rolled backwards over the table. The
kid circled trying to find an opening. The way he handled the blade indicated
that he was very experienced at knife fighting and a dangerous opponent. Derek
was taller and outweighed him by a good forty pounds, but the kid moved
sinuously like a snake and seemed very confident. He also had a metal bracer on
his left forearm providing some protection against an opponent’s knife.

  Derek grabbed a butcher knife from a knife rack
and pushed a table out of the way to gain space. His opponent smiled and moved
another table out of the way, creating a small arena in the center of the
kitchens for them to fight in. Waving the knife in an intricate and serpentine
pattern the bounty hunter attacked. But Derek had seen this before and knew it
was just a distraction. He slapped the attack aside and moved away.

  The kid grunted in respect and got a more serious
look on his face. He knew this would be a tough opponent but he was still
confident he could win. They looked each other in the eye and with an unspoken
agreement they both surged forward. They collided in a dervish of blades,
fists, and feet. Both slashing and striking at each other with wild abandon.
The blades sparked as they struck each other and the steel surfaces around
them. To Derek’s surprise the kid was giving as good as he got and several
blows rocked him. This guy had serious martial arts skills.

  They pulled apart, both breathing heavily and
bleeding from numerous small cuts. Behind him Derek could hear sporadic gunfire
as Rora held off the other bounty hunters. Soon she would run out of ammo and
they would overwhelm her and get to him. He had to finish this quickly. He
waved the bounty hunter to come on and attack him.