Wasteland Rules: A New Dawn (The World After Book 3) (29 page)

   “Most of your guys are dead or dying. We have to
surrender.” Derek replied sadly.

   “We can’t!” Rora insisted.

   “We don’t have a choice. I might be able to fight my way
out on my own, but the rest of you wouldn’t make it.” Derek told her calmly. “If
we surrender I don’t think they will kill us. They need us to take them to the
ARK. Once we know who were are dealing with, we can plan our escape.”

   “Fine.” Rora reluctantly agreed.

  “Stop shooting! We give up!” Derek yelled to the
attackers.

  The gunfire slowed and then stopped as an authoritative
and somewhat familiar voice shouted for the soldiers to hold their fire. “Throw
out your weapons.” The voice shouted at them.

   Derek and Rora tossed their weapons off the path,
followed by the partisans. “The machete and shotgun too, Storm.”

   That startled Derek a little. This wasn’t some random
officer they had sent. This person knew him personally and well enough to know
what weapons he carried. Once their weapons were tossed, soldiers came out from
behind the rocks and began collecting them. Derek could tell they were regular
Army soldier, not Red Berets. That at least was a good sign. Common troops
would be much easier to trick and defeat than the Red Berets.

   More soldiers came out of the passageways in front and
behind them. All of them kept their weapons trained on the partisans and Derek
and Rora at all times. They seemed nervous, but managed to stay calm. The
troops secured all of their prisoners’ hands behind their backs with zip cuffs
before the officer revealed himself. All of the prisoners were forced to their
knees and guns put to their heads as the commander came out from behind the
rocks.

   Derek and Rora were stunned to see that it was the Red
Beret captain. He wore clothes similar to the partisans, but he was obviously
in command. Bruises on his face were not fully healed and he looked terrible,
but he carried himself with confidence. The man had a huge smile on his face as
he strolled over to gloat.

   “I thought Rule #21 was never give up your weapon?” The
captain mocked.

   “I don’t need a weapon to take you out.” Derek snapped
petulantly.

   “Really?” The man said with emphasis. “I finally have you
right where I want you.”

   “Good for you.” Derek replied sarcastically.

   The man slapped Derek as hard as he could. “You really
are an insolent bastard, aren’t you?” The man muttered as he massaged his hand.
“I could have just had my boys kill you, but you took everything from me so I
wanted to do this personally.”

   The Red Beret captain drew a pistol and aimed it at
Rora’s head. He smiled and stared directly at Derek as he began to pull the
trigger.

   “Wait!” Derek shouted in desperation. “We have something
you want. If you kill us you will never get it.”

   “The only thing I want is you dead.” The man stated with
finality.

   “Don’t you want to get back into the government’s good
graces?” Derek asked quickly.

   The man paused and moved closer to Derek. “Go on.” He
said forcefully.

   “We are here to get something of great importance.” Derek
told him. “It’s so important that your government would move mountains to get
it. If they knew it existed.”

   “What do you mean?” The man asked, intrigued.

   “There is something down here that was so secret and so
well hidden that the U.S.T.G. government doesn’t even know it exists.” Derek
informed him.

   “They must know.” The man said slyly. “Why else do you
think we are here?”

   “Please…If they knew how important it was, they would
have sent an army of Red Berets.” Derek responded smartly. “How are you even in
command here anyway?”

   The man glanced sideways at his troops before responding.
“That doesn’t matter.” He said quietly as he moved within inches of Derek’s
face. “What matters is that I outsmarted you and now I can kill you.”

   “That was impressive.” Derek agreed. “How did you manage
to get everyone in here without the partisans realizing it?”

   The captain paused; he was torn between just killing his
nemeses and gloating. Gloating finally won out and he bragged. “I had them walk
in each other’s footsteps so it looked like less people. I used to go hunting
with my father and I know a few tricks.”

   “Didn’t do you much good in the past though, did it?”
Derek needled him.

   The captain snarled in incoherent rage and struck at
Derek with his pistol. That was what Derek had been waiting for. Using the
knife he concealed on his wrist, he had sawed through the cuffs while they are
talking. When the gun moved up for the blow, he surged forward before it
descended. They collided with a meaty thud and staggered backwards, locked in a
bitter embrace.

   The Red Beret captain lost all semblance of sanity and
bit, head butted and clawed at Derek. His rage gave him incredible strength and
Derek could barely hold him back. They shuffled back and forth struggling for
control. The soldiers stood by impotently, unable to shoot for fear of hitting
their leader. They battled back and forth for several minutes before Derek
found himself pressed backwards against the safety railing with the man’s hands
around his throat.

   The man’s crazed fury was giving him incredible strength
and Derek was starting to have trouble breathing. He had the Red Beret captain
by the wrists and was trying to pry his hands apart, but he just couldn’t
manage it. The captain laughed evilly as he continued to squeeze tighter and
tighter. In desperation Derek pushed forward slightly and then slammed their
weight backwards. The railing snapped loose and they tumbled backwards into the
rocks.

   They fell down a short incline and bounced off of one of
the formations. The collision jolted them apart and they rolled to their feet
facing each other. Both had lost their weapons in the fall, but the captain had
lost none of his anger. He leapt at Derek with his hands and fingers
outstretched like claws. He landed on Derek and knocked him down. As they fell
Derek caught both hands by the wrists and held the gouging fingers at bay. But
the crazed captain was sitting astride his chest and pinning him down.

   The man was literally foaming at the mouth and Derek
feared the man may have gone totally insane. His strength was unbelievable and
his pupils were completely black. The captain let out a hideous cackle as his
fingers got closer and closer to Derek’s eyes. Above them, Derek could see the
soldiers looking down on them. They were watching in stunned disbelief and were
not even aiming their weapons down; they were so engaged in watching the
spectacle below them.

   Then there was a bright flash quickly followed by a
deafening boom. The flash blinded Derek but he could feel the pressure from
insane Red Beret lessen slightly. Taking advantage of the brief lapse, Derek
bucked up hard and rolled. He managed to flip the maniac onto his back and ended
up on top of the man. Several quick elbow smashes to the face of the Red Beret
rendered him unconscious.

   While he was knocking out his opponent, Derek could hear
gunfire and screams above him. Once the man was unconscious Derek used him as a
shield and waited for the situation above to sort itself out. After a few
minutes, Rora appeared at the gap in the railing and offered him a hand up.

   “Everything okay up there?” He asked her suspiciously.

   “Yeah, Shilling was amazing. He just showed up out of
nowhere and took out most of the soldiers, and the rest fled.” Rora told him
with awe in her voice.

   “Really? The guy who didn’t want us to shoot anybody?”
Derek asked in disbelief.

   “Really.” Rora said as she helped him drag the captain
up. “I don’t think he killed anybody though, just wounded them.”

   “That’s correct.” Shilling called out. “I didn’t kill
anyone. You can win the battle and not kill anyone you know. You should try it
sometime.”

   “Smart ass.” Derek muttered before calling back. “Good
job!”

   “Thank you.” Shilling replied, looking pleased with
himself. “I took out the sniper while they were focused on you and then I used
a flash bang to disable the rest before shooting them in the legs.”

   He stood over six soldiers who were now bound with their
own zip cuffs. All six had minor wounds to their legs but they would live. They
looked completely demoralized and when Derek looked closer, he could see how
young they were. The U.S.T.G. must be getting desperate to send children off to
war. Although it was less mouths for them to feed and the government could care
less about the masses dying.

   The partisans were finishing freeing the few survivors
and regaining their weapons. Ray was talking to one of the older men and
glanced over at Derek. He nodded to the man and came over to speak with Derek
and Rora.

   “The others are going to go. This is too risky for them,
we are primarily guerilla fighters. We hit and run. More soldiers will come and
they want to be gone before that happens.” Ray told them bashfully.

   “We understand.” Derek assured him. “They need us to take
care of themselves first. But how are we going to get where we need to go?”

   “I’m staying with you. I know the caves well enough to
take you where you need to go.” Ray said confidently.

   “Okay, let’s go.” Derek said firmly.

   “What about them?” Rora asked, pointing to the soldiers
and the Red Beret captain.

   It dawned on Derek that he knew nothing about the man
besides his name and rank. How funny was that? The man was essentially his
nemesis, and had chased them across the country; but they didn’t know who he
was. When the man woke back up, Derek resolved to ask him. Rule #26, know your
enemy.

   “The soldiers stay here, but he is coming with us.” Derek
said as he picked up the still unconscious captain. “We might need a hostage or
bargaining chip later.”

September 11, 2029

Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky

   The remainder of the trip to the coordinates on the
cylinder was uneventful. Ray did manage to lead them to the right spot, but it
took longer than expected. They had to backtrack several times before they
found the right path. The spot they arrived at was deep into the cave, but it
looked as though there had once been some sort of mining operation there. The
chamber they arrived in was hollowed out and enlarged from its original size.

   A large steel fence with a gate in it blocked their way.
There were warning signs about the danger of cave in plastered everywhere. The
gate was triple padlocked with large carbide steel padlocks. Behind it, what
looked like a manmade passage roughly eight feet in diameter went for about
twenty feet before curving to the left.

   “The coordinates are behind that gate and down that
passageway.” Shilling informed them.

   “Anyone have the keys?” Derek joked before looking at
Rora.

   She nodded and went to work on the locks. Within twenty
minutes she had all three picked open. Shilling actually looked impressed. She
knew Derek wasn’t surprised or impressed, he had seen her do it before. One of
his problems was that he became jaded so quickly. She tossed the locks aside
and opened the gate. Rora gave Derek a funny look as he picked up the padlocks.

   “I know rule #9, but what use could they possibly have?”
She asked him.

   “There’s always someone who needs a good lock, but I’m
more worried about someone else picking them up and locking the gate behind us;
trapping us inside.” He explained.

   She nodded in agreement. Good point. Sometimes his
paranoia came in very handy. She pushed that thought aside and passed through
the gate. The excitement was building inside her. She was so close to achieving
her goal. The ARK would soon be hers. Oh the things she could do once she had
it. How she could change the world.

   That excitement turned to frustration as she rounded the
corner of the passageway and discovered a huge solid steel door blocking her
way. The passageway had opened up slightly before the door and it was probably
ten feet in diameter. It looked like a perfect circle embedded in the rock. In
the center was a small circular recess with an even smaller hole inside. She
waited for the others to catch up before examining it further.

   “I think the key goes in here?” She told them as she
pointed at the recess.

   “Let me try.” Shilling said.

   They moved aside to allow him access. He inserted the
cylinder and it was a perfect fit. He rotated the cylinders sections and pushed
the plunger. Nothing happened to the door, but he gave a small yelp of pain and
began sucking blood from his thumb. They all stared at the door in
incomprehension. They had come this far and the key didn’t work?

   “Wait.” Derek said suddenly. “Right before he sacrificed
himself, your father said you were the key.”

   “The key pricked me.” Shilling interrupted. “It was taking
a blood sample…The key must be coded to your DNA. You try pushing it.”

   Rora reluctantly pushed the plunger on the cylinder and
felt the needle prick. At first nothing happened, but after a few seconds there
was a loud click followed by the sound of moving gears. The door slowly rolled
away revealing a large cavern beyond. Derek went in first, a flare in his left
hand and his shotgun in his right. Everyone else followed behind, entering
slowly.

   The cavern was considerably larger but it was hard to see
with only the red glare of their road flares. Derek located a breaker box near
the entrance and threw them all. Lights in the ceiling suddenly filled the
cavern with bright light revealing the contents within.

   Rora gasped in disappointment as she saw it was almost
completely empty. The only thing in the cavern was an empty steel pedestal at
the far end, and what looked like large metal boxes along the sides. There were
no freezers or cold storage units, no computers, no generators, nothing that
would have held biological samples. The pedestal was roughly five feet high and
had a slightly angled top. A large plug of some sort extended from its surface.

   “No!” She screamed in frustration.

   Derek and Shilling glanced at each other. It was
disappointing that the cavern was empty, but it didn’t warrant that level of
anger. Ray merely stood watching. He had been unaware of what was supposed to
be inside so he didn’t know anything was missing. The captain had come around
during their trek and been surprisingly quiet since then, but now he laughed at
her reaction. She turned on him and grabbed him by the collar.

   “Where is it?” She demanded.

   “How should I know?” He retorted. “I have no idea what
was even in here.”

   “It was the future, you idiot.” She hissed at him. “Now
the future is lost.”

   “Maybe not.” Derek interrupted as he looked around.
“Something was here. Someone else must have taken it.”

   “It would have had to have been taken a while ago.” Ray
pointed out. “There were no signs of disruption when we entered and any marks
on the stone have been covered up. The moisture in here constantly creates a
thin new layer of rock.”

   “Could your father have built this as some sort of
decoy?” Derek asked Rora.

   She considered that possibility for a moment. “No, this
was it. Whatever was here is gone now.” She stated with confidence. “But how?
It was locked up tight and this was the only key. And it required me to get
in.”

   “What’s odd is that there doesn’t seem to be any power
supply for freezers or cold storage. Even if someone took what was here, they
wouldn’t have removed those.” Shilling mused. “The only power seems to have
been run to that pedestal.”

   He was right, Rora realized. What if the ARK wasn’t what
she thought it was? What if it was something smaller and more portable? She
moved towards the pedestal to examine it. Maybe there was a clue about what it
was and who had taken it?

   “Wait!” Derek cried out as she reached the pedestal.

   She turned around in confusion. He was looking at her
legs with a look of concern. She looked down and saw she had broken a laser
beam with her passage. She had unwittingly triggered some kind of trap. Rora yelped
in surprise as the lights went out, leaving the room lit only by their dying
flares. There was a brief moment of silence where all Rora could hear was their
breathing before a horrible and familiar sound echoed through the cavern, the
hunting cry of a Drinker. More howls echoed in reply until the cavern was
filled with the terrifying cacophony of hungry Drinkers.

To Be Continued in
Wasteland Rules: Die Fighting

Coming Winter 2014