Wasteland Rules: Born to Fight (The World After Book 2) (7 page)

June 18, 2029

Outside the NASA Complex Cape Canaveral, FL

   Maximillian watched the chopper fly away from
NASA in disgust. Maybe Derek was on board, he couldn’t tell. But he had bigger
problems to worry about. The Reaper siege of NASA had been lifted. When he had
arrived at NASA in preparation for his showdown with Derek he had found the
Reapers gone and the remnants of their camp smoldering. There was evidence of a
large battle being fought but no bodies. Of course, the absence of bodies
wasn’t unusual for the Reapers.

   The Collective had been trucking in clone bodies
for them to eat, to keep all the southern tribes in one place. Keeping the
enemy contained inside their complex had been very important. The Collective
couldn’t allow them to pollute the rest of the world with their heretical
thoughts. Even if Derek had the device, as long as he couldn’t get it to the
traitors at NASA he wasn’t that much of a threat. Maximillian had planned to
trap him against the Reapers and take the device. But he had gotten the device
to NASA. And now Father was in grave danger.

    He gathered his courage and connected to Father.
“The Major has entered NASA Father.”

   “WHAT???” Father’s voice boomed in his head.

   Maximillian actually staggered at the force of
it. “He sabotaged the food delivery which triggered a battle amongst the
Reapers. He used the distraction to enter the complex.” He explained.

   “Are you sure?” Father asked.

   “Yes Father. I interrogated one of the Reapers
who were still scavenging the area. He confirmed that a man and a girl entered
the complex following the battle. It could only be them.”

   “Who knows what those heretics will tell him.
Once they have the device there is only one thing they will do.”

  “I know Father. I will stop them.” Maximillian assured
him.

   “How?” Father demanded.

   “Our friend from the West is on his way here now.
I will use him to attack NASA and kill the Major. But just in case he fails, as
he is only a man, I will go secure the transportation site. If all else fails I
will reveal myself and take care of it personally.”

   “Very good, my son. I am counting on you. Do not
fail me.” Father warned him.

   “I won’t Father. I will die before that happens.”
Maximillian promised.

   The connection ended and he felt relief from the
great pressure that Father’s presence created when they were connected. Derek
had been far more successful than he had believed possible and the situation
was getting dire. The Major had evaded or killed every single person
Maximillian had sent after him and he had broken the Reaper siege. Maximillian
had to continually fight the urge to take care of it himself, but he couldn’t
risk NASA or the U.S.T.G. becoming aware of him.

   He had risked himself the one time in Arkansas at
the solar facility, but the possibility of seizing the device had been worth
it. Now, since he didn’t know exactly where Derek and the device were, he had
to continue to use proxies. Maybe he could figure out a way to circumvent the
effects of the device and attack Derek directly. He would like some revenge on
the Major, and saving Father would make it even sweeter.

   There was only one way that the Major could use
the device to truly harm Father. All he had to do was prevent Derek from
achieving that and he would maintain his place at Father’s side. Maximillian
would travel to the site of the transportation storage and prepare the defenses
there. But just in case, he would also set up a backup plan or two. Derek could
not be allowed to reach Father.

June 18, 2029

Flamingo Point, Everglades National Park

   The chopper dropped them off about five miles
from a known Cartel processing facility southwest of Miami in the Everglades.
The chopper didn’t even land, they jumped out into a barren field and the
chopper took off again almost immediately. The pilot had flown close to the
ground to avoid any radar that the Cartel might have, and they had flown in
without lights and the pilot using night vision goggles to evade possible
spotters. Derek and Rora dropped down into what had been an irrigation ditch
prior to the Aftermath and waited.

   After about an hour had passed and no one had
come to investigate, Derek figured they had gone unnoticed. He tapped Rora on
the arm and they headed out towards the processing facility. It was located at
the southern end of the park in the area known as Flamingo Point. The terrain
was still swampy but had very little vegetation. Without people using all the
water north of the park, the water levels had risen considerably from prior to
the Collapse. At that time the park had been slowly dying because the water
hadn’t been making it to the park and it was also being overrun by invasive
species. Instead of saving a national treasure, the government had been more
interested in foreign adventures.

  The Collapse and the Aftermath had been a boon to
the park and some of the plants had even managed to survive. The trees were
dead, but they were now covered in vines, Spanish moss, and fast growing weeds
that threatened to choke out the entire area. The alligators had thrived as
well without humans to endanger them. But the true apex predators were the
pythons that had been overrunning the park in the final days before the
Collapse. Rumor was that they had gotten big enough to swallow a full grown
human.

   Derek figured that the Cartel guards would not
expect anyone to traverse the swamp in the dark and so would not be that
vigilant. Using night vision goggles borrowed from NASA, who seemed to have
every technological marvel readily available, they slogged through waist deep
water. He didn’t tell Rora about the gators or snakes and tried to ignore the
sensation of things rubbing against his legs. It was slow going and when they
made it onto the coastal trail that ran along the southern shoreline into the Flamingo
Point area, they took a short break.

  Derek recovered quickly and he scouted ahead while
Rora caught her breath. He found a few simple booby traps along the path and
disabled them. It was unlikely anyone would approach the facility from this
direction so they hadn’t spent much time on protecting it. After he exited the
trail into the camping area he did find more precautions including some mines
and barbed wire. Derek cut the wire and disabled the mines.

   The facility itself he found surrounded by a
barbed wire fence and using the night vision goggles he spotted a few sentries
posted around the grouping of buildings. It looked like they were using the old
two story visitor center as the main building with the processing going on
inside. There were several boats parked at the marina adjacent to the visitor
center and guards patrolled the docks and building there. The parking lot was
full of plastic fifty gallon drums and pallets. He marked the patrol routes and
sentry locations in his mind and made his way back to Rora.

   “What’s the plan?” She whispered.

   He drew a rough map of the facility in the dirt.
“I’m going to infiltrate the main building and kill the sentries. Then I’m
going to detonate a small explosion with the chemicals they use to process the
drugs. That should draw the remaining guards to the main building from the
marina. You are going to be here, overlooking the parking lot. After the guards
cross you will open fire on them from behind them, while I open fire on them
from the building, that way we catch them in a crossfire.”

   “That’s it?” She asked, surprised at the
simplicity.

   “That’s it.”

  “What about the boats?”

   “Don’t worry about them. I don’t think the
scientists are here because the security is too light, so I’m not worried about
anyone escaping. We need to make a statement to get the Cartel’s attention and
then we can negotiate with them. A survivor will exaggerate our attack and make
it seem even more impressive and scary than it was, which will improve our
negotiating position.”

   Rora nodded. “That makes sense.”

   “This isn’t my first rodeo…” Derek assured her.

   They snuck along the path that Derek had cleared
and stashed their packs just outside the fence. Before they separated Derek
warned her to remove the night vision goggles when she heard the explosion. He removed
his goggles, then cut the fence and slipped inside as she made her way to her
position. He climbed up a dead tree and waited for the guard to come by. When
the man was underneath him, Derek dropped silently on top of him and swiftly
slit his throat. Moving quickly he made his way to the corner of the building.
Unfortunately the spider suit had been confiscated by the NASA tech geeks. They
had never seen anything like it and had been eager to tear it apart so they
could replicate it. They had promised him they would replace it, but he wasn’t
holding his breath.

   In the meantime, he would have to climb up the
building the old fashioned way; by using the drain spout. Fortunately, with his
enhanced strength and agility, this wasn’t much of a challenge. He quickly
ascended to the top of the pipe and waited for the sentry on the roof to walk
past his position.  As soon as the man had passed, Derek swung onto the roof
and came up slowly behind the oblivious sentry. A swift stroke of the knife
silenced the guard forever. He lowered the body to the roof and wiped his knife
on the man’s pants. The guards all seemed dressed the same in olive drab
fatigues and floppy hat.

   Thinking that even a simple disguise might buy
him a few precious seconds, Derek replaced his jacket with the guard’s and
placed the floppy hat on his head. Then he calmly and casually opened the
rooftop door and walked down the stairs. A guard at the bottom turned to
address him and in the time it took for the man to realize that Derek was not a
guard, Derek had closed the distance and stabbed him in the throat. The guard
died with a slow gurgle that couldn’t be heard above the generators running
down below.

   The Cartel had remodeled extensively. The
interior of the building had been more or less gutted and the second floor
removed. Only the original stairwells still stood. A catwalk extended from them
around along the walls where the second floor had been. Another guard walked
along the other side looking down onto the floor below where the drug
processing was taking place. Naked men and women wearing only breathing masks
worked with the toxic chemicals as they cut and packaged the drugs. Derek
wasn’t sure what they were making and didn’t care. Drugs were a bane on
humanity’s existence and only caused suffering. But the Collapse and the
Aftermath had only increased the population’s desire for something to help them
forget their pathetic lives.

   Destroying this drug plant would be a bonus to
the mission. It was time to get the action started. He shot the guard on the
other side before the man even realized his partner was missing. The workers
didn’t seem to realize what was going on at first. Derek assumed exposure to
the chemicals had damaged their brains. So he started shooting around them to
panic them. That had the desired effect and they fled the building screaming in
terror.

   As the workers fled, more guards entered from
outside and he exchanged fire with them. They were all armed with variants of
the Heckler & Koch G3 assault rifle that had been popular in Central and
South America. Men started to flood inside and the volume of fire forced him to
take cover in the stairwell to the roof. The metal walkway rang and the walls
sprayed plaster from the impacts of the heavy hail of bullets.

   Thinking they had him cornered, he could hear
some of guards running up the stairs from the first floor. Retrieving a block
of C-4 with a timer attached from a pouch on his vest, Derek hurled the device
down onto the first floor. He aimed for where he remembered the chemicals being
stored. Then he turned and rushed for the roof. The blast from the plastic
explosives rocked the building, but the firebomb that resulted from the highly
flammable processing chemicals chased him out onto the roof. The explosion blew
out the windows and killed all the guards inside. Those outside were knocked
down by the blast wave.

   Derek heard the distinctive fire of an M4 and
knew that Rora was firing onto the remaining guards. He rushed to the edge of
the roof and joined in. Unable to find cover amongst the now flaming pallets
and barrels the guards were easy targets for them. The men stood out against
the flaming backdrop and were trapped between Rora and Derek with nowhere to
run. With only a brief pause to reload, the duo mercilessly gunned down the
facility’s remaining guards. When the last man fell, they both stopped shooting
and an eerie silence fell.

  Beneath him, Derek could feel the concrete
structure heating up from the fire inside. He clambered back down the drain
pipe and approached the bodies in the parking lot. He walked among them and
finished off any survivors with a gunshot to the head. Rule #3. The building
was fully engulfed behind him and he didn’t think there were any survivors
inside to so he called Rora to join him. She materialized slowly from the
darkness and made her way to join him.

   “Did we get them all?” She asked.

   “I think so. I’ll go check out the marina. Start
stripping them of any ammo and small things we can carry. We need to travel
light.” He said as he gestured to the dead guards.

   “Got it.” She acknowledged and started searching
the bodies.

   He made a quick sweep of the area and then
approached the marina building. Kicking open the door he rushed in with his gun
out. Nothing but silence greeted him as he explored the interior of the dimly
lit building. It had once housed a small store but all the coolers and shelves
were empty. It looked like they had only been using the offices in back. They
were also empty except for some beat up furniture and a radio set up. Derek had
noticed the tower antenna outside. He looked out the window and noticed that
one of the boats was gone, probably taken by the workers. Hopefully they
escaped instead of heading back to the Cartel, although unarmed and untrained
it might be safer for them with the Cartel instead of heading into the
wasteland.

   The silence was broken by a chime in his ear
startling him. He had forgotten about the earpiece and The Voice. Now was not
the best time and he really didn’t want to explain what he was doing. But the
chime sounded again and again insistently and Derek finally took the call.

  “Major. Where have you been? I lost your signal
outside NASA for a while and then it suddenly reappeared a few hours ago
heading south. But you didn’t contact me.” The Voice asked in an annoyed tone.

   That was interesting. NASA had some sort of
jamming device that blocked an encrypted satellite phone from working. They
seemed more advanced and better equipped than everyone except the Collective.
And it didn’t seem like there was too much of a gap there either.

   “I’ve been a little busy.” Derek answered
shortly.

   “Bringing me the device?”

   “Not just yet. I still have a few things to take
care of first.”

    “Major! I don’t think you understand the urgency
of delivering the device. Every minute you hold it the possibility someone else
will take it from you increases. I need the device now.” The voice said in an
angry tone.

   “That’s not my fault. I tried to hand it off to
your man in Jacksonville, but that didn’t work out did it?”

   “Fair enough. I have found a safe place for you
to deliver it. Bring the device to Mount Rushmore. I will have someone meet you
there with your payment. Once I have the device we will issue your pardon.” The
Voice explained, suddenly calm.

   “I don’t think so. I’m going to finish this task
and then I’ll think about delivering the device to you.” Derek informed him.

  “Major…if you don’t deliver the device to me soon,
you will regret it.” The Voice informed him in a cold and dangerous tone.

   “Are you threatening me?” Derek asked, almost
incredulous.

   “No Major, but I have helped you stay alive and
you owe me. I make a much better friend than an enemy. We had a deal. Don’t
cross me on this.” The voice explained in the same cold and serious tone.

   “You’re right, we did have a deal. And I will
still deliver the device to you. Once I am done getting Rora into NASA. Help me
out and it will go much quicker. Then I can get you the device.”

   “Fine. I will help you, but don’t waste my time.”
The Voice agreed reluctantly.

   “I’m not. I still want the payment, but I made a
promise I need to keep.” Derek explained.

   “Very well. What can I do to help?”

   “Any way you can check to see if I have a tracker
on me?” Derek asked.

   “Run the phone over your body. I should be able
to hear a slight interference if you have a tracker implanted in you.” The
Voice informed him.