Wasteland Rules: Die Fighting (The World After Book 4) (19 page)

   Another quick glance revealed a stocky black man in
heavy body armor and helmet similar to a bomb disposal suit frantically
reloading his grenade launcher. Two unused LAWs were slung over his shoulders.
As Derek had assumed, it was Mr. James. He saw Derek alive and looking at him
and quickly snapped the grenade launcher shut and raised the launcher to fire.

   Before the bounty hunter could resume firing, Derek
threw a piece of wreckage at him and charged. Mr. James instinctively ducked
the scrap metal even though it couldn’t hurt him, and Derek was on him in that
instant. He knew the shotgun wouldn’t penetrate the heavy armor, so Derek
simply tackled the stocky bounty hunter. The bulky armor made it difficult for
the man to fight back so it didn’t take much for Derek to disarm him, tossing
the grenade launcher to the side before trying to remove the helmet.

   The struggle was interrupted by the high pitched
whine of a sport motorcycle. The bike launched into the store, blowing right by
a surprised Rora and Sterling before skidding to a halt with the front tire a
foot from Derek and Mr. James’ heads. The spiky red haired female rider wasted
no time in unlimbering twin micro-Uzis from under her flashy pink leather
jacket and opening fire on them. The rounds just bounced off of Mr. James heavy
armor, but Derek was forced to disengage. She smiled prettily at Derek as he
rolled away, the twin streams of lead chasing after him.

   Now that Mongoose had arrived and was engaging him,
Derek knew the Buckwalds and Montoya must be out front. He wasn’t sure where
Grizzly was, but he couldn’t imagine the big man missing out on the fun. It was
highly unusual that all the bounty hunters were working together; but with a
huge bounty of five million in gold, maybe there was enough to go around. And
if they had heard how he had handled Devil and her crew so easily, they
probably didn’t think they could take him on their own.

   The bounty hunter world wasn’t a huge one, so
everyone knew the others by reputation at least. He had encountered all of them
in person except the Buckwalds at one time or another. Mongoose had hit on him
and he had rejected her at a bar in Meridian, Mississippi; she hadn’t taken
that well. Mr. James thought Derek stole a bounty from him and had vowed to get
even; but their paths hadn’t crossed again until now. Derek had beaten Grizzly
in an arm wrestling contest in Topeka and he believed that Derek embarrassed
him. When Derek hadn’t agreed to a rematch, the big trucker had been incensed.
And of course, the Buckwalds wanted revenge for their dead kin. Maybe Rora was
right, Derek was really good at making enemies.

   With the wreckage of the store providing cover,
Derek crawled away from Mongoose. He could hear her laughing as she fired
wildly at him. The micro-Uzis ran dry and Derek risked a glimpse over the
wreckage. Mongoose stepped off the bike, dropping the small submachine guns to
hang from a harness under her jacket. She grabbed a Pancor Jackhammer from a
sheath on the bike and prepared to stalk him. The Jackhammer was an unusual
automatic shotgun with a bullpup design and drum clip. Its futuristic look had
made it popular in movies and books even though very few were actually made.

   Mongoose had always liked her guns. It was rumored
she had a secret warehouse full of guns collected through various means. He had
once heard her say she kept a gun off of every man she killed as a trophy.
Looking back, he probably should have just slept with her; but he hadn’t wanted
to get involved with her. She was attractive, but she was also totally
psychotic. He should have known rejecting her wouldn’t go well.

   “Come out, come out wherever you are!” She called
out to Derek.

   “You almost ran me over you crazy bitch!” Mr. James
snapped at her as he struggled to his feet.

   Mongoose shot him in the face without even turning,
an ugly look on her face. The heavy slug from the shotgun punched through his
armored faceplate , his head, and then exited out the back of the helmet. He
collapsed to the ground like a marionette with its string cut. She smiled and
fired at Derek when he made a slight noise of surprise. The slug perforated the
metal counter he was hiding behind, and he realized the wreckage wasn’t going
to provide any protection.

   He reached for his shotgun, but was dismayed to
find it had come loose during the combat. He looked around desperately and saw
it lying near the bathroom door. It must have fallen out when he had been blown
into the bathroom. He darted for the shotgun, but was forced to seek cover as
the slinky bounty hunter blasted the floor in front of him. She slowly stalked
him, firing repeatedly, as he moved from cover to cover trying to get to the
gun.

   “Oh, Derek. We could have had so much fun
together.” She told him sweetly. “But you had to turn all this down.”

   “You aren’t my type.” Derek replied trying to
placate her.

   “I’m everyone’s type.” She snarled furiously.

   “I’m currently single.” Derek offered
half-jokingly.

   “Too late for that sweetie.” Mongoose responded
with an evil smirk. “Even if I was still interested, this bounty is too large
to pass up.”

   Diving for the shotgun, Derek grabbed it and rolled
into the bathroom. Mongoose responded by blasting holes in the wall, all of
which barely missed him. He heard the Jackhammer click empty and Derek popped
back out into the store firing as he went. He fired three shots where she had
been standing, but Mongoose had already twirled away with a swish of her hips.
She grabbed something from her bike and ducked for cover behind a metal display
case.

   Continuing gunfire from the front of the store told
Derek the other bounty hunters were still engaged with Rora and Sterling. It
was down to him and Mongoose in a game of cat and mouse. Although both of them
probably considered themselves the cat. Derek carefully listened for any sign
of his prey as he slowly maneuvered around the wreckage.

   He caught a flash of neon pink and heard several
shots in succession before being knocked down by impacts to his chest. Derek
looked down to see several small metal sabots, or flechettes, sticking out of his
armor. The heavier armor NASA had provided had stopped them from penetrating
fully, but they still pierced his skin and he started to bleed. It was entirely
possible that these special rounds could go all the way through and do some
serious damage.

   “Did you like that Derek?” Mongoose yelled out to him.
“Sabot rounds. Something Steyr cooked up for the Advanced Combat Rifle program.
I managed to get my hands on one of the prototypes.”

   “Which boyfriend did you kill to get it?” Derek
needled her.

   “Gosling.” She answered matter of factly.

   Gosling was another bounty hunter, and one of the
rare nice guys in their business. Derek had been joking but apparently Mongoose
had seduced and then killed the guy for his gun. That was pretty coldhearted,
even for her. That made him glad he hadn’t hooked up with her after all. That
should probably be a rule, don’t sleep with psychotic women.

   Moving quietly, Derek circled around a broken
shelving unit towards where he heard Mongoose’s voice. He spun around it with
his shotgun at the ready, but no Mongoose. The crunch of broken glass behind
him gave him a slight warning and he dove to the side as sabots ripped through
the space he had been standing in. Mongoose laughed and twirled away behind a
counter. Okay, she was definitely the cat in this scenario.

   So Derek changed his strategy and put away his
shotgun. Instead, he grabbed hold of a large steel shelving unit and waited. He
stilled his breathing and listened carefully. Blocking out the continued
gunfire from the front of the store, he could hear her footsteps as she tried
to circle behind him. With a surge of effort he lifted the massive hunk of
steel and tossed it in her direction.

   Caught off guard, Mongoose didn’t react in time as
the shelving unit crashed down on her. She shrieked and instinctively fired at
him right before the metal projectile struck her hard and knocked her
sprawling. The Steyr ACR was knocked from her hands and skittered across the
floor. Derek ignored the pain in his leg where the sabots had passed through
and rushed over to find Mongoose with her leg pinned beneath the heavy
shelving. She glared up at him with pain and rage in her eyes.

   “You haven’t won yet, stud…” She said with venom.

   There was a clattering sound and Derek looked down
to see two grenades roll free of her hands. The blasts were close and
deafeningly loud inside the confines of the store. The edge of the blasts
singed the back of his neck and his armor as he vaulted over a counter and sent
him tumbling. That crazy woman had blown herself up in an attempt to take him
out once she knew she failed. Of course, she knew he was going to kill her
anyway, so why not?

   He spotted Mr. James’s body and hustled over to
grab one of the LAWs. It was the only thing that had any hope of stopping the
armored truck. But he still needed to get a good shot at it from the side. The
plow and front armor had looked too heavy to penetrate. Stripping Mr. James of
the LAW, Derek noticed he was wearing a small headset.

   “Voice.” Derek whispered urgently.

   “Yes Major?” The Voice replied quickly.

   “Are you detecting any localized communications?”
He asked the Voice as he took the two LAWs and gathered up the grenade launcher
and an ammo pouch full of grenades.

   “Yes, I am. Would you like me to jam them?” The
Voice asked smoothly.

   “No. I have a better idea.” Derek told him slyly.
“Can you patch me in to their network so I can speak to them, but using Mr.
James’ voice?”

   “Was he the man that just called the other bounty
hunter a…female dog?” The Voice asked carefully.

   “Yes.” Derek replied with a chuckle at the Voice’s
political correctness. Derek thought that way of thinking had died in the
Collapse.

   “Then yes I can, give me a minute…” The Voice
informed him.

   While the Voice broke into their communications,
Derek dragged Mr. James’ body over to the amazingly undamaged sport bike. He
repositioned the dead bounty hunter on the bike as if he was about to leave.
Then he prepped a LAW and laid in wait closer to the front of the store.

   “Okay, you are good to go.” The Voice told him
after a minute.

   “I got Storm, but Mongoose is dead.” Derek
broadcast as Mr. James to the other bounty hunters.

   “Excellent!” He heard a voice with a slight
Hispanic accent reply. Montoya.

   “We wanted to kill the bastard!” Two others with
hillbilly accents howled. The Buckwalds.

   “Let’s collect the body and get out of here.” A
deep voice rumbled. Grizzly. No sign of Honsu or anyone else. That was very
good.

   “Here’s the thing. I’m keeping the bounty for
myself.” Derek cunningly told them.

   Cries of anger erupted across their network. But
Grizzly’s loud voice overrode the others. “I’m going to wring your fat neck
James, you treacherous coward!” He roared.

   The sound of a truck engine revving up was followed
by crashing sounds as Grizzly rammed the truck into the store again. The hole
in the side was widened significantly and Derek heard the structure begin to
groan as more of its supports were taken out. The plow on the truck smashed the
bike into a million pieces and ruptured the gas tank causing an explosion. The
fireball enveloped the front of the truck but dissipated quickly. After
smashing the bike, the armored truck screeched to a halt.

   Wasting no time, Derek fired the LAW directly into
the armored gas tank on the side and bottom. The anti-tank rocket penetrated
the lighter armor of the gas tank and blew it up. The truck cab lifted up off
the ground and the armored box on the back blew clean off. Flames licked up the
sides of the cab and the other tank was in danger of blowing. All the solid
rubber tires on the same side as the blown tank were damaged and melting from
the flames.

   Derek tossed aside the empty launch tube and
approached the armored truck with his shotgun drawn. He watched in amazement as
a large bearded and shirtless man in denim coveralls staggered free of the
disabled and burning truck. Grizzly. The big man brushed aside his long dirty
blond hair and shook his head to clear it. He saw Derek and smiled, revealing
dirty and rotten teeth.

   “Storm. I should have known.” Grizzly said, almost
happily. “You are very hard to kill I’m told.”

   “So they say.” Derek agreed nonchalantly.

   “Actually, I’m glad the others didn’t kill you.
I’ve wanted to do it myself for years. Now I get the chance.” Grizzly said with
a big smile.

   “Why wouldn’t I just shoot you?” Derek asked with a
frown.

   “Come on Storm. I hear you are some badass fighter
now. Don’t you want to prove you are still the champ? Or are you a coward after
all?” Grizzly said, taunting him. “You beat me last time by accident and then
wouldn’t give a rematch. I think you are yellow!”

   Derek knew he should just shoot the man and be done
with it, but his ego was urging him to drop his weapons and fight the bounty
hunter mano a mano. With a sigh, he slipped the LAW off his back and tossed
aside his other weapons. Grizzly smiled and moved towards Derek, cracking his
knuckles and then his neck. No more words were necessary at that point.