Wasteland Rules: Kill or Be Killed (The World After Book 1) (20 page)

  The kid accepted the challenge and rushed at him,
all fancy knife work forgotten. All he wanted to do was cut Derek’s head off.
But instead of rushing forward himself, Derek jumped up and grabbed a hold of
the hanging pot holder. Praying it would hold his weight he kicked out with
both feet and caught the incoming hunter square in the face. The kid’s feet
shot out from under him as his momentum carried his lower body forward while
Derek’s feet stopped his face. He crashed to the floor in an unconscious heap.
Derek dropped down and stabbed the kid through the heart.

  He left the blade in the body and retrieved the
shotgun. Flipping a prep table up for cover he called for Rora to join him and
he covered her exit from the kitchens. He fired the last shells from the
shotgun at the bounty hunters that spilled into the room after her. There were
now more than the original three and the new ones had automatic weapons. The
rounds bounced off the table as he fled the room.

  He could hear the angry screams of the bounty
hunters chasing them. Rora seemed to know where she was going so he followed
her closely. When they slowed, shots would zip by them as the bounty hunters
caught up. Alarmingly, Derek noticed that even when the rednecks got close
enough to hit them they missed. Several times bounty hunters appeared ahead of
them forcing them to divert down a new path. After that happened a few times;
he realized they were being herded, but he had no idea where.

    Their destination was revealed when they burst
through a door out into the bright sunlight. He and Rora found themselves
standing in the exercise yard. It was a plain dirt expanse with rusting
basketball hoops and the collapsed remnants of bleachers and benches. The yard
was fairly small and was closed off on two sides by a high chain-link fence and
the other two sides by concrete walls two stories high. Beyond the fence was
another chain-link fence about fifty feet further topped with razor wire.

  Derek heard the door behind them lock and turned
to see a maniacally grinning hillbilly at the small window. He looked around
and noticed a group of bounty hunters watching through a large viewing window
on the second floor. The only other exit was a set of double doors on the other
wall of the yard.

  The doors opened and a large heavyset man came out
into the yard. He was dressed in denim overalls and brown work boots and
nothing else. Thick hair covered the exposed chest and arms. His head was
shaved completely bald and he wore a brown leather mask. In his hands he
carried a large chainsaw already chugging away. Behind him came a shorter
muscular man and a tall well-endowed woman who entered the yard and stood on
either side of the masked man.

  The second man was built like a tank and had that
juiced look of a steroid abuser. He involuntarily flexed muscles as he stood
there with barely concealed anger. He had short blond hair in a buzz cut and
wore denim and more of the homemade armor. He had a fire axe slung over one
shoulder as he stared with hate at Derek. So far this was too cliché for Derek
and he couldn’t help but laugh, which only served to infuriate the blond man
more. All this needed was some banjo music or someone to yell that they would
make him squeal like a pig.

  Now the woman, she was a different story. Tall,
dark haired, and really hot; she was the exception amongst these characters.
Her large breasts were barely contained by her denim top, and her jean shorts
barely covered her shapely ass cheeks. She wore leather boots with stiletto
heels. Really impractical for fighting, but she looked great. Unlike the others
she seemed unarmed. Derek gave her a wink and a smile. She smiled back and
licked her lips. Too bad he would have to kill all of them.

  He could hear the others watching from the window
screaming and cheering. Based on the blood stains he could now see in the
ground and on the rusted equipment, this probably happened a lot to the
hillbilly clan’s victims. They were expecting a bloodbath. Well, they would
give the rednecks one. He looked at Rora expectantly.

  “What are you waiting for? Shoot them.”

  She gave a sheepish ‘oh’ and raised the shotgun.
She pulled the trigger but the hammer fell with a loud clack. She was out of
ammo too. As if that was the sign for the combat to begin the two men rushed
Derek and the woman attacked Rora. The masked man sent the chainsaw whirring
with a loud roar and the other man swung the fire axe as they approached. Both
reached Derek about the same time, almost colliding in their eagerness to cut
him to pieces. Unlike the kid in the kitchen, these two seemed to rely on brute
strength instead of skill.

  Derek dodged back and used the shotgun to deflect
the axe into the whirring bits of the chainsaw. They collided in a shower of
sparks and grinding blades. The axe was pulled free of the hunter’s hands and
sent spinning away. The chainsaw’s chain jumped free and fouled the motor
causing it to seize up. Both men stood there stupidly, stunned that they were
so easily disarmed. Derek never paused and took advantage of their momentary
inaction.

 He slammed the butt of the shotgun in the muscular
man’s face, dropping him to the ground with a broken nose. Spinning around
Derek swung the shotgun like a baseball bat and caved in the side of the masked
man’s head. The shotgun’s wooden stock snapped off with the force of the blow.
The masked bounty hunter collapsed to the ground in a lifeless heap. Derek
stepped back to the other man who was clutching his shattered face and moaning.
He calmly walked behind the man and snapped his neck, leaving him lying dead
with the other bounty hunter.

  With a quick look up Derek could see that the
spectators had gone quiet. They were looking at their dead kin in utter shock.
It had only taken Derek a minute to effortlessly kill both men. Amateurs he
laughed to himself. But there was still one left. He turned to see how Rora was
faring with the other bounty hunter. What he saw stunned him.

  The female bounty hunter proved to be very skilled
and she was unleashing vicious and unrelenting martial arts attacks on Rora.
More surprisingly; Rora was not only holding her own, but striking back. The
two women were engaged in a brutal all-out bare knuckle fight. Fists and feet
flew and blood and spit sprayed as they struck each other. There were battling
back and forth, neither getting the upper hand. They were moving so fast it was
almost a blur. Derek’s first reaction was to aid Rora, but she was doing pretty
well; and the action was, well, kind of hot. Plus he had learned years ago
never get involved in a chick fight.

  So he held back just watching as they continued to
tangle. The bounty hunter almost won when she caught the younger woman with a
stiletto heel to the leg, actually drawing blood. But Rora recovered quickly
and caught the bigger woman by her long hair. Rora moved around behind her so
quickly it seemed like she was floating. She jumped on the redneck’s back and
caught her around the neck with a choke hold. The woman quickly succumbed to
the hold and sagged to the ground unconscious. Rora didn’t even hesitate and
snapped the woman’s neck.

  “Nice! Where did you learn that? And why weren’t
you doing that before?” Derek asked as he snatched up the fire axe.

   “I don’t know. It was kind of instinctive. I
guess I saw you do it and imitated that.” She replied, somewhat mystified.

  He pointed to the shotgun she had dropped. “Go
wedge that in the handles of those doors. Quickly!”

  Rora picked up the shotgun and rushed over to the
set of double doors. She stuck the shotgun inside the handles effectively
jamming the door shut. That wouldn’t hold the angry rednecks off for long, but
it would buy them some time. Derek considered trying to cut through the fence
with the axe, but that would be very difficult and time consuming. Plus he
would have to get through the second fence before the bounty hunters caught up
with them again. He doubted they would be as stupid as last time and not just
shoot them.

   So instead he attacked the door they had come
through with the axe. The hillbilly behind it had pulled back in surprise at
the first attack. The door shuddered under the repeated blows and started to
come apart. As Derek had suspected it was a steel hollow core door. Once he had
ripped open the thin steel shell, there wasn’t much underneath to stop him. He
glanced back to see what Rora was doing and was impressed to see she was
searching the bodies. She had come a long way from the scared girl he had
rescued.

  With a loud screech, the lock tore away from the
door. Derek pulled the door open and stepped to the side. The panicked bounty
hunter behind it fired blindly through the open doorway. He ran through his
clip in seconds and frantically tried to reload. Derek stepped in and hurled
the axe at the scrambling hunter. It caught the man square in the face. He went
down blood spraying from his ruined face. Waving to Rora, Derek rushed inside.

  “There can’t be that many of them left, but we
need our gear.” He told Rora urgently.

  “I think I remember the way, we should be close.”
She replied confidently.

  Derek picked up the dead man’s AK-74 and expertly
reloaded it. He pulled a pistol from the bounty hunters waistband and handed it
to Rora. He flicked off the safety and showed her how to reload. Searching the
body he found a couple more clips for each and gave the pistol clips to her.

  “Remember, point and shoot. Don’t aim at them
unless you plan on shooting them. Got it?”

  She nodded. “Yes, I think I’m getting the hang of
this.”

  He laughed. “I would say so. Get anything good off
of the ones in the yard?”

  “Nothing…except maybe a disease from that dirty
woman.” Rora said disgustedly.

  With that they headed towards the entrance and
their gear. Oddly, they saw and heard no one as they made their way there.
Derek grabbed Rora and pulled her to a stop right before they entered the
visitor’s area. They could see their gear piled on the tables and strewn about.
But there was no sign of the bounty hunters.

  “It has to be trap. They aren’t just going to let
us go.” Derek mused.

  “I don’t see anyone and there isn’t anywhere for
them to hide.” She replied.

  Derek looked around and could see she was right.
The visitor’s area was a wide open room filled with small steel stables and
chairs. The room had plenty of windows but they were all reinforced glass.
There were four other doors but they also had panels to see through. Mirrors in
the corners showed every angle of the room. There was just nowhere to hide.
Maybe the hillbillies had decided it wasn’t worth it? No, more likely they were
waiting outside to ambush them.

  Cautiously they made their way into the room and started
grabbing their gear. Amazingly everything seemed to be there, although it did
look like it had been searched. Derek realized their mistake when he heard a
metallic snap and then heard something bounce onto the floor. He looked over at
Rora’s horrified face and then down at her feet. Right in front of her, still
rolling slightly was a flash bang grenade. He gave her a shove away from the
grenade and tried to close his eyes and open his mouth before it went off. The
flash and bang still disoriented him and he dropped the assault rifle.

  Shaking his head and blinking wildly, Derek tried
to regain his faculties. Rora was on the ground completely blinded and
clutching her ears. He started to go to her when the doors burst open and armed
men rushed in. Derek snatched up his shotgun and let them have it with both
barrels. The buckshot had little effect on the men since they were wearing body
armor and riot gear. He dropped the gun and ducked as all four opened fire on
full automatic with their M-16s that they had slung over their shoulders.
Rolling to the floor he grabbed for the AK-74 he had lost.

  Staying low to avoid the hail of gunfire Derek
angled for a better position. The tables were providing some cover. The angle
of fire from the bounty hunters was such that several tables were between Derek
and their rifles. Rounds were ricocheting off the tables and chairs. He tried
to flip one over, but they were bolted to the floor. A round went through his
leg and he grimaced in pain. He returned fire, emptying a full clip in the
gunmen’s general direction. Reflexively they pulled back but once the rounds
were absorbed by their armor they gained confidence and began to advance.

  He reloaded and tried to shoot them in the legs,
but that didn’t work either. They were wearing heavy duty combat armor. He
wasn’t sure what the Sheriff had been preparing for, but he had certainly
acquired an impressive arsenal. When the hunter’s stopped to reload, Derek
chanced a look. He popped up and examined his opponents. Amateurs. They were
actually wearing the flash bangs and what looked like tear gas grenades on
their belts, but they didn’t have on their gas masks. He reloaded the AK. He
would have preferred the M-14, but he couldn’t be sure they hadn’t unloaded it
or disabled it somehow.

  The AK-74 wasn’t the most accurate of weapons
since it was designed for the conscript armies of the former Soviet nations.
But it was highly reliable and if you knew how to shoot it, it could be a
potent weapon. Fortunately he had trained with and used in combat almost every
known gun. Braving the renewed fire from the approaching armored bounty
hunters, Derek took careful aim at the grenades on the man second from the
left.