Wasteland Rules: Kill or Be Killed (The World After Book 1) (3 page)

  “What about your daughter? Surely you don’t want
her sold as a sex slave?”

  Derek heard the doctor take a deep breath. Bingo,
he had hit a nerve. The doctor got close enough Derek could feel his breath.

  “I will tell you where the device is if you
promise to rescue my daughter.”

  “I promise.”

  “Let us out and I will give you the location. Take
my daughter with you.”

  “Deal.”

  Derek swiftly moved to the back of the wagon and
started to pick the lock. That got the attention of not just a few slavers, but
the other prisoners as well. Two of the men moved towards the back and Derek.
His body was blocking what he was doing with the lock from the slavers, but not
the prisoners.

  “Hey, let us out too.”

  Obviously, they had overheard the negotiation. “I
can’t take any more of you with me. The slavers will just catch you again and
probably beat you.”

  “We would rather die than be slaves. Let us out
and we can help you fight them…”

  “I’m not fighting them, I’m taking the doctor and
his daughter and we’re running. I only have enough room for the three of us.”
That wasn’t really true; the bike would only fit two. But Derek wasn’t
expecting to take them with him. He just needed the device.

  “Please, help us.” They begged. The other man and
the woman had moved closer to him as well. They were starting to make a
commotion as they all begged and pleaded with him.

  Derek glanced back at the camp. The slavers were
getting up and coming towards him. So much for sneaking back out of the camp.
He cursed the other prisoners under his breath, but he couldn’t blame them. Who
wanted to be a slave? He still had the two extra pistols and the knives, the
other prisoners could create the distraction.

  “OK, I’ll let you out. Here are some weapons. Make
for one of the machine guns and try to use it on the slavers. If you are lucky
you can take one of their vehicles.” He said as he shoved the pistols and
knives into the wagon and went back to work on the lock.

  “Hey, what’s going on over there?” He heard a
slaver yell.

  Other shouts arose as the camp realized he was
letting the prisoners out. They started scrambling for weapons and coming
towards the wagons. Derek finished picking the lock and the four prisoners
dashed out. The two men with the pistols started firing at the slavers while
the other two made for one of the technicals. The burst of gunfire made the
slavers hesitate and instinctively duck for cover. He used the momentary
reprieve to grab the doctor and drag him behind the cover of the wagon. The
daughter quickly followed.

  “All right, you are out. Where is the device?”
Derek demanded while holding the doctor by the throat.

  “She isn’t safe yet. She is the key. It is crucial
she is safe. Once she is safe I will tell you.”

  “Old man get real.” Derek snarled. “The odds of
all of us making it out of here alive are slim. If you die on the way I won’t
get the device.”

  “She knows the numbers to find the device. She can
tell you if you take her to safety.”

  “Find the device?”

  “It’s far too valuable and dangerous to keep with
me. I knew eventually someone or something would come for it. I hid it in a
safety deposit box hundreds of miles from here before the Collapse. Rora knows
the numbers. Take her to NASA in Cape Canaveral and she will tell you.”

  “Wait, what? Cape Canaveral. That’s over a
thousand miles away. I have a deadline to meet. Wait, where will you be?”

  Now Derek was confused and irritated. This simple
pick up mission was becoming increasingly complicated. Meanwhile, the slavers
had started shooting at them. Their earlier hesitation to damage the
merchandise had evaporated when a man in a red silk shirt had appeared out of
the nice tent. He was screaming orders and directing the slavers. The volume of
fire was significant but not really aimed at the escaping prisoners. Bullets
were ricocheting off the wagon and the roar of gunfire was starting to drown
everything else out. Derek could tell it was designed to pin them down while
other slavers circled behind them and forced their surrender. The two making
for the technical had been cut off and were pinned down also. Unless they did
something soon, it was all over.

  The doctor looked at him, and then looked to his
daughter and said, “I love you.”

  He grabbed a grenade off of Derek’s belt; and when
Derek stepped back in surprise he ran towards the camp, calling back over his
shoulder, “You need a distraction. Keep your promise.”

  Derek watched in shock as the doctor ran screaming
into the surprised slavers, who hadn’t shot him because he had caught them completely
off guard, and detonated the grenade in their midst. The explosion took down
several of the slavers and scattered the rest. Silence fell for a few minutes
as the slaver’s tried to regroup. Taking advantage of the lull in firing, the
two prisoners made it to a technical and started shooting into the camp. The
heavy roar of the fifty caliber machine gun on the back off the pickup was
music to Derek’s ears. The heavy rounds tore up the tents and cut down several
slavers who were running for cover. The escapees turned the machine gun on the
vehicles that the other slavers were using for cover. Glass shattered and metal
screamed as the bullets tore up the SUVs and the limo.

  The doctor’s daughter was standing there
screaming, with tears running down her face. Derek grabbed her and slung her
over his shoulder. The doctor had sacrificed himself to create a distraction so
they could escape and he wasn’t going to let that go to waste. He raced towards
the edge of the vehicle circle, if they could get into the darkness they could
escape. As they reached the circle, three slavers approached with guns drawn.
The group sent to flank the escaping prisoners.

  Derek drew his pistol and fired at them while
still running. He emptied the clip into the group without really aiming. One
went down with half his face missing and another fell from several shots to the
chest. He had on a vest so he probably just had the wind knocked out of him and
would be back in action by morning. The third must have taken a shot to the leg
or legs because he stumbled and fell, but he managed to return fire. Derek
swung behind one of the SUVs to take cover and reload.

  By himself he could probably shoot his way out,
but he had the girl. He could hear more slavers coming to join the man pinning
him down and the roar of the machine had just fallen silent. Out of ammo,
jammed, or the prisoners were dead; he didn’t know. But if he didn’t do
something, none of them were making it out of here. With an inward groan of
disappointment Derek acknowledged what he had to do.

  He rolled his last grenade under the SUV they were
using for cover and then sprinted away. The blast sent the SUV up into the air
slightly, but the following blast as the gas tank blew sent it soaring into the
air. The blast lit up the sky and likely blinded anyone looking. Derek had
closed his eyes right before it blew and therefore maintained his night vision.
He double timed it into the scrub and continued to run until he reached his
bike.

  He could hear some shouts in the distance, but
none seemed to be heading their way. He stuck the girl, who was still in shock,
on the bike and roared off into the darkness. Derek drove until it became light
out. He figured they had put enough distance between them and any pursuit, so
he stopped to take stock of the situation. He pulled over and got off. The
girl, her name was apparently Rora, just sat there in silence and stared at
him.

  He looked her over carefully. She was about
sixteen years old, thin, stood about five feet three inches tall, with short
blonde hair and blue eyes. She was dressed in very simple gray cargo pants,
white shirt, and tan jacket. Her shoes were brown work boots. All of it was
worn but in good condition and clean. Her nails were cut very short, her hands
had slight callouses, and she wore no makeup. From what Derek could see she was
used to working but had lived a very simple life. She would only have been
seven when the Collapse happened, so she probably remembered little of life
before it. Something was off about her though. He couldn’t put his finger on
it. She was wearing plain clothes, her hair was cut very simply, and she had no
makeup; but she would have been a knockout with makeup and styling. She wasn’t
drop dead gorgeous but she had perfect features. As a matter of fact she looked
flawless, but he doubted she had had plastic surgery.

   She reminded him of his daughter. Tracy would
have been her age had she survived the Collapse. He had lost a lot in the
Collapse. Both his wife and daughter had died during rioting in Charlotte and
his parents had died when the U.S.T.G. had gassed Atlanta. The loss of his wife
and daughter had been what caused him to join the U.S.T.G. in the beginning.
Their promise of law and order, of protecting citizens from the chaos and
anarchy that had swept the world; and jobs for everyone had sounded great. In
the beginning, that’s what they had done. Various warlords were taken out,
bandit gangs captured and execute; looters, thieves, and rapists were rounded
up and put in work camps. But the jackbooted thugs in their black uniforms,
known as the Federal Police had filled the vacuum. People in the U.S.T.G.
worked for the government, there was no private enterprise. No freedoms. No
more America.

April, 2020

Old United States

   Derek had tried to overlook the increasingly
totalitarian regime. His patriotism had allowed him to keep believing the lies
that it was all temporary and in the cause of the greater good. But the battle
in Savannah had proved a turning point for him. His actions were reprehensible
and had caused a terrible scourge to be unleashed on the country.

   There had been a period of calm following the
nuclear, chemical, and biological strikes as the surviving governments put
themselves back together. When the rest of the world had learned that the U.S.
had survived mostly intact, they tried to lay claim to her resources. With the
UN gone in the nuclear strike on New York, there was no world governing body or
place to peacefully resolve differences. Not that it had done much good since
everyone fired on each other without any hesitation. The governments that
remained grouped together along regional lines. The European Union government
had survived mostly intact and they blamed the U.S. for the Collapse and the ensuing
Aftermath.

  As compensation they demanded the U.S.T.G. supply
them with food and medical supplies. When the U.S.T.G. laughed at them, they
took military action. With the satellites gone and most of the world’s
electronics dead, it was a simple matter to send a small fleet of cargo ships
and freighters to American shores. The fleet simply sailed into Savannah harbor
and began disgorging troops and light combat vehicles. Mostly Eastern European,
they were ill equipped; but there were a lot of them and they were desperate.
The EU had solved two problems at once. They had gotten rid of hungry, idle men
with guns; and found a way to get more resources. The troops were well dug in
by the time the U.S.T.G. could prepare a response.

  With limited ships and aircraft having survived
the EMPs and the Collapse, the U.S.T.G. was forced to send ground troops to
repel the invaders or lose all credibility as the putative national government.
A protracted siege had lasted for a year before the U.S.T.G. got frustrated.
They needed those troops to secure the areas around their power base in Chicago
and regain the rest of North America. Already other rival governments, like the
Republic of New Texas, were rising up. So, the U.S.T.G. leadership approved a
simple solution.

   They sent Derek in to take out the EU commanders.
He had worked with local partisans to get into the city and sneak into the
headquarters. The commanders had taken over City Hall and were trying to
establish a legitimate government under the UN flag. Derek had told the
partisans he would blow up the building leaving the EU troops leaderless and
then the U.S.T.G. troops would rush in. But he had lied to them and the bomb
was in fact a backpack nuke. After he exfiltrated and the U.S.T.G. troops had
pulled back, they detonated the nuke.

   The EU commanders were indeed killed, along with
most of the city. The surviving EU soldiers had scattered into the countryside.
The U.S.T.G. didn’t even bother to hunt them down. Technically Savannah was
well outside their zone of control and it wasn’t their problem. Maybe soldiers
rampaging in the countryside would convince some of the holdout in the South to
join the U.S.T.G.. Unfortunately, the EU soldiers became very desperate and
hungry; and they resorted to cannibalism to survive.

   Still armed with guns and some combat vehicles
they spread out over the Southeast killing and eating people. Some people
joined them rather then become victims and their numbers swelled. As they
continued they became more and more deranged. Clans formed along ethnic lines
and they claimed territories for their hunting grounds. To this day, those
clans of cannibal raiders still roam the Southeast. To his great shame, Derek
was indirectly responsible for the creation of the Reapers.

  On the way back to U.S.T.G. territory the small
army had stopped to attack Atlanta, which was becoming the center of the
burgeoning Republic of Georgia. Georgian Regulars had been their allies in the
siege of Savannah, but they were a threat to the ultimate control of North
America by the U.S.T.G.. Derek and a number of Special Forces units had
ambushed the leadership elements of their supposed allies. The suddenly
leaderless troops returning to Atlanta were then easily scattered and wiped out
by the better equipped U.S.T.G. forces. Again, not something Derek was proud
of. Betraying allies was not something he found honorable.

   Atlanta had decent defenses centered on a series
of bunkers in Stone Mountain, a small mountain just outside the city. Despite
the destruction of the troops sent to Savannah, the Georgian Regulars and
militia still greatly outnumbered the U.S.T.G. forces. The city and its
defenses were also too widespread to lay siege to. So again the U.S.T.G. had a
very simple solution. Bombers with chemical weapons, specifically nerve gas,
were dispatched to bomb the city. The U.S.T.G. army didn’t even stop to attack
the city, they just headed home. They couldn’t hold the territory yet, they
just didn’t want another rival to gain strength. And they wanted the city more
or less intact in the future.

   Derek still managed to convince himself that the U.S.T.G.
was just making the difficult decisions that had to be made for the survival of
America. They were at war and the ends justified the means. He tried not to
think of all the innocents that had been killed by the nuke and the gas
attacks. The allies they had betrayed and all the destruction they had wrought.
The final straw was the massacre at Mason, Iowa.

  He and his unit had been told that a small group
of anarchist terrorists were holed up in neutral town just outside U.S.T.G.
territory. They were told that the terrorists had enough explosives to level
the town. The town itself seemed abandoned when they got there. No cars, no
people, and all the windows were boarded up. They went in and took out the
building the terrorists were in. A simple operation, they came in through the
windows and doors and systematically killed everyone inside. When they cleared
the building, they found no literature or bomb making materials. Nothing was inside
except the bodies of armed civilians who had barricaded themselves in the
building.

   As regular troops moved in, Derek had tried to
question the General in charge of the operation, General Merkel. The General
was a short man with a Napoleon complex who had gotten his position by being a
loyal lackey of the new military leaders. He had little combat experience and
was more of a politician than a commander. He had only said he was following
orders to secure the town after being invited by the townspeople, and then
shoved past Derek to organize the construction of a garrison fort. Construction
vehicles and armored vehicles crowded the main street.

  Derek thought that was odd, but plausible. It
wasn’t until the black trucks full of Federal Police showed up and started
rounding up the citizens that Derek realized he had been lied to. They weren’t
harboring terrorists; the town just didn’t want to join the U.S.T.G.. They
wanted the town intact so they hadn’t stormed it with regular Army troops. The
civilians he had killed were probably the militia for the town. Without them
the others would just surrender.

  He was angry and confronted General Merkel again.
The General threatened to arrest him and have him court martialed. Derek was
going to back down but then he heard gunfire. It sounded like concerted volleys
of gunfire, several minutes apart. He couldn’t believe it. They were executing
the townspeople. He punched the little martinet in his smug face and raced
towards the gunfire. Other soldiers tackled him and beat him into
unconsciousness before he got very far. His last sight was of the bloody nosed
general pointing at him and screaming.

  Derek awoke shackled in the back of a truck. They
transported him to Chicago where he was put on trial for mass murder and
treason. It was a show trial and his defense lawyer didn’t even really try to
defend him. He shrugged when Derek told him about the massacre. The judge
ordered him muzzled when he tried to tell the court about what had really
happened and his mistreatment on the trip back. Derek’s nose was still splinted
and he had four broken ribs.

  They trotted out multiple “witnesses” including
the General and former team members to describe his murderous and out of
control behavior. They blamed the massacre on him and claimed he also killed U.S.T.G.
soldiers attempting to protect the civilians. The entire trial lasted only
about two hours before the judge pronounced him guilty and sentenced him to
death. The state controlled media ran a piece trumpeting how the government
applied the law equally and was punishing one of their own for heinous crimes.
Footage was shown that supposedly proved his guilt. Old friends and colleagues
ignored his pleas for help.

   They stuck Derek in a small cell to await his televised
execution. They had scheduled his death by lethal injection for two days after
the trial’s conclusion. His last meal was cold oatmeal. That General really
knew how to hold a grudge and he must have had powerful friends. The day of the
execution they shackled him and marched him down a long corridor towards what
he had assumed was the execution chamber. Instead he had been placed in the
back of a small armored transport van. No one had spoken to him so he had no
idea what was going on.

   The transport had taken him to a waiting
helicopter which took them over the border of UTSG territory at the time, near
St Louis, MO. While still in the air he had been dragged to the open door of
the helicopter and unshackled. The guards had kept him at gunpoint while one
had approached. His old combat knife was shoved into his hand and he was told
he was dead if he ever entered UTSG territory and that if he was captured by U.S.T.G.
troops he would be executed on the spot. Then the soldier had said, “The
General says goodbye.”, before he had shoved Derek out of the helicopter.

  The helicopter had only been at a five hundred
feet when the tossed him out, but that probably should have still killed him.
Derek remembered a story about a pilot falling thousands of feet and landing
perfectly flat on his back and surviving, so he tried to imitate that. He must
have succeeded because when he regained consciousness in a pile of brush after
hitting the ground he was still alive. Miraculously he had no broken bones,
only a few cracked ribs which healed quickly. Not that this was much better
than being executed, they had left him lying in the wasteland all alone in
nothing but his light green prison uniform and a knife.

  To this day, Derek had no idea what poor soul they
had executed in his stead. It was probably some innocent political prisoner. He
had also had no idea why they had exiled him instead of executing him. He had
assumed one of his old friends had come through for him and saved his life. Shoving
him out of the helicopter had been General Merkel’s broad interpretation of his
orders to release Derek. Now he was starting to think they just didn’t want to
get rid of a very valuable asset they may want to use again in the future. Like
for example, to have deniability in retrieving a device for them.