Wasteland Rules: Born to Fight (The World After Book 2) Read online

  Wasteland Rules:

  Born to Fight

  (The World After #2)

  April 2014

  Dedication

  I want to again dedicate this to my incredible wife, without whom I couldn’t publish these books. She reads the entire book, even though it isn’t her usual genre, and provides feedback. Then she patiently rereads and rereads the book again looking for grammatical and spelling errors. Without her there are no books.

  Available Books

  Book 1 – Wasteland Rules: Kill or Be Killed – Available via Amazon

  Book 2 – Wasteland Rules: Born to Fight – Available via Amazon

  Book 3 – Wasteland Rules: A New Dawn – Available via Amazon Summer 2014

  Wasteland Angel – Novella Available via Smashwords (Free), Barnes & Noble (Free),

  and Amazon

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Author’s Note

  The Rules

  Wasteland Rules Glossary

  Chapter 1

  June 16, 2029

  Outside Cape Canaveral, FL

  Alarms blared and lights flashed in the cockpit of the helicopter as the pilot struggled to maintain control. Smoke began to fill up the helicopter and Derek gestured at Rora to open one of the side doors. She looked at him with a panicked look on her face, so he smiled and gave her a thumbs up. The helicopter shook and rocked as it leveled out. The cannon and gun fire from the Reapers on the ground lessened as they turned away from the NASA complex and headed west. The pilot finally gained control of the chopper and stabilized their flight. Looking back Derek could see the trail left by the smoking helicopter.

  Behind them he could also see three Reaper vehicles giving chase to the damaged chopper. He identified the lead vehicle as a BTR-80, an old Soviet armored vehicle common in the Reaper forces. The other two were hillbilly armored technicals, both pickups, mounting heavy weapons scavenged from lost or destroyed armored vehicles from the initial invasion force. All three had mounted heavy machine guns and were wrapped in barbed wire and studded with metal spikes. While that did serve the purpose of being intimidating, the dried blood on them indicated another purpose as well.

  Cut off from Europe when the port was destroyed by the nuke Derek had set, the Reapers had been left with limited supplies and spare parts. When their vehicles had broken down they had removed the most valuable parts, the heavy weapons, and mounted them on captured vehicles. Ammo was limited, but they were still able to get or manufacture small quantities and it allowed them to have a major tactical advantage over their enemies.

  All three were covered in the signature Reaper paint scheme. Reaper vehicles were painted in the colors of the flag of the home country of the original founders of the tribe. In this case red with a black double headed eagle on the hood. That meant they were originally Albanians. The cannibal raiders had allowed locals with ethnic ties to join them to replenish their shrinking ranks, and new births had mixed the bloodlines somewhat; but for the most part the original ethnicities held true. It was one of the things that had previously kept the Reaper tribes from uniting.

  As they raced away from the Reaper encampment with the three vehicles in hot pursuit, Derek noticed something odd on the ground below. About two miles from the cannibals’ encampment were twelve refrigerated trailers parked neatly in a row. They were in a small gravel patch just off the main road. They weren’t currently running since there was no smoke or steam rising from them. So that meant they were empty, their load presumably delivered and they were just there waiting to be picked up. The trailers were in too good of a condition to have been left there a while and there were no weeds or other growth in the gravel patch. That meant they had been dropped there recently, most likely while the Reapers had been nearby. Interesting.

  Derek keyed the mike and gave orders to the pilot. “Take us back towards Tallahassee.”

  “We aren’t going to make it that far. We are losing fuel rapidly.” The pilot responded pointing to the fuel gauge. “One of the shots must have hit the tank.”

  “Get us as close as possible and send out a distress signal. Maybe we can get an assist from the Tallahassee Militia.”

  The pilot changed the chopper’s heading towards the only city in the vicinity and started putting out a distress call on the general bands. While he did that Derek surveyed the chopper and mentally inventoried what they had on board to repel the Reapers chasing them. They had an automatic grenade launcher which could damage the technicals but wouldn’t scratch the BTR’s armor. They needed something heavier. The chopper had an M134 Minigun mounted on each side as the door gun, but again the 7.62 mm rounds wouldn’t penetrate the heavier armor of the BTR.

  When the pilot noticed Derek looking around the chopper he called out. “Check the case in the back.”

  Derek waved at Rora to catch her attention and pointed to a flat green weapons case secured in the passenger compartment of the helicopter. She crawled over to it and popped the fasteners. When she opened it, a big smile came over her face and she gave him a thumbs up. Inside was an AT-4 CS light anti-tank weapon. There was also an empty slot where there had been a second weapon, but the commandos must have used that one in a previous assault. It might only be one shot, but it was still a chance and he would make sure it counted.

  He felt the chopper start to sputter as the fuel began to run out. Turning to the chopper pilot he issued orders. “Set us down on the other side of the largest hill you can find with one of the miniguns facing the pursuing vehicles.”

  “Are you kidding? This state is pretty flat, not many hills!” The pilot replied in disbelief.

  “We need to use a reverse slope defense. I have the best shot of taking out that armored vehicle by hitting the weaker under armor. When it crests a hill is the only time that armor is vulnerable.” Derek explained.

  “Over there!” Rora screamed and pointed.

  Just ahead of them was a sports field complex. There were several baseball fields and soccer fields along with small buildings for bathrooms and concessions. The ground had been terraced to allow for more fields and to create spots for spectators to sit while watching the games. It was only a ten or so foot drop along a shallow slope, but that should be enough. Derek instructed the pilot to set it down there on one of the baseball diamonds. They landed hard as the engine died, the jarring crash throwing Rora to the floor of the chopper and rattling Derek’s teeth.

  He heard the pilot mutter under his breath. “Any landing you can walk away from.”

  Derek chuckled to himself as he clambered into the passenger section to retrieve the anti-tank weapon. He grabbe
d the AT-4 and moved outside the chopper, readying the rocket to fire when the pursuing armored vehicle crested the hill. Rora joined him carrying the grenade launcher. The pilot abandoned the helicopter and started running. Derek let him go. He wasn’t a threat and he had helped them, even if it was under duress.

  They didn’t have to wait long for their pursuers. You could always count on the Reapers to come at you full speed. They were reckless and aggressive, which was a detriment as well as an advantage. In this case it was a major flaw they would exploit. The BTR-80 cleared the top of the hill at full speed launching into the air before starting to descend down the hill. Derek took careful aim and fired the rocket at the exposed undercarriage of the vehicle. It raced away in a blaze of flame and smashed into the bottom of the armored vehicle. The resulting blast rocked the vehicle but it still landed and came down the hill with the technicals following.

  At first it seemed like the rocket hadn’t done any damage, but then the armored vehicle slid to one side with smoke pouring from the gun ports. It slowly rolled to a stop but the technicals kept coming. They opened fire as they came down the hill, rounds from their heavy machine guns peppering the chopper as they fired wildly. The bouncing from their landing and their high rate of speed making it difficult for the gunners standing in the truck beds to fire accurately. The ensuing explosion of their armored escort as the fuel and ammunition inside detonated caused them to pause as they flinched from the blast. The BTR-80 blew apart from the inside into a giant fireball and parts of the armor went flying in every direction. The shockwave and heat from the blast hit Derek and Rora but they held steady.

  Derek quickly dropped the spent AT-4 and manned the minigun. The multiple barrels came to life with a roar, spitting thousands of rounds per minute. He directed the stream of fire from the minigun at the technical on the left since Rora was now firing at the one on the right. The technical had slid to stop not far from them as the rattled Reapers tried to decide if they wanted to run or fight. Derek and Rora removed that choice for them as they shredded the two vehicles.

  The grenades from Rora’s launcher blasted the grille and cab of the pickup apart before she blew the camouflage clad gunner to pieces with a well-aimed shot. The technical came to an abrupt stop with both front tires blown and the engine a burning mess. Derek’s minigun annihilated the front end of his target; the metal grating over the windshield disintegrating as the torrent of rounds streaming from the minigun tore into it. The relentless assault riddled the driver with bullets. It rolled to a stop and the gunner abandoned the technical and started to run before he was cut down by the heavy stream of lead from the minigun.

  They both ceased firing and walked over to review the battlefield. The two technicals were smoking ruins and the BTR-80 was a burned out shell. There was going to be very little to salvage from their wrecks besides their weapons. All of the Reapers inside were definitely dead. The chopper was a smoking ruin as well. The hard landing had damaged it heavily and the Reaper guns had finished it off.

  The screech of brakes caused both Derek and Rora to turn around in alarm, bringing their weapons to bear on the newest threat. But Derek reached out and pushed the barrel of her gun down as soon as he saw the new arrivals. Four armored technicals painted in the purple and white of the Tallahassee Militia were arrayed around the downed chopper with their guns pointed at Rora and Derek.

  Chapter 2

  June 16, 2029

  South of Tallahassee, FL

  Derek dropped his weapon and raised his hands and Rora followed suit. They were both wearing Federal Police BDUs and he didn’t want a trigger happy militiaman to gun them down. They waited patiently as an older man in an old school camouflage BDU disembarked from the lead vehicle, a heavily armored Ford Expedition, followed by two similarly dressed younger men carrying M-16 assault rifles. The pilot, with his hands bound behind his back, was pushed out of another vehicle by a young woman who had a gun to his back.

  Other soldiers got out of the technicals and began stripping the weapons and spare parts from the Reaper vehicles and the helicopter. In a world where few new weapons or vehicles were produced those things were worth their weight in gold. Rora was sure that those weapons would be mounted on new technicals within days. The militia practiced Rule #9 as well.

  “Put your hands on your heads and interlace your fingers.” The older man, a captain from the insignia on his shoulder, instructed Derek and Rora.

  When they complied he continued. “Now kneel down and cross your legs.”

  After they had done that the officer waved the two younger men over towards them. The two militiamen used zip ties to secure Rora and Derek’s hands behind their backs. Then they searched them for weapons and removed everything they found. After being satisfied that Derek and Rora were unarmed they dragged them to their feet and pushed them over to stand with the terrified looking pilot. The officer looked at a tablet seeming to ignore them.

  Derek tried to address the officer. “We’re not Federal Police Commandos; we just have their uniforms on. We hijacked the chopper and…”

  “I know who you are Storm.” The officer snarled. “If it were up to me I would give you to the Reapers. Poetic justice if you will.”

  Rora noticed that Derek’s face turned pale, his head dropped, and he got a sick look on his face. For some reason the officer’s comments had struck home. He paused before responding sincerely and quietly. “For what it’s worth I’m sorry. I was just following orders, I had no idea what would happen.”

  “I’m sure my daughters will be comforted by that.” The officer sneered. “Well, I’m just following orders as well.”

  “Why are you here?” The officer demanded.

  “I’m just trying to get the girl to NASA.” Derek explained.

  “What is so important about the girl? Why is everyone after her?”

  “She isn’t important. She is just the daughter of an old friend.” Derek lied.

  “I’m not buying it Storm. The U.S.T.G. wouldn’t send two full teams of commandos to stop you if she was just some random girl. The pilot here already told us everything, so you can stop lying.”

  Rora glanced at the pilot. From the way he refused to make eye contact, the officer could have been telling the truth. But what did the pilot actually know? He was just a random pilot from the local base. She could sense Derek was mulling that over as well before he responded.

  “I don’t know what he told you, but this is a personal mission for me. Nothing else.” Derek again lied.

  “Come on Storm. You expect us to believe you just suddenly came out of retirement to help this girl?” The officer pressed.

  “I don’t know what else to tell you. The U.S.T.G. must be after me personally. After all I’m supposed to be dead and I left some very powerful enemies behind.”

  The officer just stared at Derek, obviously frustrated by his inability to break Derek’s story. He glared at Rora, but she just stared back. Men thought so little of young women, especially in the World After. Strength and martial prowess were most prized, and it was common to assume that women were weak and helpless. It didn’t hurt Rora any to let him continue to think that. But over the last week she had come to realize that she was anything but weak. Derek had taught her valuable skills and more importantly had given her confidence in herself. She was never going to be a victim again.

  But right now, she was going to follow Rule #6 and keep her mouth shut. She didn’t think they were going to kill them or it would have already happened. And there was no reason for the militia to hold them prisoner, so it was likely they would let them go. It wasn’t any of their business what she and Derek were actually up to. She would help them follow Rule # 6 for themselves, even if they didn’t know it.

  Finally the officer growled and spoke. “Release them.”

  The two militiamen cut Derek and Rora free from their bonds. She massaged her wrists where the plastic zip ties had cut into them.

  “What about me?” The
pilot asked hopefully.

  “You are a prisoner of war and you are coming back with us.” The officer declared with an air of finality.

  The pilot looked at Derek for help, but he just shrugged. Then the female soldier dragged the pilot to a technical and shoved him in the back. She got back inside with him and the two militiamen moved to stand beside the officer. All three looked at Derek and Rora. The officer seemed to be deciding what to do.

  “You were already warned once about leaving C.C.A. territory, but since this is technically free land I’m not going to shoot you. So get your gear and get out of here.” The officer snapped.

  “What about a ride to the nearest roadhouse?” Derek asked.

  “My orders didn’t say anything about giving you a lift. So I’m going to leave you here. Good luck.” The officer said with a nasty smile. The two militiamen just smirked.

  Derek waved to her to follow and he turned back to the chopper. She followed as he went over and began grabbing their gear and weapons. He handed Rora her stuff which she took without a word. He seemed lost in contemplation and she didn’t want to upset him further. So she just followed as he began walking away from the playing fields. Looking back she could see the militia troops finish stripping the vehicles and leave the area.

  Rora watched in dismay as the only transportation nearby rolled off in a cloud of dust. One more thing she had learned in the last week was that she hated walking, especially with a full pack. And boy did her head hurt from the bump she had gotten in the crash. What she wouldn’t give for a few ibuprofen. Other than her father, what she missed most from their house was the fully stocked medicine cabinet.

  After they had walked for a mile or so, curiosity got the better of her and she had to ask. “What was that about with the officer?”

  Derek sighed before answering her. “He lost his daughters to the Reapers and blames me.”

  “Why would he blame you?” She asked.

  “Because my actions led to the creation of the Reapers. I’m sure most of the people who lost family or friends to them blame me.” He said sadly.