Wasteland Rules: Die Fighting (The World After Book 4) (25 page)

Wichita, Kansas

September 16, 2029

   Leaving the stricken android behind, Derek led the
others outside. He stopped briefly to rifle through the Faceless agent’s
belongings. He took a Glock 23 pistol from the Faceless agent’s “corpse” and
tossed it to Rora and then pocketed some valuables and cash. Rule #9, take
everything you can carry. Once outside they paused momentarily to discuss their
options.

   “So we know where the base is, but how do we get
there?” Rora asked quickly.

   “Brightman’s chopper!” Derek exclaimed suddenly
after a brief moment of thought. “He has a chopper on the top of his
penthouse.”

   “How are we going to get there? And how do we know
it’s even still there?” Rora pressed.

   “The helicopter is still on the penthouse roof.”
The Voice suddenly added via speakerphone. “And I show Brightman’s vehicle is
still stuck in the city. The battles between the loyal and traitor militias
combined with the rioting are making it difficult for him to get back to his
compound.”

   “We can take the Faceless agent’s boat.” Sterling
said excitedly. “There won’t be any roadblocks or checkpoints so we can get to
the compound faster than Brightman.”

   “What about the guards at the hotel?” Rora
questioned. “They are bound to be on high alert. I don’t think they will just
let us walk in and take the chopper.”

   “Isn’t that what we have Derek for?” Sterling
replied facetiously.

   “True.” Rora agreed with a small chuckle.

   “Now that we’ve established that you two think that
you’re the brains of the operation, let’s get a move on.” Derek said irritably.
“That android won’t stay frozen for long and someone is eventually going to win
the battle in the city and gain control. We need to be long gone by then.”

   He didn’t even wait for a response and headed for
the location of the Faceless’ boat. When they got close, he waved for Rora and Sterling
to take cover and he stealthily approached the waiting boat. It was a small
motorboat secured to a derelict dock. A brown camouflage cloth had been thrown
over it to conceal the boat from casual observation. Derek knew that there were
guard towers and netting that blocked the river entrances to the city, so the
boat must have been smuggled in some other way. Presumably the Faceless planned
to blow one of the nets and escape. They could escape the same way but it left
them without long range transport.

   He surveyed the area and finally located the boat’s
pilot. The man was dressed in urban camouflage and was hunkered down near a
pile of rubble. He had on a face mask, but he had the familiar bearing that
Derek had come to associate with the Faceless. What was amazing is the sheer
number of them. There had certainly not been an unending supply of them that
had left the CIA. That meant more had been created, but where had the
Discordians obtained the technology for that? Only the Collective had…aha…that
was how Stefan had known their location. The Collective had provided them, or
had stolen from them, the cloning technology. Why wouldn’t the Collective have
sought its return if the technology had been stolen though? Interesting.

   The waiting Faceless shifted nervously and clutched
his M4 carbine tighter. Derek could tell the man was getting anxious since his
pickup hadn’t arrived. Derek waited patiently for another minute or so to make
sure there were not any other Faceless lurking nearby and then made his move.
Rising swiftly he shot the man in the head with a well-placed shot from his
pistol. The Faceless collapsed and then quickly dissolved.

    Derek called for Rora and Sterling and then rushed
over to the “body” to strip it of anything valuable. He appropriated the
carbine, which he distributed to Rora, and Glock 22 pistol which he gave to Sterling;
along with the accompanying clips. There was a small communication device which
Derek pocketed and nothing else. He grabbed the keys to the boat and they
stripped off the camouflage sheet.

   All three of them jumped aboard and Rora fired up
the engine. The boat roared upstream as Rora gunned it to full speed. They
raced up the river towards the Hyatt Regency as smoke rose into the sky in
every direction. The city was burning as the multiple factions fought for control.
Whichever one won, Derek knew they would be ruling over a broken city. Why was
it that the elites always fought for control of the masses and ended up
destroying the very thing they sought to control?

    They arrived at the hotel a short time later without
any challenges. There had been fighting on one of the bridges they had passed
under, but the combatants had ignored them. The riverfront walkway they moored
the boat to was deserted; all the finely dressed patrons of the previous night
had vanished. Derek guessed that any of the Junk Traders and their immediate
subordinates that hadn’t cut a deal with the U.S.T.G. had fled with what they
could carry. They were just lucky Brightman had gotten trapped and hadn’t taken
the chopper yet.

   There were still guards around the hotel, but the
doormen were gone and the guards were now in full combat armor. Metal sheets
had been placed over the ground floor windows and sandbags emplaced at the
entrance. There were no technicals or armored vehicles; Derek assumed they were
all involved in the fighting around the city. He counted six guards at the main
entrance. Four with assault rifles of various manufacture and two with Russian
made RPK light machine guns.

   “What’s the plan?” Rora whispered as they
disembarked.

   “I thought I was the plan?” Derek asked acidly as
he ignored the other two and strode purposefully towards the guards.

   Not expecting an attack from the riverfront, the
militiamen were caught off guard by Derek’s bold approach. They got over their surprise
quickly and swung towards him to open fire. Ignoring their hail of gunfire he
walked straight at them firing the grenade launcher as he went. He was lightly
wounded as several rounds penetrated his armor or struck unarmored body parts,
but each of his six shots blasted one of the guards. All six were reduced to
crumpled messes by the grenade blasts.

   Derek never hesitated, breaking open and reloading
the launcher as he continued to walk towards the entrance. He snapped the
grenade launcher shut just in time as more guards swarmed out of the entrance.
He fired all six shots of the launcher in quick succession, turning the
entrance into a hell storm of fire and shrapnel. When the smoke cleared, all of
the responding militiamen were dead or dying.

   Without stopping, Derek picked up one of the
guards’ RPKs and finished off the wounded. He entered the lobby firing on full
auto and mowed down several more guards who had taken shelter behind the lobby
desk. The machine gun rounds punched holes in their makeshift shelter and
riddled them with bullets. One of the guards had been calling for help on the
radio, so Derek expected more guards to arrive shortly. Tossing aside the RPK
he yanked out his shotgun and blasted two more guards as they exited the elevator.
Both collapsed in lifeless heaps, torn apart by the pellets at close range.

   Then he calmly reloaded the shotgun and grenade
launcher and surveyed the lobby. Any resistance had been eliminated, now all
they needed to do was get to the penthouse and the chopper. Rora and Sterling
joined him in the lobby, both of their faces showing a mixture of fear and awe.
They silently scavenged for more weapons and ammo, with Sterling grabbing an
M-16 and several clips. Derek watched the elevators for any sign of more guards
but none of them moved.

   “Brightman will be arriving soon and he has a lot
of guys with him.” The Voice warned Derek.

   “Time to go.” He announced and entered the open
elevator.

   Derek plugged the Voice into the elevator’s control
panel and the elevator began to ascend. It whisked them quickly to top floor.
Rora and Sterling stayed pressed against the walls as the elevator doors
opened. But the expected hail of gunfire from defending guards failed to
materialize. As a matter of fact it was eerily quiet.

   Poking his head out, Derek took a quick look around
before pulling back. There was no sign of guards and no one shot at him so he
rushed out with his shotgun ready, scanning around for any threat. Still
nothing. Mystified, he waved for Sterling and Rora to follow him and they
carefully made their way from the elevator to the penthouse. They all got in
and Derek didn’t even need to plug the Voice in, the key was in the panel. He
pushed the button and they made the quick one floor ascent to the penthouse
lobby. Again they prepared for an assault that never came. It was as if the
guards had just vanished.

   “Maybe they fled after hearing about the slaughter
downstairs?” Rora offered.

   “Maybe, but it still smells like a trap to me.”
Derek replied cautiously.

   “I think you are being paranoid, let’s get to the
chopper and get out of here.” Sterling told Derek dismissively.

   “Maybe, but the safest place is always a trap. Rule
#12” Derek informed him irritably.

   “Keep your gun ready then, but we need to get to
that chopper quickly.” Sterling said agreeably.

   “Brightman and his men are on their way up.” The
Voice added urgently. “I have the elevators locked down, but they will override
that shortly.”

   Derek nodded and kicked open the door to the roof.
He burst out with his shotgun ready and was surprised to find the roof empty.
They quickly ascended the stairs leading to the roof of the penthouse and found
themselves on the helipad. A brand new looking Bell 505 Jetranger X sat there
as if waiting for them. There was no sign of guards or a pilot.

   “Can you fly it?” Rora asked Derek.

   “Of course.” Derek said as he climbed into the
cockpit. “But I don’t see the keys.”

   “Plug me in.” The Voice instructed.

   Derek obliged and plugged the Voice into a USB
port. The helicopter came to life almost immediately and Derek ran through a
quick takeoff checklist. The rotors began to turn and the engines started
revving up to full speed. He throttled them all the way up and the chopper
lifted off as armed men began spilling out onto the roof.

   The chopper lifted up and away as Brightman’s
guards began firing on the fleeing chopper, but they were out of range before
any damage could be done. Derek pointed the chopper west towards Pueblo,
Colorado and the nearby ADX Florence Supermax Prison. Behind them they could
see a chaotic battle in the skies over the Market. Helicopters and warplanes
exchanged fire with a small figure Derek realized was the android.

   All three of them watched in awe the overcast sky
become bright with weapons fire and explosions as the android blazed away with
missiles and his rail gun, sending planes and choppers flaming down to the
ground where they exploded into brilliant fireballs. The ruby red beam of the
android’s laser cannon carved even more choppers and planes from the skies as
missiles exploded all around it.

   Within minutes the sky was clear of any threats and
the android floated there seemingly undamaged. It paused for a minute and then descended
down to the Market to continue the carnage. They couldn’t see what was
happening, but more fireballs erupted and more smoke began to billow upwards.
Derek wasn’t sure what the android’s motivation was for destroying everything
in sight, but it allowed them to escape unnoticed and unscathed.

    Behind them the city burned as the factions
continued to fight. Refugees and traders trickled out of the city fleeing the
devastation. The Market was completely ruined for sure and the Junk Traders
hold on the city was broken. The winner didn’t matter anymore, Wichita as the
crown jewel of the independent cities was no more. The winner, if there even
was one, would rule over ruins.

   “What was that?” Sterling asked as they flew away.
“Why did Stefan go ballistic and destroy everything in sight?”

   “I have no idea, but it provided great cover for us
to escape.” Derek replied, relieved.

   “Who can explain the actions of a madman?” Rora
added. “Let’s focus on how we are going to get into this prison. What exactly
is ADX Florence?”

   “It is a Supermax prison built in the Colorado
Rockies. It is also known as the Alcatraz of the Rockies and it was designed to
house the most violent and dangerous prisoners in the U.S. prison system.” Sterling
explained. “It is specially designed to keep the inmates separated and secure.”

   “So I assume it is hard to get into?” Rora asked.

   “They are supposed to be impossible to escape
from.” Sterling replied thoughtfully. “But not impossible to get in to.
Although based on the high value targets they used to contain, it is pretty
secure.”

   “Wait, are we supposed to call you Kevin now?”
Derek interrupted.

   “Kevin was another lifetime.” The hacker replied. “Sterling
is as good as anything to call me; there have been so many other names, I’ve
kind of lost track.”

   “Okay, I guess Sterling it is.” Derek said shaking
his head.

   “Back to the prison.” Rora insisted. “How do we get
in?”