Wasteland Rules: Born to Fight (The World After Book 2) (9 page)

   The music stopped and the crowd parted as the rest
of the Black Jackets pushed their way through the crowd and started breaking it
up. One went to tend to their fallen champion while several others held Derek
at gun point. They kept their M4 carbines trained on him as an older man with
short slicked back hair in a nicer uniform approached him. The uniform was
reminiscent of Nazi uniforms from WW2 and could have been a replica SS uniform.
It even had the brass double thunderbolt pins on the lapels. The insignia
indicated that the man was a captain in rank, but Derek was unaware that they
had organized into a military hierarchy. Obviously there was a lot about the
Order that was unknown or inaccurate.

   “What is going on here? Why did you attack Sergeant
Rickman?” The officer demanded.

   “He attacked me; he was messing with my woman.”
Derek smoothly lied.

   The officer looked around for confirmation and
several of the Black Jackets nodded that the bully had indeed started the
fight. He turned and examined Derek, looking him up and down, like one might
examine a horse they were about to buy. He paid particular attention to Derek’s
shirt. Then the officer walked around Derek and hummed to himself. He came to
stop directly in front of Derek and addressed him.

   “Born to Fight eh? I suppose you proved that with
the sergeant here.” He said as he pointed to the fallen bully. “But are you
truly willing to Die Fighting as the back of your shirt says?”

  “Yes sir!” Derek said forcefully.

   “Where are you from?” The officer asked.

   “Baltimore originally.” Derek lied.

   “Really? How did you survive the bombs?”

   “I was on a school trip. I knew my family was
dead so I have been looking out for myself ever since. But I heard you would
take on good white folks to help fight the mud people, so I came here.” Derek
continued to lie.

   “That is true. We do need good white people
dedicated to our cause.” The officer responded. “But why should I take you?”

   “You saw what I did to your man, and I’m good
with a gun too. The mud people made our country weak and caused the Collapse.
My family wouldn’t have died if it weren’t for them.” Derek said
enthusiastically hard selling the lie.

   The officer nodded and gestured at Derek to his
men. “Bring him to the barracks. The commandant will want to talk to him
personally. Drag that freak Rickman back there too.”

  “What about my woman?” Derek asked.

   “Bring her too.” The captain called over his
shoulder.

   The interview concluded the officer left
accompanied by several Black Jackets. A few of them hustled Derek and Rora to a
waiting truck and pushed them in. The still unconscious body of the Black
Jacket bully was tossed in shortly thereafter. As the truck drove away, Derek
could hear the music start up again as the rally resumed.

June 19, 2029

Order Barracks in Baton Rouge, LA

   The truck took them to a heavily fortified
warehouse complex along the river. Two chain link fences topped with razor wire
surrounded the complex and guards with German Shepherds patrolled on a path
between the two. More troops in sandbagged machine gun nests guarded the gate.
They seemed alert, but simply waved the truck through without inspecting it. It
rolled to a stop in the empty space between the warehouses. Floodlights lit up
the whole complex. The Black Jackets pushed them out of the truck and dragged
the barely conscious and incapacitated bully out. He moaned in pain as they
carried him off.

   Derek looked around at the complex. There were
three large warehouses directly along the riverfront with docks and slips for
boats to unload and load complete with small cranes. The slips were currently
empty but looked like they received heavy use. Two towering buildings made of
brick that looked like old office buildings ran parallel to the warehouses on
the street side. A guard was stationed at each entrance to the warehouses but
not the office buildings. A large building that looked like a vehicle garage
was located along the west side of the complex. A small marina next to the
docks completed the complex. It had several small patrol boats tied up and no
guards. It seemed quiet for a major drug lab.

   One of their escorts shoved him towards the
nearest office building. “Corporal Michaels here will take you to your
quarters. Stay there until the morning and someone will come and get you. Make
sure you are cleaned up and presentable.” He ordered them as he gestured
towards a young man in a Black Jacket uniform.

  The young man waved for them to follow and headed
in to the office building. He led them through a very quiet building that
almost seemed abandoned. It was very clean and well lit. Derek could see
through open doors that it was being used as a barracks and they passed several
common rooms with a few men quietly studying books or playing cards. All of
them were in various states of undress but it was obvious they were Black
Jacket recruits. Derek was impressed at the discipline demonstrated. Most
“barracks” in the world following the Aftermath were wild places full of
drinking, gambling, and fights. These guys were definitely more organized than
anyone realized.

   They went up several flights of stairs and
finally reached a set of rooms in the corner of the building. These rooms were
much more Spartan and looked as if they might lock from the outside. They
reached their room and the young Black Jacket opened the door. But before he
could turn around, Derek seized him from behind and placed him in a rear naked
choke hold. Their guide struggled briefly before falling unconscious. Derek
dragged him into the room and shut the door.

   “Well, you’re plan worked and we are inside. What
now?” Rora asked.

   “We will sneak out and you will distract the
guards at the warehouses while I go inside.” Derek started to explain.

  Rora cut him off angrily. “No! I’m your partner
not rape bait. I’m tired of my breasts being your go to distraction. What did
you do before I came along?”

  Derek was forced to laugh. “Fair enough. That was
disrespectful on my part. I apologize…We will do it the old fashioned way
then.”

   “What’s that?”

   “I will wear his uniform and take out the guards
one by one. We sabotage the lab and then we escape using one of the patrol
boats. Okay?”

  “That sounds much better.” Rora agreed.

   Derek started stripping their guide and taking
his clothes before he paused. “Hunh.” He said.

   “What?” Rora groaned.

   “I hope they have female recruits because these
aren’t going to fit me.”

   “So I’m still the bait?” She asked snarkily.

   “No, no, no. You pose as a lost recruit and
distract them. I will sneak up behind them and take them out. You aren’t bait,
just a distraction. You can keep the jacket buttoned all the way up.” He
assured her.

   She looked reluctant, but took the clothes
anyway. “Turn your back while I change.” She instructed him.

   He turned his back and busied himself tying up
their guide. He took the young man’s keys and pistol. He checked the pistol and
was pleased to see it was in good condition and loaded. The pistol was a
Berretta 9mm, which was a reliable gun. Unfortunately he didn’t have any extra
clips or a knife. The guards had to be killed silently so he would need to get
one along the way.

   “Okay.” Rora informed him and he turned around.

   The gray and black uniform was a bit loose on her
in places, but it would do. He had her pull her hair back in a severe pony tail
which would be likely for a female recruit. He handed her the cap the young man
had been wearing and had her pull it down over her face. There probably weren’t
any female recruits, but the uniform would be enough of a disguise to let her
get close without the guard sounding the alarm.

   “What about him.” Rora asked. “Aren’t you going
to kill him? Rule # 3.”

   Derek sighed. “He’s just a kid. He isn’t really
our enemy.”

   Rora smiled. “So you do have a heart…”

   Derek ignored her and led the way out of the
room. They stalked silently through the building retracing their steps in.
Derek had them pause a few times as men moved around in the hallways, but no
one spotted them. They did make a slight detour into a kitchen area so Derek
could retrieve steak knives for each of them. It wasn’t his preferred weapon
but it would do. They made their way back to entrance to the building and
paused there.

   Derek looked through the small window in the
steel exit door and surveyed the yard. All three warehouses looked dark and
there seemed to be no activity, which was odd. Drug labs usually ran night and
day. The guards were still at their respective posts. They looked bored and two
of them were smoking cigarettes. The truck that Derek and Rora had arrived in
had been moved and the yard was now completely empty. The only way to get to
the guards was to cross the wide open and well lit yard. This was going to be
interesting.

   “Okay, let’s go.” He told Rora.

   “How are we going to sneak up on them? There is
no cover.” She questioned.

   “We aren’t.”

  “What?” She asked incredulously.

  “New plan. We walk across the yard like we belong
there. Only low rank members would get guard duty. The problem with fascist
groups is that they are trained not to question authority. So if we act like we
are supposed to be there they probably won’t question us. Once we get to the
first guard just follow my lead.” He explained.

   “And if that doesn’t work?” She asked.

   “We fight our way out.” He said matter of factly.
“Alright. Let’s go”

   Derek pushed her out the front door towards the
guard on the left. They walked quickly and purposefully towards him. Derek
stayed in Rora’s shadow as much as possible and tried to block the view of him
from the other guards. She kept her head down and walked right up to the guard.
The man was watching them with some disinterest, but also a little bit of fear.
Derek knew the man was worried he had done something wrong and was about to get
questioned.

  That look changed to confusion as he realized Rora
was a woman and Derek didn’t have on a uniform. Before he could call out, Derek
swiftly grabbed the guard and stabbed him in the throat. The man’s questions
died in a burble of blood and he sagged to the ground. Derek caught him before
he fell all the way and propped the body against the wall of the warehouse.
Then he called out to the other guards.

   “Hey! We need some help here! He just collapsed!”
He yelled.

   The other two guards looked at each other and
Derek could tell they were debating what to do. Neither wanted to abandon their
post, but neither did they want to ignore their comrade’s plight. He didn’t
want them to raise an alarm or call for other help, so he yelled to them again.

   “I think he’s drunk! Come help us so he doesn’t
get in trouble!” Derek added.

   The two guards rushed over to help their fallen
friend. Derek and Rora stepped back to give them room to attend to the man. In
their haste, neither guard noticed the blood nor that Derek and Rora weren’t
Black Jackets until it was too late. Derek grabbed the one guard from behind
covering his mouth with one hand and slashing his throat with the other. Before
he could turn for the second man, Rora imitated his actions a second later with
the other guard. She wasn’t as smooth as he was, but she hadn’t had a lot of
experience.

   “Nice!” Derek complimented her.

   She acknowledged the compliment with a nod, her
face a cold mask. She hadn’t even hesitated to kill, which was good, since
hesitation got you killed in the wasteland. The transformation she had
undergone in the last week or so from naïve girl with no survival skills to
speak of, to a survivor willing to kill without hesitation was amazing. He knew
it was taking a small piece of her humanity each time, but it was a necessary
evolution if she wanted to survive and maybe even thrive in the World After.

   They used the guard’s keys to unlock the ware
house door and they dragged the dead guards inside. Derek looked back outside
and didn’t see or hear anyone else in the yard. No alarms went off or sirens,
so he assumed they were in the clear. They probably didn’t have much time until
someone did come to check as to why there weren’t any guards on duty. So he
quickly went through their pockets for anything useful. He gathered some
cigarettes and matches from the smokers and a Swiss army pocket knife as well
as their weapons and ammo.

   These guards had been armed with M4 carbines and
Beretta pistols along with combat knives. He upgraded his and Rora’s weapons
and ditched the bloody steak knives. He felt better holding a substantial
weapon instead of the steak knife. Suitably armed, he stood up and looked
around the warehouse. Plastic barrels of chemicals filled the open space
stacked four or five barrels high on pallets. Several forklifts were parked
along the walls. It wasn’t an active drug lab, but the chemicals stored here
were precursors for making meth. There was enough there to make millions of
pounds of the drug. No wonder the Cartel was worried.

   It was odd though. Derek was curious as to how
they had gotten so much of the chemicals. As far as he knew, no one was making
this stuff anymore. If the other two warehouses held as many chemicals it was
an unbelievable amount of supply for a small regional faction. So where had it
come from? He examined one of the barrels for any identifying marks. He found a
symbol and bar code but it meant nothing to him. He started to turn away when
Rora gasped behind him.

  “What?” He demanded.

   “Those are Collective markings.” She hissed.

   “You can read that?” He asked, surprised.

    “Um, yes.” She admitted. “It says it was made in
a factory located in Portland, Oregon and shipped here.”

   “Interesting…” Derek murmured.

   It was interesting in two ways. One, the
Collective was providing the chemicals to make the drugs to the Order. They
were not known allies so the connection was surprising. Two, Rora had again
demonstrated an unusual talent; this time she had shown the ability to read a
bar code. There was more to her than met the eye; and more than just the
increased brain activity. But Rule # 6 told him to mind his own business so he
would until she felt comfortable enough to share.

   “Help me.” He instructed her as he grabbed a
barrel.

   Together they tipped the barrel over and spilled
the chemicals onto the floor of the warehouse. He gestured at another cluster
and they spilled the contents of multiple barrels onto the floor. Using the
matches and a cigarette, Derek created a makeshift fuse. It would ignite the
spilled chemicals, which would spread to the other barrels and blow up the
entire warehouse. He planned to go to the other two warehouses and do the same
so he made sure the cigarette had some time to burn down before it ignited the
matches.

   With this warehouse sabotaged, Derek led Rora to
the second one. They still hadn’t seen anyone in the yard so they moved swiftly
to the second warehouse. Finding the same situation they repeated their actions
from the first warehouse and moved on to the third one. That one was
practically empty. In the middle under some lights was what looked like a
makeshift movie studio. Cameras and lights surrounded a large mattress and a
thick steel chair bolted to the floor. It had heavy leather straps on it
designed to securely hold a prisoner. A steel table contained a few knives and
other implements of torture. Hastily cleaned up blood had left stains on the
floor around the chair.

   Rora shivered as she processed what the warehouse
was used for. Who knew what horrible things had been done here. Her disgust for
the Order ratcheted up a notch and she gagged slightly. Derek put a firm hand
on her shoulder and turned her away from the scene.

   “How can people hate someone so much that they do
terrible things to them?” She asked in a small voice.