After The Virus | Book 3 | New World Order Read online

  After the Virus: New World Order

  Book 3

  Simon Archer

  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

  18. Price

  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

  Epilogue

  Author’s Note

  1

  Angie and Jackie escorted Sergeant Jake Wilcox into the police station’s interrogation room, where I sat waiting. Bruce and Gene waited on the other side of the room’s one-way glass, and Jackie would go join them. Angie would be just outside the door.

  On the table sat a covered plate of good Southern cooking: fried chicken, collards, mashed potatoes, and some fresh, sweet tea with ice. I was armed, of course, with my trusty Les Baer Custom .45, and I regarded Wilcox with the coldest look I could muster.

  I was pissed at the three men we held captive, but I wasn’t the kind of asshole to just execute them. That was going to be up to the rest of the family once I figured out a little more about them.

  Jake took a seat. His hands were handcuffed in front of him and wouldn’t impede him from eating if he took that choice. Of course, if he decided to go for me, I’d shoot him without a second thought, and then dump the body in the Chattahoochee.

  I think he’d figured that out, too. Slowly, the sergeant reached over and dragged the plate closer.

  “This smells really damn good,” he said. “Last meal?”

  “Depends on you, I reckon,” I replied.

  He shrugged in answer, took off the covering, a plastic plate-cover from the local hospital, picked up his plastic spork, and dug in without a word. After a few minutes of me watching him, he looked up and met my gaze.

  “What do you want from me?”

  “Ultimately,” I replied. “Price.”

  He snorted.

  “You ain’t asking for much, country boy,” he said with a smile. “What’s he worth to you?”

  I shrugged and answered, “I mean to deal with him, one way or another. You and your team were the last straw in my book.”

  Price had actually tried to have me killed, or at least been a distant cause behind attempts on my life around four times, now. The first was a crazy man at the Alabama Welcome Center, same with the second, but that time, we’d been hunting him, too. The next time, third by my reckoning, took place in Atlanta, when three men in a humvee had tried to take out me, Bruce Gassler the survivalist, Gene Campbell, helicopter pilot, and Bill Foreman, physical trainer. Sure, they might not have been associated with the not-so-good reverend, but it was easier to assume they were.

  Last but not least, Jake Wilcox and his team of former soldiers and weekend warrior wannabes had directly attacked my home after luring Jackie Purcell and me away. They hadn’t counted on us escaping their trap, or on me getting back to the house as fast as I had.

  All but three of the team were in the ground now. I didn’t want to risk making my pigs sick from them.

  Jake probably suspected all of this, but he sat across from me, chewing on some fried chicken and giving me the eye. After a moment, he took a breath, swallowed, and said, “I am not about to die for that nutcase, but I want some guarantee that you aren’t going to just double-tap the three of us once you have what you want.”

  “I might be many things, sergeant,” I replied, looking the man in the eyes. “But I’m not a murderer. The three of you happen to be P.O.W.s by my reckoning, and I’m going to treat you as such. You get two chances to argue your case. Once to me, and then once to the rest of the civvies back at the homestead.”

  “Uh-huh,” he said, focusing his eyes on me for a moment. “I’m surprised you haven’t already made up your mind.”

  “I try to be more than fair. A lot honestly depends on how helpful you are,” I finished, resting my palms on the tabletop in front of me.

  “You aren’t going to make this easy,” he said, then took another bite of chicken.

  “Put yourself in my shoes, sergeant,” I said flatly. “How would you have dealt with this?”

  “I’d have shot all three of us,” he replied after finishing his mouthful.

  “Then aren’t you glad you ended up with someone like me, rather than someone like you?” I focused on him as he nodded slowly, pausing with a half-eaten chicken breast between his hands.

  “I want you to consider this very carefully,” I continued. “Price sent you here to deal with me. Instead, you lost half your team to a Marine, an Army mechanic, an old Army pilot from the ‘Nam era, a bunch of civilians, and a coyote.” My lips stretched in a thin smile. “My little family out there is extremely motivated, and so am I. You just need to understand one important thing; Never, ever mistake my kindness for weakness.” I leaned over the table and dropped my voice to a near whisper, “And I’m the nice one.”

  People who’d served didn’t tend to rattle easy. Sometimes we had our triggers and twitches, old scars from unseen wounds that we’d suffered during our duty, so I didn’t expect anything out of Jake Wilcox from my words, not really. Imagine my surprise when he nodded slowly and let out a long sigh.

  “At least,” he said slowly. “You aren’t crazy.”

  I smirked.

  “Price is, like, Jim Jones levels of nuts,” the soldier continued. “He honestly thinks that it’s his place to drag the United States back from whatever bullshit apocalypse hit us. He’s got charisma, too, a good old southern reverend combined with a fast-talking used-car salesman and a dose of back-office politician.”

  Jake shook his head.

  “He’s got a tech guy, too,” he continued. “Some fellow by the name of Chandler. He was some kind of high-tech entrepreneur prodigy. Even managed to get cellphones working throughout most of Birmingham.”

  I let out a low whistle at that. Penny Tran had some ideas about that, but we were far from being able to implement anything, yet.

  “What about power?”

  “Generators and solar,” Jake replied. “Of course, he wants to get one of the hydro plants operating again, but we’re in for a lot of work in that case.”

  How many people did Price have? He was ambitious as hell in any case. We’d really have to up our game to compete with that.

  “How many people?” I asked.

  “Thirty or so,” Jake replied. “Most of them from a couple of isolated compounds that the reverend apparently knew about before this virus or whatever. He might have more by now, too. I don’t really know. Only about ten of us were formerly active duty, and if you dealt with Stern’s team and mine, you’ve knocked that down by about half.”

  “What were these compounds? Militia?”

  “Religious,” he said, scowling. “Kind of cultish and insular, but they see Price as the right hand of God or something.”

  “Great,” I muttered, then gave the sergeant a serious look. “If you want t
o change sides, I’ve got fried chicken and hard work.”

  “I think,” he said slowly. “That might be preferable to shooting people for Raymond Price and Jonathan Stern.”

  “You keep mentioning that name,” I said thoughtfully. There was something about it that hovered at the edge of my mind. A couple of years ago, a disgraced special ops soldier had gotten shipped back from the Middle East for a court martial after killing a bunch of civilians. “Is that the same Stern that got court-martialed a few years back?”

  “Yeah,” Wilcox nodded. “Anyway, screw it. You guys may not have the bigger group, but you look a hell of a lot more like the type of people I can stand.” He let out a long sigh and looked down at his handcuffed hands. “For what it’s worth,” he added with a shake of his head. “I’m sorry for trying to kill you.”

  I just eyed him. Apologies only went so far, but it was a start.

  The sergeant was silent for a moment, gazing at me as if trying to gauge my reaction. When I said nothing, he continued, “Price and Stern, along with that Baron Chandler guy, have set up a little suburban empire in Birmingham. It’s all based around a little neighborhood church, too. Not everyone’s a bad guy up there, though. Some folks were just looking for a little hope, and they didn’t have someone like you around to give it to them.”

  I wasn’t here to be a leader, not really. My little family mattered to me, and it had slowly grown, maybe out of control. Still, I had grown content, if not happy, to be the center of this little community, and I’d protect it as best I could. Having two trained soldiers, and whatever Samuel was, would be helpful.

  Not necessary, I thought as I gave the man across from me a thoughtful look. But useful.

  He watched me warily, and I couldn’t really blame him for that.

  “I just have one question,” I said slowly.

  “What’s that?” he asked.

  “Why were y’all gunning for us?” I asked. “What in the ever-loving hell got Price’s panties in a twist? We’re two-hundred miles away, for Christ’s sake.”

  Wilcox frowned.

  “I can tell you what he told us,” the sergeant replied. “Which is that you took out one of ours that was trying to make contact a few months ago. Price was in contact with a fellow named Hunter Blake. This guy claimed to be military, too. Knew the right things to say to convince me and Stern both.”

  “So, Price told us that Blake had seen you and one of the girls, the little bottle-blonde, out and about, and that he was going to try to approach you and see what you were about, and if you might want to come to join us.”

  I bristled a little at the “bottle-blonde” comment, but it wasn’t exactly wrong. Jackie did prefer keeping her hair blonde over the basic brown that was her natural look.

  If Jake noticed my glare, he didn’t react.

  “I got my team and came to investigate a loss of contact,” he continued. “We found the ruins of the blind at the rest area, along with what was left of Blake, or so we thought. Son of a bitch left a lot of explosives in the center.”

  “We disarmed them,” I said flatly.

  “Yeah,” Wilcox nodded. “Found the guy’s house, too, but someone ransacked it.”

  “That was us, too.”

  “Price’s next orders were to watch your farm and get an idea of what you were about. It wasn’t until, hell, about two weeks ago, that we got orders to clean you out, take any prisoners we could, and head back to base,” he told me. “We didn’t expect as much trouble as we got, to be honest.”

  I chuckled.

  “We’re fierce,” I told him, then lapsed into a long silence. My eyes drifted to the one-way glass where the others were. “I’m inclined to give you a chance, Sergeant,” I said. “One. Singular. Screw it up, and you’re done.”

  “That’s right generous of you,” he drawled, meeting my gaze curiously. “Wish I’d met you and yours before I ran into Stern and Price.”

  “If you’re actually serious,” I said. “I’ll give my recommendation to the others and see what they say.” A slow smirk spread across my face. “It’s not just my decision.”

  With that, I rose slowly and walked out of the room, locking the door behind me. Angie stood across the hall, holding a riot shotgun at rest, one hand resting lightly on the pistol grip.

  “How’d it go?” she asked.

  “I didn’t have to shoot him,” I replied. “Yet.”

  She laughed.

  “That’s a good start, I suppose. What next?” Angie asked.

  “Let’s bring Samuel out,” I opined. “I want to leave Wilson to stew.” The young soldier had been the closest thing we’d had to a problem child during the last week. He was generally surly and uncooperative, just shy of being openly rebellious. I had no idea what he was about, but I meant to find out.

  “Sounds good to me,” Angie said. “Are we leaving the sergeant in there?”

  “Yeah,” I replied. “Maybe I’ll bring him some more chicken.”

  “He a joiner, then?”

  “Maybe,” I said thoughtfully. “It’s going to be up to the group as a whole, but I think I’m willing to give him a chance. We’ll want to watch him closely, though.”

  “Yeah,” she said, shifting the shotgun to her shoulder. “Which room?”

  “C, I think,” I answered. “I’ll be there in a few minutes. I want to get some feedback from the others.”

  “Sounds good,” she replied. “I’ll meet you in the room with Sammy.”

  I nodded and walked off to the observation room, slipping in quietly. The others, Jackie, Gene, and Bruce, paused their conversation, and they all looked at me.

  “What?” I asked, suddenly self-conscious.

  “Well,” Bruce broke the ice. “What did you think of that?”

  “Felt earnest enough,” I replied with a shrug. “I’m maybe sixty percent on him.”

  “Was he just following orders?” Gene asked, scowling.

  Bruce snorted, and Jackie gave the older, bearded man a curious look.

  “Sounds like it,” I answered with a sigh. “That’s the part I don’t like. But if he’s serious, and willing to just slide on out of Price’s organization to join us, then either he’s a bit flexible with his loyalties, or the reverend really is as bad as we think.”

  “He’s had his men try to kill us a couple of times,” Bruce cut in. “I’d bet on the latter at Vegas odds.”

  “Yeah,” I looked out into the interrogation room where Jake Wilcox had finished his meal and put his head down on a pillow formed of his folded arms. “Just to have it said, though, this is the last time we play nice. There’s too much at stake to let our enemy realize we’re merciful and start taking advantage of us.”

  Jackie sighed.

  “I understand,” she said softly. “I don’t like it, but I do understand.”

  2

  Jake got his second serving of food, and I walked in with Jackie to deposit a plate and a glass of iced tea in front of Samuel. I made a show of adjusting the holster of my Les Baer, then took a seat while Jackie left to join the watchers in the observation room. Angie, as usual, stood guard in the hall outside.

  Sam’s eyes darted from me to the covered plate and back.

  “Go ahead, son,” I told him. “We’ve been feeding you all for a week and haven’t poisoned you, yet.”

  “It’s the yet I’m worried about,” he said breathlessly, but still reached for the food with his handcuffed hands.

  I leaned back in my chair and watched him fumble the cover off and dig in. The young man ate like he was starving, and I couldn’t help but give a bemused smile.

  “Now,” I said. “I know we’ve been feeding you.”

  “Nothing this good,” he mumbled around a mouthful of food.

  “Slow down and enjoy it then,” I suggested, folding my arms across my chest. “Funny thing about good meals. You never know when it’s going to be your last one.”

  Sam froze and lifted his head slowly to reg
ard me with wide eyes. That definitely got his attention. I just regarded him, my face as close to expressionless as I could manage.

  He swallowed hard.

  “Just messing with you,” I said, finally cracking a smile. “What happens next is pretty much up to you, and the rest of the family.”

  “Family?” he asked, eyes still wide.

  “Everyone in my little group here is family,” I answered. “Adopted, married, or whatever. Hell, maybe clan is a better word.” A slow grin spread across my face. “Anyway, I’m curious what you can tell me about Reverend Price and his operation up in Birmingham.”

  “Oh,” he took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and spun a tale that agreed, for the most part, with what Jake Wilcox told me. I sat quietly and listened while the young man talked. He confirmed most of my suspicions, too.

  The thing is, he was tech-savvy to the degree that maybe only Penny could compete with. He wasn’t as good as this Baron Chandler guy that he and Wilcox had talked about, but he could be quite an asset.

  Provided he wasn’t a danger.

  Once he finished and turned his attention back to the meal, I stayed silent, contemplating what I’d heard. Sam didn’t seem to be all that bad a guy, just easily manipulated by anyone who made him feel important.

  “Okay, Sam,” I drawled. “What I don’t get is what you actually think about Price and his plan.”

  “Price is crazy,” he replied. “I mean, I’m Jewish, so he’s not like anti-Semitic or anything, I don’t think. He’s just, well, he thinks he’s the next big thing.”