The Renegades (Book 4): Colony by Jack Hunt

no more than nine people. A few of them were empty to provide room for people who we’d bring back. Guards that worked for the Warden dispersed among the helicopters, no doubt to keep an eye on our ragtag group.
    One of them gave a signal and the pilot ascended. We were told the reason they did this at night was to avoid detection. I was pretty sure a bloody loud chopper coming in would be pretty easy to detect even if it was black. Once we were over the wall the helicopter came low. All that could be seen outside was darkness. There was no way to determine where the sky and the East River met. The city itself was lit up with fires that burned in various places.
    Wind swept across the surface of the dark water as we moved closer to a heliport that was located in downtown Manhattan close to Wall Street.
    “We have pier six in sight.”
    The pilot’s voice came over the earpiece I was wearing. The moon peeked through clouds. Outside I could hear the wind howling, and the slightest sound of rain. It seemed strange to find ourselves in this position. Only months ago we were in Castle Rock. Now we found ourselves helping a dubious government.
    “I hope he knows where he’s going,” Baja muttered. “I don’t want to end up drowned in the ocean.”
    It wasn’t a good night for being in the air. That was for sure.
    New York didn’t look as I imagined it would. It was in complete devastation. Smoke drifted through heaps of metal and brick covering up the streets. It was if the Air Force had dropped bombs on the city and blown up buildings. It was a mountain of rubble and fire. Through the smoke you couldn’t tell what were streets or the remains of buildings. Everywhere was covered in bodies and concrete. While there were still some high-rises, most of them had large chunks taken out the sides. Windows were shattered. Jagged metal twisted beneath concrete and stone.
    As we hovered low over the water and came in close to the pier I scanned for the undead. There were none. It didn’t make sense. The place should have been swarming.
    “Where are the undead?” I asked Tanner.
    “Oh they’re out there. A while back we set up an electrical perimeter to ensure we could land and get out without being overrun. It’s not foolproof but it seems to have kept them at bay.”
    I nodded.
    As soon as the wheels kissed the concrete pier, we all had our game faces on. “Let’s go,” Tanner said, sliding the door open. We burst out with our AR-15’s at the ready. One team broke off right while we went left. Along with our group of six were three others, one of them was Tanner. I’d hoped he would go with the other group but I had a feeling the Warden wanted him watching us.
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    R ain cut through the night , plastering us from the second our boots hit the ground. Lightning flashed on the horizon while thunder rumbled in the distance. I shook the water from my face as the other members of the team made their way around pier six. Rough, frothing waters crashed against the shore. A large wave broke over the edge, spraying water into the air. I glanced across the bay to where the Statue of Liberty should have been and noticed it was gone.
    “What the hell?”
    It was no longer there. The copper lady’s head peeked above rough waves as if taking its last breath. What the hell had happened here? I remembered what my father had said about the government bombing cities. By the look of the devastation, I assumed that was what happened.
    We rushed towards the towering concrete jungle. What remained of the city loomed over us like giants. My mind was occupied with the plan we had discussed. It was agreed that staying at the Hive was no longer an option. Whatever chance of survival humanity had, it wasn’t to be found at the hands of the Warden. I for one certainly wasn’t going to become a human guinea pig. If what Birdy had told us was true, it was only a matter of time before we would be dead.
    There were eighteen of us that evening