By Kevin W. Lee.
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It was early morning by the time we got back to the camp. Other than a pounding headache, I felt fine. Darren and Lena seemed to begetting along fine. They strolled out in front of me chatting constantly, while I fell behind to guard our rear.
Before we left the battlefield, I somehow managed to convince Darren to let me go and hunt through the dead bodies for weapons and gear. Although I wasn't able to find any body armor that was not either torn to shreds or swiss cheesed from gunfire, I was able to find a pair of serviceable NG-56 Ion Pistols and several more clips of what appear to be ramjet rounds and explosive rounds for my assault carbine. I was the only one who really obtained anything for myself. Lena still had her lightblade, and Darren just wasn't interested.
Upon reaching camp, Darren set about broiling a pot of coffee and making breakfast. Lena and I sat down by the fire, and warmed ourselves up. As the time passed, and breakfast was served, the silence between us melted away and we began to become more comfortable with each other. Finally, conversation flowed.
Between mouthfuls of leftover rabbit, Lena said, "Thank you...both of you." She swallows and looks over towards me, her silver hair shimmering slightly in the morning sun, "And, Curt, I must apologize for attacking you. I had thought you were one of them."
I raised my eyebrow, "One of them? You don't mean those guys that attacked us, do you?"
She nodded her head, "Yes. The very same. They are the ones that murdered my companions."
At that time, Darren spoke up, "They murdered your companions? Who were those men?"
Lena sighed and looked at both of us for a moment. Finally, she said, "Oh... I don't know if they murdered them. I ran. There were too many of them, and only a small handful of us. I don't know who they were, or what they wanted. They just came at us from everywhere."
As she spoke, I watched her face in the sunlight. Something inside of me told me that there was something not right about what she was saying. I thought back to the battle in which I fought, a stray feeling that tickled my memories. After a few moments of deep thought,I shook my head and gave up trying to remember.
Darren asked, "Where were you headed, if I may ask?"Lena shook her head again, "That I do not know either. Our leader, Gerald... he was the only one that knew. The rest of us were assigned to follow him."
Darren and I looked at each other, then back to Lena. "So..." I said, "You are part of a military organization?"
Lena gave me a suspicious, sidelong glance, "No... What gave you that idea?"
I opened my mouth to say something, but Darren cut me off. "Of course, you're not part of any sort of thing." He turned and gave me a stare as if to shut me up, "Curt here doesn't quite know what he is talking about. He thinks that everyone is part of a military organization." Darren looks back towards Lena and chuckles slightly in his deep gravely voice, "When I first met him, he assumed that I was part of the Rising Sun Mercenary Force. Which, of course, I am not."
Lena gave us one more look, and then nods, "Of course."
So later on that day, we packed up camp and headed out to the northeast. Since Lena really did not know where she was, and was loathe to tell us where she came from, she walked along with us. We traveled for about three weeks before we reached any sort of civilization.
Well, it was civilization, relatively speaking. In all actuality, what it was was a small sleepy little town. Quite primitive in many respects. No running water, no modern conveniences.It was a village of farmers who lived off of the beaten path, quite unused to strangers.
When we strode into the town, we were greet with closed and barred doors. The streets were empty, and there was no sound except for our footsteps in the snow and the whispering breeze. Quietly, we strode towards the center of town where the town square was located. In the center of the square, besides being blanketed with snow, a largish boulder rested.In exhaustion, we climbed up on the boulder to relax from our long hike.
I looked about at the houses that surrounded us. Once in awhile, I was able to see fearful eyes glance out at us from small cracks in windows. Sighing to myself, I took a gulp of water from Darren's canteen, and wrapped my jacket tighter about me. The late winter wind had a bit of a bite to it that day.
As I scanned the area, my ears picked up a faint rumbling sound.I cocked my head to the side and listened to the noise as it became louder and louder. I looked over to Lena and Darren. They had noticed it as well as I it seems, for they were looking around also.
Standing up on the boulder to look around, I asked, "What is that?"
Darren shook his head and responded, "I do not know what that is... wait... I think I hear voices. Shouts and screams."
I strained my ears trying to hear the voices myself, but nothing came to me other than that rumbling. I looked towards Darren out of the corner of my eye. "I just hear the rumble."
Lena, who had drawn her energy blade but had yet to activate it,said, "I don't hear the shouts either..."
At that point in time, the roaring had become louder. As I listened, I could tell that whatever it was, it was coming closer. The strange thing though, was that the sound seemed to be coming from all directions. Peering about the city, I unslung my slug thrower and flipped the safety switch.
Suddenly, the shouts and screams were all too clear. I could hear them coming in from all directions, echoing off of the walls of the buildings. I searched the skies and saw several clouds of smoke billowing from houses at the southern end of the town. I hefted the rifle up, finding comfort in it's weight.
The roaring grew louder and louder, until it seemed that the air shook with vibrations. The screams and hoots were mixed now. Cries of anguish mixed with the savage laughs of someone having a good time. Despite the chilling air, I could feel sweat forming upon my brow. To my dismay, what seemed like hundreds of motorcycles and ill dressed misanthropes materialized out of nowhere, filling the town square.
By that time, Darren and Lena were on their feet also. Lena had her energy blade activated and Darren stood there looking dangerous.These pair stood like a tall obelisk of intimidation, and were I an enemy looking for trouble, I would not have looked for from them. But the bikes kept on pouring out from the side streets of the town. At the skyline, other columns of smoke could be seen rising around and about the town.
With my rifle up at my shoulder, I sighted the savages in my scope. There they were. Each one riding a motorcycle of some sort.Chains and knives adorned their vehicles, and strange symbols and paint decorated their body armor and faces. An ugly bunch. Their only similar feature, was the reoccurring symbol of a skull impaled upon a knife. I had seen that symbol someplace before, and I did not care for it. Fortunately, they kept their respectful distance and formed a ring around the boulder where we were located.
Soon, the hoots and hollars quieted and there seemed to be some sort of stand-off between us and the road gang. While the relative quietness solidified, I took my time to count how many there were. I counted thirty-six which were in my field of vision. With a sigh, I determined that there had to be many more than that.
Minutes passed like hours. My nerves were straining, ready to jump and blow away anyone who made any aggressive move. Over to my left, I could hear Lena's energy blade hum and crackle with energy. Funny. I thought I heard a low growl coming from Darren. I was about to comment on that when suddenly a high pitched voice cried out, "That's the one that killed Big Brandz!!"
Quickly, I spun my gun around towards the voice. Aiming my rifle, my eyes met with an ugly looking D-Bee. I frowned as I recognized who it was. It was that tusked D-Bee that tried to kill me in the bar. A companion to the Juicer that beat the crap out of me. I glared through my scope at him, and was about to pull the trigger when a deep, calm voice spoke forth from the tall fellow to the left of the D-Bee.
"Which one was it Ignazius?" The speaker was a tall man, standing about 6'4". With a slight frown, I noticed he wore Coalition Heavy Dead Boy Armor and road on a big hog. He was a pretty-boy, with an aesthetic looking face, sharp nose, and blonde hair which was cut a little on the long side. He reminded me of the rich boys back in Chi-Town. The ones that swaggered around in their nice cars and clean suits. The ones that lived on the upper levels and flaunted their power. But instead of suits and ties, this one wore spikes and armor. Looking into his eyes, I could see a dangerous fire burning. This one was spoiling for a fight.
"Which one?", he repeated. Despite the calmness in the man's voice, there was a hard edge that reeked with arrogance.
Ignazius, the tusked D-Bee, spoke up, "The grizzled one, sir.The one with the poncho."
The pretty-boy looked us over appraisingly. Finally he asked, "Who are you?"
I glanced over at Darren. So did Lena. With his deep gravely voice, Darren called out, "I am Darren. This is Lena and Curt. We are just passing through and don't wish to cause any problems."
I looked to Darren again. What was he thinking? These guys were looking for blood. Did he think that they're going to let us off the hook or something?At that point, the pretty-boy interrupted my thoughts, "Well... Darren." Contempt dripped from every word. "Do you know what you did? You killed Big Brandz." He paused, a sneer marring his face. "You killed my champion. And no-one kills my favorites." Sporadic cat calls and curses erupted from the surrounding bikers. Pretty-boy raised his hand to silence them.
Wiping my forehead with the back of my hand as I watched Pretty-boy gestured once more. The sounds of drawn weapons floated to my ears. Looking at the circle of bikers, I could see chains, pistols, knives, swords, and a mismatch other weapons being brandished.
Turning back to us, the pretty boy smiled, "Now... Darren. You die."
By Kevin W. Lee.
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