Moving cautiously into the room, Nero stepped right with Nyx beside him towards the centre of the space. As they went, at the far side of the room, something stepped out from behind one of these enormous floor to ceiling contraptions and onto a raised platform that circled the room. Nero turned and aimed his gun. The figure was humanoid with pale, chalk white skin and deep black eyes. He was naked, but without genitals. Instead, he had two huge black feathered wings sprouting from his back that rustled as he moved.
Next to him, a giant daemon-looking dog, about the size of an adult bear, lumbered along, watching Nero and Nyx with its blood red eyes while it slobbered over its four inch long fangs.
Nyx brandished her sword while Cryptus and Runt stopped and watched behind them.
This wasn’t a zombie, that’s for sure. It didn’t look dead enough. He wanted to say this was a mutant, but some part of him knew that it wasn’t. This thing looked strange, but it wasn’t mutated or diseased looking, which left only one option, but that thought of it made his blood run cold.
If it were a daemon, then only Nyx would be able to deal with him. That might have been okay, but he had a vicious looking hellhound as well, which Nero felt sure would be a daemon, too.
For the time being, he didn’t know what to do, so, he waited. He wanted to see what this creature had in store for them.
The winged man walked to the edge of the raised platform and the top of the handful of steps that led down to a central walkway through the middle of the room that led straight to Nero and Nyx.
‘We have visitors,’ the man said. His voice was a deep bass and didn’t really sound fully human. The daemon’s deep black eyes looked at them, examining them, weighing them up.
‘We’re not looking for any trouble,’ Nero said, wondering if this thing could be reasoned with.
‘You were foolish to come here,’ the daemon man said. ‘This place is not for you.’
‘We’re not here to cause trouble, we’re just having a look around,’ Nero said.
‘I don’t think he’s listening to you,’ Nyx whispered to him.
‘I gathered that,’ Nero said.
The daemon raised his arms and movement at the sides of the room caught his attention. From the darkness, several zombies stepped into the room and started to plod over to them; some of them moving faster than others.
‘Looks like the negotiations are over,’ Nero said.
‘I’m going for the pale man,’ Nyx exclaimed, stepping forward.
‘Hold on,’ Nero said and fired off a single shell at the suspected daemon. The round hit the thing on its shoulder, making him flinch, but ultimately doing nothing to him.
Nero shrugged. ‘Yeah, he’s all yours,’ Nero said with a shrug and turned towards the approaching horde of undead. One of the runners vaulted a railing as it charged at him, only to get a face full of buckshot that spun the zombie in mid-air and dropped him to the ground.
Another came up on Nero’s right, but with a swing of his shotgun, the creature staggered, giving Nero the second he needed to pull his dagger and stab it into the walking corpse’s eye.
Flipping his gun and switching hands, Nero jumped forward, kicking the first zombie he found as he waded into them. He was never much good at negotiating anything, he thought as he swung his gun turned club and stabbed with his blade. These daemons weren’t known for their social sides anyway. Besides, he thought, thrusting his dagger into another zombie skull, this was much more his thing. He felt much more at home wading into a group of undead and kicking their asses..
He could hear Cryptus’ revolver firing, along with another louder, deeper gun sound. He remembered noticing that Runt had a sawn-off shotgun hanging from his hip and guessed that it was likely him.
Guns were great, but there wasn’t much ammunition around these days. You could find it, though, as ammo was still made in some of the larger camps who were mining salt peter to turn into gunpowder and reforging scrap metal into new shells. Nero made sure to stock up whenever they passed through a camp with any supplies for his guns.
But even so, it was often better to use a knife or other melee weapon to conserve bullets and shells. When in a pinch, his shotgun could serve as a perfectly serviceable bludgeoning weapon.
Nero glanced left and saw Nyx cutting her way through another zombie before lunging for the daemon again. The pale man moved fast, almost too fast to keep up with, swinging his arms and deflecting the sword away the whole time. Nero couldn’t see the daemon dog, though, and wondered where it was.
With another swift strike, Nero pulverised the brain of another undead, creating a moment of breathing room for himself in the chaos of the fight.
A large dark shape shot at him from the cover of some consoles to his left. Nero jumped back and grabbing his gun with two hands, firing off a single shell at it. The shot glanced off the thing’s hide, going slightly wide, and not really doing any damage to it at all before the creature slammed into Nero, smashing him back across the room. He rolled and crunched into some machinery that knocked the wind out of him.
His shotgun went flying, clattering off behind him as the hellhound leapt once more with a tremendous roar.
Metal flashed at the dog mid-jump as Nyx appeared from his left. She hit the dog, which smashed into the ground and rolled away.
‘That’s another one,’ Nyx joked with him.
‘I let it do that. I wanted to make sure you were paying attention,’ Nero shot back at her.
‘Of course you were,’ Nyx said as Nero turned and scrambled over towards where he thought his gun had gone.
He stopped as he looked up to find it lying inside some kind of machine, in a letterbox shaped rectangular slot. The device seemed to be one with the slot it was inside of and glowing bright blue.
Nero hesitated. He wasn’t sure what to make of this and wondered if his gun would be okay. Turning around, he noticed the daemon dog getting to its feet and growling at him.
‘Aaah, crap,’ Nero said as the thing suddenly ran at him, and this time he couldn’t see Nyx anywhere close.
Nero grabbed the gun from the machine and on pure instinct aimed it at the daemon dog before squeezing the trigger.
As he did so, he noticed that the gun itself was actually glowing with a light coming from inside of it. The shotgun blast itself also seemed to strike the daemon dog with a flash and flare of light, smashing into the thing’s head.
The considerable bulk of the dog dropped to the floor and slid to a halt just before Nero. He looked down and felt a little surprised to see that the dog’s entire head was missing.
Had my gun done that? he wondered. Looking at the weapon in his hands, the internal glow was fading away to leave the firearm looking altogether normal once more.
‘Huh,’ Nero said to himself in surprise.
Nyx ran around the pillar of machinery looking worried. ‘Ner… Oh, are you…’ she started before noticing the daemon dog, dead on the floor. ‘Shit, did you do that?’
Nero looked down at his gun again in wonder. ‘Well, this did it, really,’ he said, raking the grip, causing the spent shell to fly out.
He looked up with a smile at Nyx, only to see the pale man standing off to the side a little further away than Nyx. The man suddenly roared at Nero and leapt into the air in rage. With one flap of his massive wings, the daemon suddenly shot forward at Nero, screaming past faster than Nyx could react.
With his gun already up, Nero re-aimed it on instinct and lined it up on the daemon before pulling the trigger.
The shotgun barked once, firing another glowing shell that smashed into the daemon’s shoulder. Nero hit almost the exact same spot he had done the first time, except that this time, the blast tore a huge chunk out of the daemon’s body and caused it to veer wildly off course and smash into the machine behind Nero that his gun had been inside off.
The machine crumpled and flew apart in an explosion of noise while Nero jumped out of the way, moving over next to Nyx before
looking back at the mess behind him.
In the small fire that was all that remained of the machine, the daemon man rose up to his full height, his eyes glowing madly in the fumes. He didn’t seem terribly bothered by the huge hole that was all that was left of his shoulder.
‘A daemon killing gun,’ Nyx commented as she stepped forward a pace and brandished her sword at the daemon. ‘That might come in useful in a second.’
The daemon faced them from the flames.
Nero racked the foregrip on his new magical shotgun and smiled at the daemon. ‘Come on,’ he yelled at it. He could have sworn that the daemon had smiled on hearing this.
Chapter 9
Nero
The daemon stood tall in the flames and turned slowly to face them. As it moved, it held out its hand, and with a flare of light, a blade grew from nothing in its grasp.
‘Looks like he fancies a sword fight,’ Nero said, his eyes never leaving the daemon.
‘It’s been a while since I crossed blades with anyone,’ Nyx answered him, her voice sounding eager almost.
The daemon crouched and then sprang forward, leaping from the flames, its sword held high. It moved like a rocket, faster than Nero could track and was on Nyx before he could adjust his aim. But Nyx was quick, too, and parried the daemon’s attack with her own blade.
The pair swung their swords back and forth, clashing together in a desperate life and death fight. Nero edged a touch closer, his gun aimed at the daemon, wanting just one clear shot, but the thing seemed to know what Nero was after and circled around Nyx so that he didn’t get a clear shot at him.
‘Damn you,’ Nero hissed to himself.
Movement to Nero’s right pulled his eyes away from the lightning fast moves of Nyx and the daemon, only for him to see a morbidly obese zombie lumbering towards him. The thing was massive and bloated, its large distended belly wobbling as it waddled towards him with chubby outstretched arms. The thing's skin was white with purple veins and mottled bruising all over it, while patches of bubbling up pustules or cysts filled with yellow puss threatened to burst at any moment.
It howled at him as it approached, Nero backed off, only for the thing to pause and go into some sudden convulsions.
‘What the hell?’ Nero said to himself.
The blob suddenly leant forward and opened its mouth wider than should be strictly possible as a gout of yellow-green vomit shot out at him. Nero ducked right, hitting the floor and rolling out of the way as the gloopy substance splashed to the ground where he’d been standing and proceeded to burn its way through the deck plating.
‘Holy shit,’ Nero cursed, realising it was powerful acid. Lifting his gun, Nero aimed at its bulk, only to suddenly rethink and adjust his aim for its head.
The thing turned, looking for him, having lost him when it had closed its eyes to throw up on him. Feeling sure he had a good shot, Nero fired once and hit the thing in its head with a loud boom.
The blob staggered for a moment, before suddenly toppling to the floor where its distended belly burst, spilling horrible red, green, and yellow acid, puss, and blood all over the place.
Nero jumped back, not wanting to get any of that crap on his boots. Looking up, Nyx was still fighting the daemon, so Nero ran around some of the equipment and came around behind where the daemon was. Nero shifted his position, moving to get as clear a shot on the thing as he could. He was out of sight of the daemon, but Nyx saw him. He noticed her glance at him and her fighting changed slightly. Smashing the thing’s sword sideways, she kicked out and caught the daemon solidly in its chest, knocking it back with a grunt. Nero stepped up, aimed, and fired.
The glowing shell hit, gouging a considerable chunk out of the thing’s flank, exposing ink black flesh and blood within. The daemon staggered and turned to face Nero, rage filling its face as it fell to one knee.
Nero gave it a smug grin and fired again. The thing lurched, trying to dodge, only for the shell to hit the base of the daemon’s right wing. It bellowed in pain as the severed wing fell to the floor, attached now by just a few stringy bits of flesh.
Rising its head to scream, Nyx stepped in and brought her sword down on the things neck, severing its head in a single hit. The head dropped to the floor with a thud, followed by its lifeless body.
Nero looked over at Nyx, she’d crouched down as she puffed and panted, catching her breath. ‘Well done, you held your own against a daemon in a sword fight, that’s impressive,’ he said, kneeling down beside her.
‘Thanks. I wasn’t sure I would survive that.’
Cryptus’ gun barked from across the room. Nero looked up to see the mystic take aim at the final zombie in here and fire once more. It dropped to the floor, leaving the room silent and filled with lifeless bodies scattered all over the floor.
‘I hope this was worth it,’ he muttered under his breath to Nyx.
‘We survived, and now, hopefully, he will uphold his side of the bargain and direct us to Midway City. Do you think he’ll do as he said he would?’
‘I see no reason why he wouldn’t,’ he said, looking around the room and watching Cryptus as he reloaded his gun on the other side of the room. ‘This is a pretty strange place, though. Doesn’t look like anything I’ve ever seen before.’
‘Certainly doesn’t,’ Nyx agreed.
‘I’d like to have more of a look around this thing before we leave if you’re game?’
‘I’m up for that,’ Nyx answered.
‘Cool,’ he said, and stood back up again, offering her his hand. She took it and stood up beside him.
‘Thank you, dear sir,’ she said in a mock posh accent. ‘Chivalrous to the end.’
They both wandered over towards Cryptus, who looked up at them as they approached. ‘Impressive work,’ Cryptus said. ‘You handled that daemon well.’
‘Thanks,’ Nyx answered.
‘Whatever happened to my gun made it a lot easier,’ Nero said.
‘I saw that. May I have a look?’
Nero shrugged, seeing no reason why not, and handed him the shotgun. Cryptus turned it over in his hands, before looking up at Nero.
‘Have you reloaded this?’ Cryptus asked.
‘No. Why?’
‘It still have a full complement of shells,’ he said.
Nero raised his eyebrows in surprise. ‘It shouldn’t have,’ he said and took the gun back to have a look himself. Checking the gun, he saw that Cryptus was right, it was still full. ‘Hold on a second,’ Nero said and aimed it across the room away from them, and fired.
In the middle of this now quiet room, rather than in a fight, the gun sounded much louder. He rechecked the gun, and sure enough, he still had a full magazine.
‘Well, shit,’ he said.
‘An infinite supply of ammunition,’ Cryptus said. ‘Looks like you have an enchanted weapon, my friend.’
Nero couldn’t help the grin that spread across his face. ‘That’s fucking awesome.’ He looked up at Nyx who was smiling, too.
‘Now, we can both take on these daemons,’ she said.
‘Damn right,’ Nero answered her.
‘So, what happened? How did this gun become enchanted?’ Cryptus asked. ‘I didn’t see that part.’
‘It fell into one of these bits of equipment, some kind of machine. It was glowing inside, and when I pulled the gun out, it was glowing, too. I didn’t do anything other than that. In fact, I didn’t even put the gun in it; it fell out of my hand and somehow landed in there.’
‘A complete fluke?’ Cryptus asked.
‘That’s right. And we can’t even do it again because the daemon smashed that device. It’s in bits over there,’ he said.
‘Okay, I’ll check it out. But now you have helped me out, I suspect you want to get on your way and head for Midway City?’
‘That’s right,’ Nyx said, clearly very keen to get moving.
‘I understand,’ Cryptus said and reached inside his cloak. For a moment, Nero flinched, wonderi
ng if Cryptus might try to shoot them or something, but the man pulled out a rolled-up sheet of paper and handed it to Nyx. ‘It’s not to scale, but the positions are fairly accurate.’
Nyx unrolled the paper to find a hand-drawn map on the weathered sheet of paper. ‘A map,’ she said.
‘Correct,’ Cryptus said and leaned in. He pointed to something labelled as a ravine on the left side of the map as Nyx looked at it. ‘We’re here. Midway is over here. It’s a fair drive away, but once you’re up off the ocean bed and on the main road here, you should make good time.’
‘Excellent,’ Nyx said and looked up at Cryptus. ‘Thank you, I really appreciate this.’ Nero noticed a bit of raw emotion behind her words. She really did mean it and could see that his actions had really affected her.
‘My pleasure,’ he said. ‘Go and find your family.’
‘We will. But before we go, I think we’ll have a look around in here. It’s pretty amazing, whatever it is,’ she said.
‘Of course, go ahead. I think we’ll be staying here a while. Speaking of which, Runt, let’s see about getting this thing fortified a bit, I don’t want any surprises while we’re in here,’ he said, already turning his focus away from Nero and Nyx.
Nyx looked up at Nero with the biggest smile he’d seen on that pretty face for a long time. ‘Happy?’ Nero asked.
‘Very,’ she beamed.
‘Great, so, let’s have a hunt around, and we’ll get on our way in an hour or so.’
Moments later, they were wandering out through one of the side doors of this main room and picking their way along the ruined corridors. It felt like they were in some kind of crash-landed spacecraft, but it was such a fantastical thought that Nero had a tough time reconciling that with the world around him.
Within moments of leaving the main room they encountered first one, and then another zombie, both of which they dispatched with little fanfare as if it was the most normal thing in the world.
Wasteland Road Knights Trilogy Page 22
