She watched them for a few moments until it was clear who Bishop was. He was a much smaller man than the large, well-muscled and intimidating guards that were in here. The man she was looking at was slight and looked like a stiff wind might blow him over. And yet, the others seemed to defer to him all the time.
Satisfied, she backed off from the corner and turned to Kat.
“Have a look,” Nyx suggested. “Check out the small, thin man. I think that’s Bishop?”
Kat moved up to the corner and looked around it, while Nyx looked at the corridor, and then the doors. She moved over to the men’s room and put her ear to the door and waited. It was quiet. Well, she thought, we might as well check it. She opened the door, her sword ready, and walked inside. It was a mess in here, and the smell was horrific. There was graffiti everywhere and all kinds of debris dumped around the room. She checked the cubicles, but there was no one in them. She walked out, and looked at the closet door opposite, and then back at the bathroom. A plan was forming.
“Yeah, I think that’s him,” Kat said, stepping over to her and speaking quietly.
“Alright, I have an idea,” Nyx said. “We wait in there.” Nyx pointed to the closet. “It looks like it’s not used much, if at all. We wait in there for Bishop to use the bathroom. He’s drinking, so he won’t be long. When he comes over, we grab him and get him out of here.”
“Sure, sounds good. I hope we can pull it off,” Kat answered.
“Me, too.”
Nyx opened the door to the closet and stepped inside. Kat followed, and not a moment too soon as the sound of movement reached them as one of the men, a guard perhaps, walked into the corridor and into the restroom. Nyx sat back in the closet, the door open just enough to see who was coming but not look out of place and waited.
Kat sat nearby, looking nervous, but ready.
~You could kill her, you know,~ the Whisperer said.
~Shut up,~ Nyx answered mentally.
~Are you sure Nero isn’t starting to look at Kat in a new way?~
~Of course, he isn’t.~
~How can you be sure? You’ve let her get close to him.~
~Close to us, you mean.~
~Whatever you need to tell yourself, Nyx,~ the Whisperer answered.
~You don’t know what you’re talking about.~
~Don’t I?~
Nyx didn’t answer. If she were perfectly honest with herself, she had to admit there was a part of her, a small part, that did harbour such fears. What if Nero did go off her? What if he did prefer Kat? Would he run off with her? Nyx swallowed in anxiety. Would he leave her one day?
~You’re alone in here, you know. No one can see you, or what you do in here. She’d never see it coming.~
~You’re sick,~ Nyx answered.
~I’m honest, and I’m just giving a voice to fears you know you already have.~
~That doesn’t mean they’re true,~ Nyx replied.
~Are you willing to take that chance?~
~He won’t leave me. We’re stronger as a trio.~
~Perhaps…~
Nyx picked up on some noise and voices out in the main room.
“Alright, boss, don’t be too long in there, will you?” said one voice.
“Yeah, you stunk the place out last time, Bishop,” said another.
Nyx watched the small, slim man walk around the corner, rolling his eyes at the comments of the guards behind him.
Nyx stood and motioned to Kat to get ready.
~Times running out,~ the Whisperer said. ~You’ve killed before. Killing Kat would be easy.~
Nyx ignored the daemon and watched the man walk into the bathroom. “Let’s go,” she said and pulled the door open, looking left and right to make sure they’d remain unseen.
She stepped out with Kat right behind her and crossed to the men’s room door. Grasping the handle, she opened the door and stepped in quickly.
“I thought the rules were clear, no one…” the man said, turning around, his voice catching in his throat at the sight of the two women rushing him.
~Deal with him and then kill Kat. Go on, do it,~ the Whisperer said as Nyx clamped her hand over Bishop's mouth.
Chapter 14
Nero
Nero shifted his weight again on the rock. He wasn’t in the slightest bit comfortable, but he wasn’t going to move until the girls were well on their way back to them.
Nyx and Kat had been inside that old, decrepit, converted truck stop for a while now. He’d seen them go in, and so far, there’d been no other movement down there. He moved the gun, sweeping the sights over the compound and rechecked the lookout posts, just in case either of them was calling his bluff. But no, they seemed dead enough.
He swung the gun back to the rear of the building and caught sight of some movement during the swing of the weapon. He shifted his view and saw that a man—a guard maybe?—had exited from the front and was wandering slowly off into the compound.
“Shit,” Nero cursed.
“What is it? Cryptus asked.
“A guard’s left the main building.”
“That’s not good,” Cryptus answered. “And no sign of the girls?”
“No.”
“Do you think they have them?”
“What? Captured them? I doubt it.”
“It’s possible, though. They’re capable fighters, but they’re not invincible.”
“I know. So, what do I do?”
“Watch the man. If he raises the alarm, the game’s up.”
“And then what?”
“No idea,” Cryptus answered.
“Excellent.”
“Movement, back at the main building,” Cryptus called out.
Nero shifted the gun and swung back to the main building and the back door, and, sure enough, there they were. Nyx and Kat had a small, thin man bound and gagged between them and were making for the fence.
“Go on, keep going,” Nero said as he shifted back to look at the guard wandering through the compound. “Are you watching the girls?” Nero asked.
“I’ve got them,” Cryptus said. Nero knew he was looking through his binoculars at the scene below. “They’re going as quick as they can, but they’ve got a distance to go yet.”
“He’s gonna see them,” Nero replied.
“Kill him if you gotta,” Cryptus answered.
As Nero watched, waiting for a better shot, the man turned a little more in the direction of the girls, and then seemed to be looking at them in confusion.
“Damn it,” Nero said as he fine-tuned his aim and squeezed the trigger once more. The gun jerked in his hands as it barked, the suppressor muffling the worst of the noise.
The shot was true, and the man was hit in the temple by the speeding bullet. He dropped to the floor as the girls reached the fence. With his focus on them now, he tracked them as they moved away from the compound and up the slope.
“I’ll go and help them,” Cryptus said, and moved off down the cutting. Nero looked back at the compound, but it was still quiet. Nero stayed there until he could hear the girls just a short distance away, and as he heard them, he saw the first group of guards exit the building in the compound, looking confused and hunting around. They soon spotted the dead lookouts and chaos erupted.
They needed to get out of there, he thought.
Nero moved back, helped Diesel to his feet, and ushered him back towards the monster truck. Turning towards the cutting, he saw Cryptus assisting the girls with Bishop.
They pushed him up to the level where Nero was. The man looked scared and was not putting up much of a fight. He glanced back towards the compound and saw that lights were coming on around the perimeter wall, and with a look of panic in his eyes, made to dodge around the girls and Cryptus. But they reached out and grabbed him, pulling him back.
Stepping over, Nero took hold of him as well and between them, they marched him away from the lookout, towards the vehicles, the fight draining out of him with each step.
�
��Okay, okay,” Bishop mumbled around his gag. “Ush tell me yut you yont,” he said, holding his hands up to keep Nero and his companions at bay.
“The Whisperer, we want to know where he is,” Nyx said right away.
“Aaah, shit,” Bishop replied.
“Do you know?” Nero asked, staring at the small man. He wasn’t formidable at all, but guessed that it was his association with the Whisperer that allowed him to control the gang down in the compound.
“An ish I do?” Bishop replied.
“He knows,” Nyx said to Nero, who had to agree. Just looking at him, it was clear he did not want to answer that question, probably because he knew it would cost him his life.
“I agree,” Nero said. “Alright, let’s get out of here before they send anyone out this way.” Between them, they secured Bishop into the back of the Charger with Kat, while Diesel went into the monster truck with his partner, Sable, Runt, and Cryptus.
Nero fired up the Charger and started to head west, along the north edge of the mountains, away from the Crossroad’s Outpost.
Again, the travel was not easy out here, with Nero having to read the lay of the land and try to make sure they didn’t end up stuck anywhere. Nero made sure to veer slightly north, making for flatter land and hopefully the remains of a road. Sure enough, before too long, the cracked and broken remnants of a road made itself apparent, and Nero followed it.
They drove for hours through the foothills of the mountains, until the late afternoon when they were weaving through the remains of a ruined town from before the cataclysm.
“What do you think?” Nero asked Nyx and Kat.
“It’s as good a place as any,” Nyx replied.
“Good place to stay the night,” Kat agreed.
Nero nodded as he drove around and made his way towards a large building on the northern outskirts of the town. It was a large warehouse that was half rusted away and in a total mess, but it would serve their needs perfectly. They approached it cautiously, looking for any threats, but their luck held, and the place seemed deserted.
Parking up, Nero pulled the handbrake on and turned to look at Bishop in the back seat. “This is it; your final chance to tell us where the Whisperer is. After this, I cannot guarantee your safety, understand?”
Nero meant it, but he honestly wasn’t sure how much stomach he’d have for what might be needed to be done to get this man to speak. But they really did need this information, and Bishop worked for a Night Lord, so Nero did not feel much sympathy for him at all.
“Do your worst,” Bishop replied, his gag removed and a smug grin on his face.
Nero stared at him for a moment, weighing him up and wondering whether he already had the measure of Nero and the others in the car. He glanced over to Nyx.
“Alright, let’s do this,” Nero stated.
Nyx nodded, looking resolute, but there was a flicker of concern in her eyes as she was probably having similar thoughts and doubts as Nero.
Now was not the time to dwell on these things, though. For now, they needed to be strong. They had a job to do.
Climbing out of the Charger, Nero scanned the warehouse and spotted a few chairs that might be suitable for him to sit Bishop down on. He walked over and picked one out, bringing it over to the car where Nyx and Kat were getting him out of the vehicle. The moment he was out of the car, he started to yell and shout.
“Help! Help, anyone! I’ve been kidnapped! Help!”
Nero walked over, grabbed him, and near enough dragged him over to the chair and placed him onto it. Taking some rope from the Charger, he tied Bishop to the chair and walked around to face him.
“Keep screaming,” Nero explained between shouts. “You’re the one who’s tied to a chair and unable to run from a zombie hoard. Who knows, maybe you’d tell us more if there was a zombie about to bite your dick off.”
Bishop stopped shouting and eyed Nero for a moment. “Nah, you wouldn’t do that. You need me too much.”
“We need you to have the ability to talk, but we don’t need you in one piece,” Nero clarified.
Bishop frowned, but he didn’t start screaming again.
“Good,” Nero said. “Now that we understand each other…”
“You!” Bishop shouted, looking off to Nero’s left. Nero looked over to see Diesel and Sable nearby, no longer gagged, but still bound at the wrists.
Diesel shrugged.
“You did this, didn’t you? You led these reprobates to me. You’re dead. You know that? Dead. The Whisperer won’t forgive you for this. You’ve really signed your death warrant with this.”
“Fuck you,” Diesel replied with venom.
“And that’s the gratitude you show for everything we’ve done for you, is it? After everything we have given you.”
“You don’t know shit about me, Bishop. Nothing. You’re a slimy fuck, and it was a pleasure selling you out. I don’t need your handouts anyway.”
“We’ll see. You’ll come crawling back to us one day, I know you will.”
Nero wasn’t interested in listening to these two shout at each other anymore. Their opinions of each other seemed clear, so he stepped up to Bishop and punched him hard across the face.
Bishop gasped and grunted before spitting some blood from his mouth.
“That’s enough,” Nero added.
Bishop looked up at Nero and smiled. “It’s going to take a lot more than that to make me talk.”
Nero kept his eyes locked on Bishop and smiled back at him. “Good, wouldn’t want this to be too easy.”
Bishops eyes narrowed, and then Nero swung another fist at him, hitting him keenly once more.
Nero got two more like that in before he spoke again. “Where’s the Whisperer?” Nero asked finally as Bishop dribbled blood from his mouth.
“Not telling you,” he answered.
“We’ll see,” Nero answered, and drove his fist into the man’s gut.
He wasn’t sure how long this went on for, but it felt like a while. He’d punch him a couple of times and ask him the same question. Then punch him again and repeat the question.
He honestly lost count of the times he ran through this before Nyx asked to take over. Bishop’s face as a mess, with broken skin surrounded by reds and purples. Blood leaking freely from various wounds, and yet, the man had still not talked.
Walking away, Nero felt sick to his stomach by what he’d just done and the state that Bishop was in. He knew that the little worm didn’t deserve any better treatment from them, but torture was a dangerous road to travel down.
Nero purposefully didn’t turn to look at Bishop and Nyx as he heard her start to hit him as well. He found he didn’t want to think about it much at all. Instead, he looked over at Diesel and Sable, who were sitting near the cars. Both looked broken and dejected.
Their world had changed, and Nero guessed they didn’t quite know how they fit into it any more.
He walked over and sat on a rusted can just before them. “How you doing?” Nero asked.
“We’re alright,” Diesel replied, his eyes fixed on the floor in front of him.
Nero shifted on the can, and then stepped forward, pulling his knife. Diesel didn’t see it until Nero had hooked it under the twine that bound his wrists. He jerked back in slight surprise, but Nero ripped the knife back and severed the rope.
It dropped off his wrists.
“No point in you wearing those anymore,” Nero commented.
Diesel looked at his hands, then up at Nero, and for a moment, Nero thought that Diesel was about to attack him, but then he seemed to relax and looked away. “I guess you’re right.”
Nero nodded. “I didn’t mean to fuck up your life or your place in this world, but you had info we needed.”
“I know. Honestly, you’ve probably done us a favour. Those guards on the convoy crew were sadistic fucks, and it wasn’t like it was my dream job or anything.”
“This world doesn’t allow anyone to have their dream
job anymore.”
“You’re not wrong.” Diesel answered.
Nero stepped up to Sable and motioned to her to present her wrists to him. “Hey, let me help you with those.”
Sable looked up at him and didn’t move for a moment.
“You know he’s helped us, really,” Diesel commented to his partner.
“We had a good thing going back there with that convoy,” she answered him, looking over at Diesel.
“It wasn’t that good,” Diesel replied. “The Daemon Rig was a nightmare place to visit.”
Sable sighed. “I guess.”
“Have you been listening to Bishop this past hour?” Diesel continued. “The fuck could see we were captives, just like him, and he still threw us under the truck. They don’t care about us. Never have.”
Sable took another deep breath and raised up her hands, presenting them to Nero. He took them and used his knife again to sever the rope that was binding her wrists as well.
“Done,” he said, stuffing the rope into his pocket.
Nero sat down in front of them again. Diesel was studying the floor, still deep in contemplation, but Sable was looking past Nero at Nyx as she continued to hit Bishop.
“The little shit,” Sable muttered.
“What?” Diesel asked.
“She’ll never get him to speak like that,” Sable answered.
“She won’t? Nero asked.
“Leave it to me,” she said and stood. She looked to the floor and started to scan the area, occasionally bending down to pick something up or pull something from a bit of debris. After a few minutes, she looked through the items she’d picked up and seemed satisfied. “Right,” Sable said to herself and walked over towards Nyx.
Nero turned to watch, and as Sable stepped up closer to Bishop, Nyx stopped hitting him and looked up.
“Erm, what are you doing?” Nyx asked, and glanced over at Nero.
“Doing what you’re obviously unwilling to do,” Sable answered.
Nero nodded to Nyx, who shrugged and stepped back, letting Sable take over. She placed the item’s she’d picked up on a crate near to the Bishop, and Nero noted that they looked like a set of rusty nails and shards of dirty metal.
Wasteland Road Knights Trilogy Page 46
