She pulled another crate over and sat on it, looking up at Bishop. Bishop looked back and smiled.
“What do you think you can do that these idiots can’t,” he asked her.
Sable smiled, reached down, and picked up a nail. There was nothing flashy or showy about what Sable did. She didn’t make a big fuss about it, or make any overtures to Bishop; she just calmly took hold of one of his fingers and began to push a rusty pin up under his fingernail, into the end of his ring finger.
Bishop screamed in pain in a way he had not done while they’d been beating him up. Nero sat and watched, partially fascinated, but also with a growing sense of horror at what Sable was doing.
She didn’t ask him any questions or even say much to him at all. Bishop, however, was being much more vocal, screaming and thrashing around. With one nail pushed a good inch in, she picked up another and started to insert this one into his middle finger.
Bishop screamed again.
“You’re taking some sick pleasure in this, aren’t you,” Bishop hissed at her through gritted teeth. “This is revenge for what I said before, isn’t it?”
Sable seemed to ignore him as he ranted, offering her pretty much anything she wanted, but she ignored him, thankfully realising she couldn’t trust his words at all.
Over the next twenty minutes, she pushed and tapped more nails into the fingers on his other hand, and then into his toes as well.
After a while, she stood there, looking at him, before she turned to Nero and held out her hand. “Knife.”
Nero looked back at her, and then at Nyx and Kat, who both shrugged and nodded.
He guessed there wasn’t much she could do against them with a simple dagger, so he pulled it from his belt and flipped it so he was holding the blade, and offered it to Sable.
Sable smiled and took the knife. “Thank you for trusting me,” she said and turned back to Bishop. Nero withdrew his shotgun, but held it in a relaxed manner and watched.
Sable stepped up to Bishop and gripped the blade of the knife between her teeth as she reached down and undid Bishop’s trousers. Within moments, his manhood was revealed for everyone to see, resting on the seat of the chair he sat on.
She took the blade out of her mouth and smiled at him. “Last chance. Answer their question, or I start to cut bits off.
Nero could see the sweat on the man’s face as he looked from Sable’s face to the knife, to Nero and back.
“Fuck. You.” Bishop answered. The words were defiant, but Nero could hear the clear doubt in the man’s voice. The surety of his position had faltered, and he sounded scared now for the first time since they had started this.
Sable shrugged and reached down. Her movements were slow and measured, but very deliberate, and she’d drawn blood before Bishop screamed for her to stop.
“Alright, you win, I’ll tell you where he is. I’ll tell you,” he yelled at Nero.
Sable looked over at him but didn’t move.
Nero nodded, pulled out his map and walked over, close enough so that Bishop could see and point to it.
“He’s here. Right here. He has a fortress in the mountains, and a settlement beneath it. Look, there’s a road, here—a backroad. You can take it, and he’ll never see you coming. It’s not used much, alright? Just, please, make her stop.”
Sable looked up at him, and Nero nodded.
“Lucky boy,” Sable replied and moved away, leaving Bishop weeping quietly.
“Just, let me go, okay? Just let me go.”
“Not a chance in hell,” Nero replied. “You’re coming with us.”
Bishop didn’t answer. Instead, he seemed to sag into his chair, utterly defeated. Nero looked at the man who, just a few hours ago, had been holding court in his compound, the leader of a gang of men, working for a Night Lord. He’d been powerful, respected, feared, even, and now he was a small, broken little man; beaten and humiliated.
As Nero watched him for a moment, there was a small part of him that did feel sympathy for him. His life, as he had known it, was over, and that had to be a horrific thing. But Nero didn’t feel that sorry for him.
He sided with the daemons. He worked against humanity and for our oppressors.
There was no excuse for that, and there never would be.
Nero turned and walked away from him, over to where Nyx and Kat were standing near the Charger. Cryptus and Runt were over beside their monster truck, having set up a little campfire, and even now, Nero could smell the welcome aroma of cooking meat.
“Mmm, that smells good,” Nero commented. “Right, looks like we got what we needed,” he said.
Nyx was smiling, clearly thrilled. “I know. That Sable, man; she is brutal.”
“You’ll get no argument from me there,” Nero answered.
“So, where is the Whisperer?”
Nero showed her the map, pointing to an area in the mountains. “Right there.”
“That’s not far,” Nyx commented.
“No, it’s not.”
“We’ll be there in a couple of days.”
Nero nodded. “Right, what do we do with Diesel and Sable?”
“Why, what are you thinking?” Kat asked. Nyx looked up as well.
“I think we should let them go. They’ve proven themselves, and… well, I don’t want to take them to the Whisperer. I feel like we need to keep that group small. Just us basically.”
“They could be a liability,” Nyx extrapolated.
“They could.”
“Yeah, alright, I’m good with that. They have a whole town to scavenge from here. That’s fine with me,” Nyx answered.
“Good. We’ll tell them in the morning, let’s go and eat.”
Chapter 15
Nero
“Good luck,” Nero said, leaning out the window of his Charger. Diesel and Sable stood nearby.
“You, too. Although, I can’t help but think you’re driving to your death,” Diesel answered.
Nero shrugged. “I hope not, but time will tell, I guess.”
“Rather you than me.”
Nero nodded. “Have a better one,” he answered and slapped his hand against the outside of his door before depressing the accelerator pedal and easing out of the warehouse, the two figures waving at them as they left.
They bumped through the debris and out onto the remains of the roads outside, heading west, and soon left the town behind. The night had been relatively uneventful, and when they’d told Diesel and Sable they were letting them go, the pair of them were grateful. Sable was the quieter of the two, but even she thanked them.
Nero wasn’t sure if they needed thanks, or even deserved any given what they had done to Diesel, but the man seemed to be grateful to be out of that life, and genuinely hopeful that they would be able to kill the Whisperer. Doubtful, but hopeful.
By the morning, Diesel had already located some promising vehicles and was keen to work on them and get them moving. Nero left him some gas and food and wished him good luck.
With the town in the distance now, far behind them, Nero returned his attention to their current situation and mission.
“How’s our guest holding out?” Nero asked Kat.
Kat peered out the back window into the rear of the car where Bishop was tied to the racks of supplies. Nero could just make out the man’s head, where he sat blindfolded.
“He’s fine,” Kat answered.
After the bravado before and during their interrogation of him, Bishop was a broken man now. Sable’s torture of him—something that still didn’t sit quite right with Nero—had been brutal and had done the job. After that, Bishop did everything that was asked of him and put up no resistance at all. Nero was still unsure what they should do with him once they got where they needed to go, though.
He was a servant of the Night Lord, and that usually earnt you a death sentence, but after what they had done to him, Nero felt a little confused. Was killing him the right thing to do?
“So, providing his dir
ections work out and we find the Whisperer, what do we do with him?” Nero asked the girls.
“We kill him,” Nyx answered right away. There was no hesitation in her voice at all.
“Are you sure?”
“He’d kill us in a second, Nero, and you know it. He doesn’t deserve anything better from us.”
“You’re right,” Nero answered. He knew she was right. Also, Nero had killed many times previously, and many of them had been less deserving, but it was the torture that was confusing him.
“You growing soft in your old age?” Nyx asked.
“That whole torture thing, it’s messed me up a bit. What she did to him…”
“Sable?”
Nero nodded.
“Yeah, alright. Sure, I get it. She was brutal, that’s for sure.”
Nero nodded again, there wasn’t much to add to that.
“Don’t let it confuse you, though,” Nyx added. “Bishop is just another follower of the Night Lords and a traitor to the human race. He sold his soul to them and sold us out as well. I dread to think how many people he’s killed or caused to be killed in the name of the daemons.
“Of course, you’re right.” Nero agreed with her.
“I know I’m right,” Nyx answered him and reached over to put her hand on his thigh, squeezing it.
“Are you okay? Are you sure you can do this?”
Nero nodded and looked over at Nyx. She locked eyes with him and smiled. Nero smiled, too, and felt relaxed. She might be nearly twenty years his junior, but she had a way of just reaching him and getting him to see how things really were. “I’m fine, honestly, and… thanks. You always look out for me.”
They travelled west, and sure enough, as they reached the area that Bishop had indicated on the map, Nero spotted the fork in the road. It wasn’t very obvious, and the left-hand road that climbed up into the foothills looked treacherous and less well travelled, but he could see it.
He also saw that it could be easily missed by anyone not looking for it or paying attention. It was so old it was almost not there anymore.
Nero slowed the Charger and turned it off the road, guiding the machine over the less rough areas of land, following the general direction of this new shortcut.
Cryptus’ truck was not far behind, and even though his Charger had oversized tyres, Nero did envy the monster truck at times like this as it had no trouble traversing this kind of terrain.
Still, Nero pushed on, up into the hills, following the track as best they could. In fact, the further away from the main road they got, the clearer and more defined this road became, which made Nero wonder if it had been purposefully hidden. He wouldn’t be surprised at all, given where this road supposedly led.
The Whisperer wouldn’t want travellers stumbling across his home if he could at all help it.
Despite the clearer road, the travel inevitably slowed down as they wound their way through the landscape, climbing hills and dropping into valleys. As they went, the night started to draw in.
Up here, in the hills, the air was fresher, cooler, and before things got too cold, they made sure to stop and set up camp. Everything was so quiet and peaceful up here; it really didn’t feel like they were heading into the lion’s den. This was probably the calm before the storm, though, Nero guessed. And decided to enjoy it while they could.
He insisted they cook one of their better steaks and open some of the more prized rations they were saving, including a few desserts.
“Is this in case this is the group's last meal?” Cryptus asked.
“We’re heading into the Whisperer’s territory, and while it’s calm now, danger surely awaits us. So, I wanted to be sure we enjoyed the food tonight,” Nero answered.
“Yep, last meal,” Nyx added, smiling cheekily at Nero.
Nero shrugged and continued to tuck into this food. He noticed the other’s doing the same thing.
The next morning and a few hours of the afternoon were taken up with some tricky driving, and before long, Cryptus had to leave his monster truck behind and ride in the car. He sat in the back with Kat, while Runt rode on the back of the vehicle, near the prisoner. The roads here were thin and treacherous, and there was no way the monster truck would make it. They continued on before eventually they rounded a corner and found themselves looking out over a large valley in the midst of the mountains.
Below, at the lowest point in the valley, Nero could make out the clear signs of a small settlement, complete with a few plumes of smoke rising from it, marking it as a working camp. The camp was also at the bottom of a cliff, and high above it, perched in the mountains was a tower. It appeared to be made from stone and metal and was an impressive structure, but there was also a sense of foreboding about it, and Nero knew right away what he was looking at.
“I think we’re here,” Nero said to the car.
“That certainly looks promising to me,” Nyx agreed.
“Me too,” Kat said.
“I always hoped to finally find where the Whisperer was hiding,” Cryptus added.
“Right, we need a plan,” Nero suggested.
“The afternoon is slipping away, do we go now, at night, or do we wait until the morning?” Nyx asked.
“We need to confirm it’s the right place first,” Nero said.
“Bishop,” Kat replied.
Nero nodded. “Runt, bring our passenger down here, would you?”
“Right away,” Runt answered enthusiastically. With a strength that was surprising for his frame, Runt picked the prisoner up and carried him down to the side of the car. Nero climbed out at the same time, followed by the others. When Bishop was settled on his knees, Nero reached down, whipped off the man’s blindfold, and watched his reaction.
Bishop blinked and squinted as his eyes adjusted to the light, and as his vision cleared, he looked out on the scene before him and visibly sagged.
Whereas he’d been defeated before, now he looked utterly crushed.
“That’s it, that’s the Whisperer’s fortress,” he muttered.
Nero smiled. “Thank you,” he said.
Behind him, Nyx shifted her position, and suddenly her blade was rammed through his chest. Bishop looked down at it in surprise as blood pooled and fell, and over the next few moments, the man died.
“Time for the Road Knights to ride again, and bring justice to the wasteland,” Nyx stated with purpose, ripping her blade from Bishop’s back.
“It certainly is. Grab your things, though. We’re walking from here on out. The car is too conspicuous, and that road is not safe.”
“Alright, let’s do it,” Nyx said, and moved to grab what she needed. Nero did the same, and within another couple of minutes, they were off the road and walking down the steep slope, making to pass the settlement on its eastern side. As far as he was concerned, there was no need to even go into the camp. It would be filled with loyalists to the Whisperer anyway, and would likely take away any element of surprise they had on their side.
They cut diagonally down the slope, moving south, towards the tower, climbing over rocks and skidding down loose slopes of pebbles and dirt, all the time keeping an eye out for anything that might cause them problems.
The slope was mercifully free of any zombies, though, and the night was quiet all around them as darkness fell. They had a long way to go, miles from the looks of it, but Nero felt well rested and eager to get into the tower.
It took them a while to navigate down the mountainside, but they soon reached the bottom of the valley. Ahead, the lights in the camp and a few in the tower kept them on course in the darkness.
They settled into an easy walk, and Nero pulled ahead with Nyx by his side.
“Cryptus spoke to me the other day,” he said, glancing back to make sure they were far enough ahead of the others.
“Oh, what did he say?”
“He’d noticed that I was being a little cold with him.”
“Well, you have made it a somewhat obvious, babe,” she
replied.
Nero sighed. “I know. I just… I don’t trust him. Not totally. I mean, he seems to have our best interests at heart, I think.”
“I think he’s on our side,” Nyx agreed.
“Yeah, I think so. But there is something he’s not telling us. I feel like I don’t really know him that well, you know?”
“He’s a closed book, that’s for sure.”
“Exactly. I mean, what did he want with that crashed ship?”
Nyx shrugged. “No idea,” she answered him.
“And that’s what worries me. He’s got an agenda he’s not sharing with us. I’m positive of it.”
“It’s okay, I know that. I have no issue’s keeping a few details from him,” Nyx answered.
“I know. I just…” Nero looked up at the tower before them, high up the mountainside, pitch black against the deep blue-black of the night sky. He got a sense of foreboding from that place, that was for sure. It was probably just the knowledge that it was home to the Whisperer. Nero had to keep telling himself that this Night Lord was just another daemon. A daemon like the others he’d killed with his shotgun. He was perhaps more cunning than the brutes they’d fought before; more intelligent, perhaps? He thought back to the winged daemon in the crashed ship he’d fought with Nyx, where his shotgun had been enchanted. Was the Whisperer going to be much different to that one? Was the only difference that the Whisperer had been a little luckier in its life? He didn’t know, but it didn’t matter. The point was that the Whisperer was no different to the other daemons that he and Nyx had fought and killed.
And this was what gave them the advantage. They could kill them when so few others could. The daemons were so used to being basically invulnerable when it came to humans, that it made them careless. They thought that Nyx and Nero were just another pair of humans. Human’s who they knew they could beat and kill with little difficulty and little risk to themselves.
It was that overconfidence that would be their downfall, and the Whisperer would be the first to go.
“Just what?” Nyx asked.
Wasteland Road Knights Trilogy Page 47
