“Hey there,” she said.
“Hey.”
“We’ve been set up with another team. Ready to go see who these people are?”
“Sure,” Boothe said. “Hopefully they’re not losers.”
“Couldn’t be as bad as you,” Scarlett laughed, as Boothe limped down the hallway beside her.
3
A group of three players waited in the conference room for them.
The first, who stood to greet Boothe and Scarlett as they entered, was a robot with a thin cylindrical torso and flexible hose-like arms. The metal on his body was painted in a green and tan brushstroke camouflage pattern. His face was flat, with large eyes and a wide jaw that moved up and down on a hinge when he spoke.
“Hello,” he said, his long arm reaching out to shake their hands. “I’m Braddock, and we’re Scandroid ‘84.”
Boothe and Scarlett both introduced themselves, then Braddock turned and motioned towards the two sitting in chairs behind him.
“This is Locke,” he said, pointing towards a man who sat with a black hood pulled up over his head so that only a shadow of his face was visible underneath. He wore black leather armor under his cloak - all belts and buckles. One belt had an array of throwing knives, while another held three different colored grenades. At his hip, a long thin-bladed sword hung in its scabbard.
“Nice to meet you,” Locke said, holding his hand out cheerfully.
“And lastly, this is Mariko.”
The woman he pointed to wore scraps of brown leather that had been sewn together to form workable armor over her thin frame. Pieces of the armor frayed and hung in strips, forming a functional, if not flattering, aesthetic. A dark green helmet, similar to what fighter pilots wear, completely covered her face.
She tilted her head towards both Scarlett and Boothe, but did not speak.
“It’s nice to meet you all,” Scarlett said.
“Yeah, thanks for teaming up with us,” Boothe added.
“No, thank you,” Braddock said in his mechanical voice. “You are the top team. You could choose to group with anybody.”
“I just hope you’re as good as people seem to think you are,” Locke said.
Victor walked into the conference room then, shutting the door behind him. He stood at the podium and pressed a couple of buttons there to make the screen behind him light up with a map. “Thank you for signing up for this important mission. Reno county, northwest of New Wichita has always been known for its salt mines. Unfortunately, those mines are now filled with mutant cannibals and gecks. Recently a group of them came up in the night and attacked a small neighboring town, killing many and capturing others. The survivors came to New Wichita for help, and we mean to give them that support.”
Victor changed the screen to a map of Reno County, which displayed the entrance to several different salt mines. Then the screen zoomed in on a single mine in Hutchinson, KS called the Carey Salt Mine.
“We believe that they are holed up here. The place is quite large and may require an extensive search.”
Again the screen changed, now showing an internal map of the mines. Unlike the twisting natural caverns that Boothe had explored to kill the mutmites, these mines were precisely and meticulously cut, forming straight walls and a grid-like array of pillars.
Boothe saved all the maps into his goggles, so he could bring them up again later.
“This is the mutant’s home, so there may be non-combatants present. If they do not pose a threat, they should be spared, otherwise eliminate all hostiles.”
The image changed again, to show a blurry photo of a large mutant with green skin, spikes emerging from his shoulders, and a huge eyeball in his chest. He carried a wicked looking double-bladed axe that had to be as big as Boothe’s entire body.
“Somebody’s been eating their Wheaties,” Locke said.
“This is their leader. We call him the Mutyrant. We don’t know much about him, except that he is extremely strong and excessively cruel. He must be eliminated at all costs. This is your mission to carry out at your own pace, though I would recommend you move quickly, as there is no way of knowing when these monsters will attack again. Good luck team.”
With that, Victor placed a dossier on the table at the front of the room and walked out the door.
NEW MISSION: CAREY CANNIBALS
A group of mutants and gecks living in the Carey Salt Mines have begun kidnapping and eating townsfolk from nearby settlements. Venture into the mines and eliminate this threat.
REWARD: Choice of a special item from the Eagle’s Nest Armory.
“I wonder what’s in the armory,” Scarlett said.
Locke shrugged. “Apparently, you can’t buy things from it using cash, you have to earn credits through missions like this. There’s supposed to be some pretty cool stuff though.”
Mariko flipped through the dossier silently, looking at the maps again, and at the photograph of the Mutyrant. Boothe wondered who had taken that photo. It looked like the monster was charging directly towards the camera. Like the photographer might have been cut in half immediately after snapping the picture.
“Do you have transportation?” Braddock asked.
“Yeah, we have a car,” Boothe said.
“Good,” Locke said, putting a hand on Boothe’s shoulder. “I’ll ride with you guys.”
Braddock nodded. “Mariko and I have motorcycles. Usually Locke has to ride behind one of us, but if you have a back seat for him, that would make things easier.”
“Sure, he can ride with us,” Scarlett said.
“Let’s get moving then,” Braddock said. He seemed like he was used to being in charge, and Boothe didn’t mind stepping back and letting him lead. After all, Boothe and Scarlett were outnumbered here.
Boothe looked at his Friends list again.
Cthulwho - OFFLINE
He wondered if Paul would be mad that they were doing a big mission like this without him. He should have been online. They couldn’t sit around and wait for him, especially when he didn’t answer his phone and ran off with other friends without warning. Boothe didn’t think he should feel bad about this, but he still kind of did.
As a group, they made their way up the elevator and towards the parking lot where they had left the Falcon. Mariko and Braddock had their motorcycles nearby and soon rode over to meet them. Mariko’s rode a sleek black crotch-rocket, while Braddock’s was a large, long-handle barred chopper.
Boothe drove the Falcon, with Scarlett in the passenger’s seat and Locke in the back.
“Let’s stick together on the ride,” Braddock said. “Just in case.”
“Bandit’s would have to be out of their damn minds to mess with us,” Locke said.
“They likely are,” Braddock replied.
They drove out of New Wichita, the two motorcycles in front of the Falcon. Though they needed to go northwest, the only exit available to vehicles was to the south, so they had to drive all the way around the city to get on the correct path.
Once away from New Wichita, the landscape became flat and empty. It seemed there used to be a highway here, judging by the occasional patch of asphalt and a couple of leaning signs with the number 96 on them, but now the road had been practically consumed by the earth.
“So are you two together?” Locke asked from the back seat. He had to yell over the sound of the rushing wind, the engine, and the tires rolling across the bumpy ground.
For a moment, Scarlett and Boothe both ignored him, then surprisingly, Scarlett turned and said “Yes.” She gave Boothe a wink afterwards.
He had no idea what that was supposed to mean. Instead, he just kept his eyes on the path in front of him.
“I thought so,” Locke said. “People have been talking about how you two are always questing together.”
“People talk about us?” Scarlett asked.
“Yeah, I mean you’re the top team in the Eagles. You two and the tentacle-chinned mutant. Where is he, anyways.”
Boothe and Scarlett both shrugged.
“You’re not friends outside of the game?” Locke asked.
Boothe thought about it for a moment, then said, “Not really.”
“Ah. Our group isn’t either. We just teamed up because we were online at the same time. I think Braddock lives in New York. I don’t really know anything about Mariko. I’ve never heard her speak more than a couple words.”
“That’s kind of weird,” Scarlett said.
“She’s a damn good sniper though.” Locke leaned back in the seat. “I like this car. Much more comfortable than the back of Braddock’s bike. Every bump on that thing slams the seat into my balls. But he’s a robot, so what does he care?”
“Okay, hold up,” Scarlett said. “I know that the game doesn’t cause the motorcycle to hurt your balls when it hits a bump.”
“Well no,” Locke said. “It’s called role-playing.”
“You like to role-play getting hit in the balls?”
“No,” Locke said. “Never mind. Forget it.”
“Coming up on the mines now,” Braddock said through their earpieces. “I don’t see any guards outside. Slow it up.”
The mines were composed of three buildings, one small and squat with busted windows, one tall with several chutes and scaffolding all around it, and a strange pyramid-like structure.
“Go search for targets,” he said to Marty, and the drone flew off to scan the place.
“Handy thing you got there,” Locke said.
Boothe watched through the drone’s camera, but Marty didn’t find anything either.
“The place looks clear,” Boothe said.
“They must all be below,” Braddock replied. “Let’s park and find the elevator.”
They parked in front of the large building, and looked around the place. The pyramid structure seemed to be where the salt had been stored. It still contained several tons of rock salt, piled at the far end. The small building had been an office at one point, but the inside of the place was now completely destroyed. The tall building was full of huge equipment, used for drilling and extracting the salt from the ground. Inside there, they found the elevator - a rusty steel contraption that did not look like it had ever been functional.
“Are we ready?” Braddock asked. Everybody nodded in reply, then they stepped into the elevator that said Maximum Occupants 10.
When they were all in, Braddock closed the gate and pulled the lever. Immediately, the elevator began dropping fast. The stone walls around them whizzed upwards, and Boothe’s stomach crawled up into his throat. Salt particles filled the air and stung his nostrils whenever he breathed.
“I hope this junk doesn’t clog up my gears,” Braddock said.
“You’ll be fine,” Locke said. “At least you don’t have to breathe it.”
“Looks like we should be able to surprise them,” Boothe said. “I can’t believe they didn’t have any guards up above.”
As the elevator began to slow, a spinning red light on top of the cage began flashing and the deafening squawk of a siren rose above the noise of the elevator.
“Yeah,” Scarlett said. “They’ll be real surprised.”
4
As the elevator slowed to a stop, Boothe could see the mutants through the iron gate. Waiting. Eight of them, each with different strange deformities, plus two gecks dressed in coveralls and carrying shotguns. One of them wore a mining helmet, with the light aimed directly at the elevator.
“We’re like fish in a barrel,” Boothe said.
Scarlett looked over at Boothe, worried, and said “Good luck.”
“You too,” he replied.
They were all a team, but there was no synchronizing their movements. There was no planning, or strategy. There was only chaos.
The elevator landed with a thump and the gate slid open. The gecks opened fire, blasting their shotguns into the elevator. Most of the pellets ricochet off the gate, but one hit Braddock, causing the machinery around his hips to spark.
“Dinner’s served, bitches!” Locke yelled as he burst out of the elevator, katana in hand. He ran along one of the walls, defying gravity. His hands moved so fast that two of his throwing knives appeared to materialize in one of the mutant’s skull, then he slashed his blade through a geck’s scaly neck, severing its head completely. The other enemies turned to follow his movement, allowing the rest of the team an opening to escape the confined quarters of the elevator.
Boothe didn’t have time to get a good look at the environment, but he could see they were in a long corridor with rails down the middle. A car was overturned near the wall on the right side of the elevator and crates filled with rock salt were stacked just to the left. Boothe ran for that, trying to get behind any cover. Amazingly, he found himself uninjured when he got into position. He didn’t have time to consider his luck for long before a tumorous mutant with long serrated claws charged directly for him. He quickly flipped the switch on his rifle to three-round burst and opened fire.
The cacophony of gunfire all around him made focus nearly impossible and only a single bullet hit the mutant. It didn’t slow at all, and before he could fire another shot, the mutant brought its claws down towards him. Boothe quickly rolled to the side, dodging the attack and coming back up into a crouch.
Marty shot a laser blast at the mutant, a red line cutting straight through its shoulder.
The mutant spun towards the drone and took a wild swing, trying to swat it out of the air. It was just enough of a distraction for Boothe to get off another three-round burst at the thing. This time, all three bullets ripped through the creature’s face, exploding its head in a satisfying geyser of yellow blood.
Boothe turned towards the rest of the fight.
Braddock took cover behind the broken car, his long, flexible arms twisting and snaking through the air above his head, a revolver in each hand blasting away at the enemies. Locke spun between the mutants, dodging their melee attacks and countering with slashes from his katana blade. Every attack cut huge gashes into the enemies, sending splashes of blood along the walls and floor. Mariko hid so well that Boothe wouldn’t have even noticed her, had his goggles not highlighted her form for him. In the darkness down the corridor, she crouched, steadily firing shots from her rifle. Each one blasted through one of the mutants, ripping huge holes in their bodies.
Then there was Scarlett, who moved faster than any of the others, dashing from enemy to enemy, shoving her shotgun into their chest and blasting them apart. She screamed in fury - a scream that Boothe could hear even over the noise of echoing gunfire. Then, her shotgun empty, she gripped her axe in both hands and leaped through the air, splitting the last enemy’s skull directly down the middle. She kicked its corpse to the ground, pulled her blade free, and gave a final yell.
All the gunfire stopped, leaving only a high-pitched ringing in Boothe’s ears. The corridor was now empty in both directions. No more enemies in sight, but anybody remaining in the complex would have likely heard the gunfight and be on alert now.
“Well, that was fun,” Locke said. Yellow blood stuck to his cloak and dripped down his leather armor.
The group met up in the middle of the corridor. Locke, Braddock, and Scarlett had all taken hits, and used medkits to heal up. Braddock took more medkits out of a compartment in his stomach and passed them out to replace the ones that had been used.
“Two more in storage,” he said. “Hopefully we will not have many more fights like that one.”
“It didn’t go so bad,” Locke said. “All things considered.”
“We’re still alive,” Scarlett agreed.
Boothe’s eyes shifted to the overturned car nearby. The interior was destroyed and the body was dented horribly, but the engine and the tires seemed intact.
“I wonder if we could use this,” Boothe said. “It might help in the fight, or at the very least make it easier to get around down here.”
“Good idea,” Braddock agreed. “Let’s get
it upright.”
Together, the team pushed it over onto its wheels. Boothe sat in the driver’s seat and looked at the ignition. It required no key, instead there was a green button that said Start. He pressed it, and the car’s headlights flickered, the ignition clicking.
“Battery’s dead,” Boothe said.
“I think I can fix that,” Braddock offered. He reached to his chest plate and removed a screw, allowing it to swing open. Inside his torso sat a large cylindrical battery with LEDs along the side showing that it was active and at 92% capacity. Coiled next to it, lay a small set of jumper cables.
“Handy,” Boothe said. “How many of these compartments do you have?”
“More than you’ll ever see,” Braddock said with a smile. He reached inside his chest and attached one end of the jumper cables to his own battery. The other end, he clipped onto the one inside the car.
“Give it a shot,” Braddock said to Boothe. The rest of the group kept guard, watching for any movement in the distance down both ends of the wide corridor.
Boothe sat in the driver’s seat and pressed the button on the ignition again. This time, the headlights came on and the engine cranked. For a moment, Boothe didn’t think it would turn over, but then with a cloud of exhaust and the smell of burnt oil, the engine fired and rumbled steadily.
“Yeah!” Boothe cheered.
After a waiting a bit to let the battery charge, Braddock disconnected himself and said, “Alright everybody - pile in.”
Scarlett pointed down the corridor, to the left of the elevator.
“I looked around a bit and the tracks seem to show most of the foot traffic going in that direction.”
“Then that direction is the way we shall go,” Braddock said.
Boothe nodded. Braddock sat in the passenger seat of the small car, while Scarlett and Locke sat in the back. Mariko walked around and opened the driver’s side door. For a moment, Boothe thought that she wanted to drive, but instead, without speaking a word, she reached down and pulled up the release that popped the latch on the trunk. She then shut the driver’s door and walked around to the back of the car.
Apocalypse 2020: A Wasteland LitRPG Page 17
