by Tom Cain
"And then you hanged them" Said Marko.
"Yeah we did, but we did it with pizzazz. We strapped grenades to their bellies, and waited to hoist them up before we pulled the pins. Five perfectly timed drops, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom" Hatcher makes explosions sounds and dramatic hand gestures.
"We got told the Pitdogs dropped them from so high they exploded, ha ha" Marko laughed.
"No, wasn't that way. Although we would have had you believe it at the time. Had to keep up the rep you know" Hatcher smiled.
Valeria stared out into the darkness sitting on a raised dirt hill, quiet, calm, menacing, scanning the horizon for anything moving, ready and waiting to pounce like a spider. Her mind filled with thoughts of the past, the death, the torment of people she has dispatched and people she will. She feels for them, every single one. To say she was conflicted would be an understatement. She knew the harsh world they all lived in, she knew that there were few kind or righteous people left. But she had hope.
Back at camp.
"Marko!" Mia shouted from somewhere in the darkness. Marko jumped up.
"Mia, what's going on?". Marko said.
"There's light coming over the western lip, looks like a group of people on foot, could be torches" Mia said.
As she finished the sentence Hatcher stood up and pointed out two hundred feet away from the lights to the north.
"No Hatcher the torches are coming from over there" Burke said now awake and behind him.
"No no, it's her, she's going for them" Hatcher said.
Burke and Marko looked out they saw two glowing purple dots appear and move very quickly towards the group. Then one by one as the purple streaks reached the group the torches went out. It seemed Valeria had gotten another few faces to add to her memories. Suddenly rapid fire from the south smattered across the side of the roller, ricocheting from the thick steel and reinforced frame. Masie swings the mounted assault rifles around and points in the direction of the fire, trying to pinpoint the direction of the attack. Red, orange and yellow glaring shots appear from just over a small bank, and behind a few dead trees about a hundred meters off in the distance. Masie unloads a few hundred rounds in their direction, blam blam blam blam. She lets out a big sigh, scanning the darkness for retaliation. The firing ceases from the enemy.
"Anyone hurt down there?" Masie shouts.
"All good in here" Grip replies. Marko moves round to the front of the roller and checks for movement.
"Mia, what have we got in that direction?" Marko shouts over to Mia who is pointing her revolver in the same direction.
"I got nothing here; maybe Masie got them with the mounted fire?" Mia replied tentatively.
"Let's go make sure" John says moving around and joining Marko at the front of the roller. Silence falls for a minute. Marko and John take a step forward, guns pointing in the direction of the assailants. Out of the darkness the firing again begins, coming from several different directions spread out over the horizon, whizzing past John's ears, and again clattering along the side of the roller. The soldiers from inside the roller let loose, poking their guns out through the barred windows. A blaze of fire heads towards the incoming enemy. As the fire fight starts the ground trembles.
Ruf and Chrissie hear the commotion and see the random firing in the distance. They are too far away to help. They start making tracks as quickly as possible back to the camp.
"Woah woah" says Ruf "you feel that?".
"Oh shit yeah. Is that them?" Chrissie asks staring at the ground.
"Certainly feels like it" Ruf says. "Let's get back quick" he shouts.
"Woah John wait wait, you feel that?" Marko looks to his left, John crouches down deep and jumps twenty feet towards the enemy.
"John, what the hell are you doing? JOHN?" Marko shouts.
The tremble grows stronger coming in from the west, a fast traveling bump in the ground breaks the dirt seventy five feet out. A huge dark shadow breaks the ground and rolls over the first three assailants; it disappears under the ground only to break out again nearer the remaining men. By this time John's group have stopped firing and look onwards in amazement, as this giant shadowy figure devours the bandits. Marko backs off towards the roller again, as the big snake like creature again smashes through the ground to finish the job of the raiders, he sees a figure in the distance jump on top of the creature and begin to punch it in the top of the head. The figures arm began to glow green and in that instant Marko knew it was John.
Valeria appeared at Markos side, she pushed out towards John in the distance, Marko grabbed her arm.
"Valeria, John is crazy enough to take on that thing, let him do what he does".
Valeria nodded in agreement, and the group watched on in amazement as the creature took blow after blow of John toughest punches to its back. Its armored skin comprised of thick brown plates of skin and coarse hair. It shook uncontrollably as it smashed effortlessly through the tough terrain.
John held on tightly as it tunnelled underground and tried to force him off. Johns vice like grip would not be shaken. John dug his fist underneath one of the creatures fish like scales and held onto its flesh. His eyes shut tight and holding his breath he yanked the creature's skin upwards forcing it to turn its tunnelling towards the surface again. Smashing through the tough terrain again John took a huge breath. Letting out a guttural primal scream John continued the onslaught smashing the scales and parting the flesh to the bone. The hard and large bones didn't stop John's rage, he unloaded a barrage of punches into the open wound. The creature now slowing down, and letting out a roar, tried to rid itself of the pest by rolling over. John reached for his hand gun, held onto some remaining bone and began to fire into the worsening cavity. The group looked on as they saw the creature and Johns silhouette riding the dark horizon, flashes of gun fire being released into the monster. It flailed and spun, digging and diving trying to shake the painful intruder from its hide. A long beep and and thud is heard from under its belly. The Tunneler had hit one of Rufs mines blowing a large chunk from away from its body. Finally with on deafening roar the creature flicked John off with its red barb laced tail. John landing on his feet gave chase as it slithered into the darkness and buried itself in the dirt. John stopped running.
"That was one ugly fucker" he said to himself. He began to walk back to the camp which was now some way away.
"That guy has some balls on him" Hatcher said out loud.
"Yeah no shit Hatcher, who in their right mind is going to attack on of those things?" Masie said.
"Burke, guys, let's get this roller fixed up, no time for lying about, I'm sure those bastards did some damage, let's finish it and fix it before we get any more action. Those whose shift it still is, you are still on" Marko said trying to rally the troops.
Ruf and Chrissie make it back to the main group,
"Marko, we got the mines in place, well as many as we could" Chrissie said panting.
"Good job, ok time to get some rest then, settle down in the roller" Marko replied.
"Don't think I can settle down after that thanks" Chrissie said.
"Up to you soldier, either rest or don't. Either way we will be up tomorrow heading out for Afterburn Lake, get your strength however you can" Marko said sternly.
John finally reaches the roller, blood coming from his head and legs, covered in dirt.
"What were you thinking John? Why would you attack that thing?" Burke asked surprised John made it out alive.
"If I didn't attack that thing, it wouldn't have stopped at killing those raiders. It would have come straight for us. Had to scare the ugly out of him" John said, trying to dust himself off.
"I think it's going to think twice now" John coughed.
A heavy set soldier with heavy stubble stood up and brought John a bottle.
"What's in this?" John asked.
"That's just water unfortunately" the soldier replied.
"Thanks…urmm" John said waiting for a name.
"Oh" the soldier grumbled. “sorry" he continued
“My names Austin, but people call me Anvil".
“Who’s people?” John smirked
Anvil thought for a moment. “ummm”
"I’m joking. Thanks for the water Anvil, go and get yourself some rest we got a big day of travel tomorrow" John said taking a sip of water.
Anvil turned away then back again with an itching question,
"Sir, what made you jump on that things back?" Anvil asked politely.
"Stupidity, I think Austin. Mainly stupidity. Just call me John or Test, whichever floats your boat" replied John.
"I don't think it was stupid John, not many people would do that. Just wanted to say thanks, it could have easily come back around and taken the roller out, but you got in its way" Anvil said honestly.
"You are welcome Austin, did anyone get hurt?" Johns breathing now returning to normal.
"Benson got caught with a bit of shrapnel from the firing, and Grip was shaken but that's about it, I think you got the brunt of the damage here" Anvil said.
"That's good news then. Let's all get some rest, we will have a role call in the morning" Marko said authoritatively.
The moon rose and finally fell on a long cold night in the wasteland, the sun was a welcoming sight for the group most of whom were awake to see it come and the warmth was a relief. The beams broke through the bars, and grates and grills of the stock roller and settled on the faces of the resting group.
"That was a shite night; any movement in this hunk of metal I thought was one of those monsters out there" Huck Benson said.
"Yeah but you are scared of most things Benson" Hatcher said sitting up from behind one of the seats.
"Alright everyone" Markos voice shouted loudly from outside, we need to know who's here.
I got your names from Mia and have written them down; this is the way I'm going to keep track of you and your loved ones should this be your final mission". Marko stepped on board with a scrap piece of paper with all the soldiers names written down and a pencil he found in the stock roller glove compartment.
"Ok here we go, in no particular order, and all I need is a nod or hell if you want to you can sound off. Hatcher, Masie, Chrissie, Grip, Ruf, Tuck Tucker, that cannot be your actual name?" Marko looked over to the nodding skinny dark skinned man on the right.
"Yup that's me, wasn't born Tuck but that's what people know me by" Tuck replied seemingly quite relaxed.
"Oh and by the way, you can thank John for saving my ass last night, that big thing would have chewed us up for sure" Tuck said staring at Marko square in the eyes rather unnervingly.
"I will pass the message on" Marko said sternly and looked back down at his list and continued
"Arthur Winslow" A boy of about seventeen stood up and sounded off.
"That's me".
"Ok, glad you survived the night kid, take a seat" Marko continued "Teige?" Marko said staring down at the paper. "Teige you alive?", a slender woman with dirt on her face and mud covered camouflage stood up.
"Yes that's me sir" she said sounding bored and slightly off centre.
"Ok then, glad you are still with us, take a seat Teige", Marko asked politely.
"You got it sir" she sits down rolling her eyes, Marko lets out a sigh.
"Forrester, Jack, Hollow, Sweet" all four nod in succession.
Mia took a stand beside Marko to explain the troops.
"Harmen Forrester is a short man in his late forties, he used to fight for a gang called "The Loners" before making his way to Little London five years ago. Jack or Jacky "Jack" Payton is that short, plump woman who was a salvager in Little London before she volunteered for the assault on Swiss Tower, she helped Burke back at the roller garage. That guy over there is Huck "Hollow" Benson and is still a gun for hire, and if it weren't for payment promised to him by Shaw for being in the assault group he probably wouldn't be here. Not completely sure why they call him hollow, have heard either because he uses hollow point bullets or because he's got nothing beating in his chest, talked to him a few times, seems a nice guy although a man of few words. They last guy is Deidrick Sweet, don't know if that's his real name, and don't really care. He's not particularly nice to be around, but handy in a fist fight." Mia told Marko at reasonably low volume.
"Ok, thanks for the background Mia, moving on" Marko said checking his list for the remaining names.
"Cambolini, Thatcher, Rodico and Fletcher?" all replied with a nod or a ‘sir’.
"You want the low down on these guys to Marko?" mia enquired.
"Yeah I do, good to know who is who when you have to trust they got your back in a fight” Marko said so the group could hear.
Hatcher nodded in agreement. "Ben Cambolini is also known as Horse, not for the reasons you may think, but because he likes to kick people when they piss him off, he had a run in with a group of greeners in Zone six a while before he arrived in Little London and kicked them all to death they say. Who was next?" Mia asked. Marko looked down at his list.
"Thatcher?" Marko asked.
"Ah yeah Carol Thatcher, people call her ranch because she ran a ranch before the Green in the south. You can count on her, she's a straight player. Lisa Rodico is a healer, I don't just mean herself, I mean she was also a medic back at base. She can heal herself pretty quick, not the fastest we have seen but quick enough. Great to have in a tight fix. Do you know that big lump over there? That's Austin Fletcher, people call him Anvil for obvious reasons" Mia stared at Anvil who was staring back.
They broke into a smile.
"He's got a good heart though, although a little slow on the uptake" Mia whispered to Marko.
"It's good to know more about you guys, perhaps we should have done this while we were back in Little London or sometime before we got out to this dump, either way it's good to know. Also know this, I got the back of each of you, you all earned my respect in the last couple of tussles we’ve had, so I know you are good to get mine. But remember you ain't out here for yourself, you out her for the team and for everyone you know back wherever, so first sign I see of anyone backstabbing, thieving, stealing and all that bad outback shit, I'm taking you down. If we get outta this alive, then you got two things from me, first is my respect for the rest of my days, and second as much as you can drink at whatever bar you want, for a week" Marko finished with a smile.
"Hey" Huck stood up.
"I don't need nothing from you, I get my pay from Shaw and that's that" he said wearing a poker face.
"Ah shut up and sit down Huck, trust me you don't want trouble from this one" Mia pointed at Marko and shouted staring Huck in the face. Hucks face changed with a watery smile and he reluctantly sat back down.
"Hey Mia, I got a question" Jack spoke up.
"Yeah what's up Jack?" Mia said still shaking off the annoyance of Huck's outburst.
"What's John made from?" Jack asked wiping sleep out of her eyes.
"What do you mean?" Mia replied.
"People say a whole bunch of things about John Test. People say he ain't human. Others think he's a robot or something made by that mad Japanese doctor over at the labs. What is he?" She asked.
"He's definitely something all right, but in the end it don't really matter, as long as he's on our side, we are going to be alright" Mia replied confidently.
Burke was busy working on the roller engine which had been subject to a few rogue shots by the raiders the previous evening.
"I'm just trying to patch up one of the vacuum pumps, so I can get us on the road. Hey Val, pass me that tape and the glue please" Burke gestured to Valeria who was sitting on a stool next to the engine. She slowly picked up the Tape and Glue and passed them too Burke.
"Thanks very much beautiful" Burke said smiling sweetly, Valeria looked somewhat displeased, her top lip twitched slightly.
"Ok ok" Burke said, quickly getting back to work on the engine.
"So, I don't have the parts I need to repair this properly but usi
ng a bit of my genius I can come up with something" Burke said, finding the break in the vacuum tube and sealing it with quick drying gunk used for plugging tyres, the gunk dried very quickly and sealed the hole, luckily the gunk was flexible and could stand a bit of movement.
"Now the thing is Val, I hope I can call you Val, the gunk will last a while but it's meant to be kept in liquid form inside a tyre, if its kept on the outside it dries to form a rubber like substance, I hope you are following me here" he said enthusiastically while Valeria stared over the open plains. Burke continued his unwanted explanation.
"So the best thing we can do is cover it up with a Burke load of this here insulating tape and hope it holds long enough for us to get to Afterburn Lake which is hopefully a few more undisturbed hours away".
Burke finished the repair and jumped down, brushed of his dusty greasy hands and looked pleased with himself.
John strolled over with a mild limp in his left leg.
"How we looking Burke?" John asked.
"The roller should be good to go now that vacuum tube is fixed, what about you though, you have looked better" Burke stated still brushing of the dirt from his overalls.
"I'm fine Burke, let's just get this all up and running. Marko" John shouting to Marko inside the roller. "it's time" John said.
"Ok let's make a move guys, Mia you are driving, who's going up top?" Marko asked the group. Tuck stood up.
"Happy to get my ass up there and keep a lookout".
"Alright let's get loaded and ready to roll out. Anvil, Rodico you are with me, we got to take down the covers from outside and get them all back on the roller".
"You got it" Anvil said making his way out.
Rodico followed suit. The three of them packed away the frame and the tarps and stored them in a lockable compartment in the rollers body. Valeria, Burke, Ruf, Chrissie and the rest jumped on board and got in position, each soldier setting up near an available hole, gap or open area in the rollers frame to point their guns. Tuck had the goggles on and was up top manning the double assault rifles. Mia started the engine, which cranked up first time with a roar and a cloud of black smoke. They were on their way.
