“This is THE WORST plan I have ever heard of!”
“Nyx,”
Bronson said calmly. “You were in agreement; we try to do this with as little
bloodshed as possible.”
“So
you put me at risk? Remind me again why I’m your partner?”
“Because
you didn’t want to sit at home and be a housewife,” he whispered.
“Or
a-“
Dine
cut Nyx off, “Keep it quiet, we’re close.”
The
group fell silent as they came to the end of the trees and paused at the old
dirt road. The same two guards that had been posted at the front gate stood
there again. The four intruders circled around, checking the rest of the
defenses. They were almost non-existent. It probably didn’t help that because
of Bronson and Dine they were two men down now. They saw James patrolling up
near the top ring of the onion shape. Keeping low, they avoided his round of
the ring and moved into position.
“Are
you sure about this,” Nyx asked her partner one last time.
They
sat near the top of the camp, hidden behind the metal layered fence with the concrete
pillars to each side. Dine and Pierce had already moved down into position,
avoiding the few patrolling guards.
“You
really think I’d ask you to do this if I thought it wasn’t worth a shot?”
She
looked into Bronson’s eyes, knowing he wouldn’t. Letting out a long sigh she
stood up and slid the strap holding her weapon off of her shoulder. Her
knapsack and flak vest followed next to it on the ground. Nyx handed Bronson
her sidearm.
“Let’s
get this over with.”
Nyx
stood up on the concrete backing of the fence; it wasn’t much room to work
with. The moon was almost full behind her, it was bright and the night was
clear. Nyx took a deep breath, praying Bronson was right and she wasn’t about
to get shot. Her fingers clenched the zipper on her vest and pulled it down
slowly. A loud piercing whistle escaped Bronson’s lips from behind Nyx, hidden
behind the wall.
Down
in the center of the onion, the walls hid three small fires that the majority
of the camp members had huddled around with light conversation. The Zhegans who
had been preparing to sleep off a long and stressful day. Griffin was sitting the furthest away from
the fires with one arm wrapped around Laura, holding the older woman close to
his body and his other arm holding Bronson’s rifle close to him. The camp
leader had a lot on his mind.
When
the whistle came they all turned, some jumped up thinking it was a warning of
danger. James hand went for his knife on his belt. Paul thought he heard
something from the front gate and pulled his pistol, walking up to the center.
The cause for alarm seemed to dissipate when they saw that it was just Nyx, no
weapons, and almost no clothes. They didn’t see Dine and Pierce sneaking in
over the wall on the backside with the stolen SUV keys; where Sam’s severed
head waited to greet them.
Nyx
was nervous. She closed her eyes and did her best to pretend she was just at
her other job. She was stripped down to the black underwear and vest that she
had placed back over her chest when she had discarded the rest of her clothes.
Her bare feet moved across the concrete, sending the rest of her body into the
familiar routine. Her body moved in the circle of the moon, slow and precise,
not to the normal beat she was used to. Her head dipped and she tried to smile
as she turned and lean back with a heavy shrug of her shoulders, letting the
best fall back behind her. She stretched out her hands and let herself be seen
in a bird like pose.
The
people below her were stunned, confused. Many of the men were captivated by what
they were seeing, something they hadn’t seen in almost two decades, and for
some, ever. The only person seemingly not enchanted or at least interested by
Nyx’s show was Griffin .
He pushed Laura off of him and pulled the rifle up from his side with anger
striking his face. Nyx came into view of the scope, he paused to aim.
Bronson
rose in time to peak over the wall, just enough to see what was about to happen
as Nyx danced beside him. He readied his pistol. Rising, he was about to send a
warning shot to the side of Griffin
to save his partner. That was when Griffin ’s
face split open. The two rounds from Dine’s assault rifle barely had a a muzzle
flash against the night sky, but the noise overtook everything else.
“fucking-“,
Bronson didn’t finish his own string of curse words. He pulled Nyx down, “get
dressed.”
Bronson
leapt over the wall as Laura let out unnerving scream. Griffin ’s body was still holding the rifle,
but the right side of his head had slid down, chunks of red in what was left of
his brown-grey beard. Griffin Macquire, Griff to his friends, fell over and
clumsily slid down to the next layer of ground. Laura screamed again and one of
the other women joined her.
“Stay
back,” Dine warned as he swung his weapon around and rested his sights on Paul,
who had the only other visible gun.
The
people of the camp held steady, watching Dine with looks of shock and anger
written on them. Bronson leapt down another ring of the quarry, sliding down
and kicking rocks and sand aside as he broke out into a sprint. His hand
wrapped around the barrel of his rifle, his girl Friday. He pulled it up quick
to his shoulder. Bronson took one last look over the crowd that wanted to move
towards their fallen leader’s body. They shouldn’t have had to see that.
Sheathing
his pistol to his side, Bronson headed up the ramp. He paused, thinking he
should say something to them, but he was a man of few words and he thought few
of those he spoke were actually inspirational. He made it to the top layer and
would jump the fence to join Dine and Pierce. There was a loud pop though and
he saw the slight flash of the muzzle from Dine’s assault rifle.
Bronson
turned. His pistol was drawn quickly and aimed. The bullet had struck Alex, a
slender pregnant woman with a small .38 in her hand. Her clothes were stained
with blood from her chest as she fell backwards, the small black pistol still
gripped tightly in her shaky grip. Her face was a tapestry of painful lines and
stretches. The shot was fatal. It killed her within seconds.
Bronson
froze. He wanted to run to her and help. He knew that look though, she was
gone. Horrified, the members of the camp watched as they lost their fourth
family members, all within two days. Their expressions faded. Anger crawled
over most of them in the presence of the two dead bodies.
They
turned. Before Bronson could get over the fence the camp goers were charging up
towards the two men. Their near-stampede came up the mound quick and Dine had
to help pull Bronson over the fence at the first few there had grabbed at his
legs. They were yelling at them both, calling for blood. The roar
of the mob picked up, yelling Alex’s and Griffin’s names. Nyx
peeked back over the wall while she re-attached her flak vest. She didn’t see
it at first, distracted by the raging mob, Alex’ body caused her to curse
loudly. No one heard her over the yelling though.
Bronson fell on top of Dine with a
grunt. He rolled off of the captain shot up drawing his pistol.
“We have to go,” Bronson shouted as
Pierce cranked up the SUV.
Dine didn’t argue. He aimed behind him
as he ran, spraying the chain-link fence and sheet metal with a line of bullets
that popped loudly into the night.
“Stop shooting and get in,” Bronson
ordered with a bite to his voice, still processing everything that was going
on. “Get ready to gun it, Pierce.”
They swung the doors to the SUV open.
At that same moment the fence broke as the mob pushed in on it.
“Kill them!”
“Get them!”
“Don’t let them get away!”
“That one killed Griffin !”
The mob rushed towards their SUV, which
was in the process of being stolen. When Dine and Bronson were halfway in, legs
still hanging out the sides squirming to get in, Pierce hit the gas. The tires
spun wildly. Dirt and rocks were kicked up back in the faces of the enraged
assailants. James raised a knife between his fingers. He tried to throw
it but people pushed him forward and on the sides. The small dagger made a
metallic tinc sound as it bounced off the back of the vehicle.
Paul was in the lead. He fired a shot
with his pistol that broke the back window. It hit the front windshield and
left a hole in the class that cracked it into a spider web. Pierce flinched and
leaned forward as the SUV shot forward. One of the camp members tried to jump
on the car, being thrown off instantly when it propelled forward. Pierce and
Dine had moved the table and concrete blocks that sat in front of the fence,
less for the vehicle to break through.
“GO!”
The tires of the black SUV pulled at the
ground with the engine screaming its grinding sound to all that would listen.
The chain broke, sending the two gates flying apart while the escape vehicle
bounced over the rocky terrain outside of the quarry. Dust raised up as the car
banked and shot around the side. Bronson opened the back doors.
“Slow down,” Bronson said as they got
closer.
The utility vehicle reduced its speed,
giving time for Nyx to run up to it. She jumped forward, grabbing on. Bronson
helped her in, holding tight to her arm.
“I’ve got you,” he assured her before
turning to Pierce. “Get us out of here.”
Pierce was behind that idea all the
way.. His foot pushed the gas pedal as far down as it would go. The group sped
off down the dirt road under the bright moon. There was a sense of relief,
leaving that camp.
Dine pulled up the map, the green lines
of the map the only light on inside the vehicle. Silence sat on the four
several minutes, all of them collecting their thoughts and coming down from the
excitement.
“Who shot her?”
Dine and Bronson turned to look at Nyx.
Pierce glanced up at her in the rearview mirror with a raised eyebrow after she
asked her question.
“I did,” Dine answered. He knew there
had only been one female that he shot. It was then that he realized she and Nyx
had spend a good bit of time together back at the camp.
“She was pregnant, why did you-“
Bronson cut her off, coming to Dine’s
defense.
“She had a gun pointed at me, Nyx.”
“She was going to shoot him,” Dine
said, answering for himself. “I had to take the value of our lives over the
fact that she was pregnant.”
Pierce opened his mouth but only the
‘p’ sound escaped. He was going to say that it was probably better for the baby
anyway. He stopped himself, realizing that she probably wouldn’t take that well
and not really wanting to get hit anymore this trip.
“You shouldn’t have shot her, there had
to be another way.”
“If I had hesitated your partner might
be dead, or at least hurt. I didn’t have the luxury of shooting to wound.”
“You,” Nyx teeth clenched, her hand was
on the back of the seat, ready to reach over at him. “You don’t give a fuck
about anything other than your damn mission.”
Bronson put a hand on her shoulder, trying
to calm her.
“The mission is to save the future of
our race, to save the planet we should all be living on. I think I have more to
worry about than the well being of one woman who was going to last out because
one of the men who-“
“Enough,” Bronson said finally. “You
had probable cause, she had a weapon aimed and most likely would have used it
had you not shot her.”
Nyx face was red but no one could see
it in the dark, she was angry.
“I hate to interrupt,” Pierce said,
even though it wasn’t true. “Where am I going?”
Dine looked at the map for a moment
longer, expanding the view to check where the roads went. After a moment he
looked over Pierce’s shoulder at the gas gage. They had put the two extra
containers of gas they found by the SUV in the back as well. He was doing some
of the math in his head.
“Let’s stick to the back roads. Double
back and take the next right, I’m not sure I want to risk the highway.”
Bronson gave it a moment before he said
his piece.
“I thought we agreed to try this plan
with as few casualties as possible. I know Griffin was aiming at Nyx,” Bronson’s words
were news to her, “but you didn’t say anything or try to wound him did you? You
saw him as a threat. Might even go as far as to say he wounded your pride a
little, catching your unit off guard and taking away your weapons. We were
basically his prisoners and you and I both knew he wasn’t just going to let us
walk out of there alive. Am I right?”
The map vanished and Dine closed the
computer on his forearm.
“I did what was efficient. Just like
with the pregnant woman-“
“Alex,” Nyx corrected.
“Just like with Alex. I had to
calculate the value of Nyx’ life over Griffin’s. I didn’t think they would give
me any trouble after that.”
“After your show of force,” Bronson
asked. “Yeah, I’ve never known anyone to fight back when they think we had
already killed two of their people and then their leader. Who know what Griffin told them when we
left?”
“They were dangerous, no matter the
truth.”
“Your military mindset could get a lot
more people killed.”
“Well Bronson, at least I don’t ignore
what I am soldier.”
He cut his eyes at Dine.
“Don’t be so hasty to compare us,
Captain.”
Dine turned away and stretched out
across the seat.
“We’ll see.”
The
group traveled east. The vehicles they were originally supposed to be making
this journey on now rested in a watery graveyard. Packed away and unassembled,
the ATV style rovers would have been able to cut out the need for most roads
all together and taken them on a path through the woods or dirt paths, keeping
them concealed from the rest of the world. It was a good plan for this
particular operation. Captain Dine didn’t let that little setback stop him. He
was determined. They would get there on foot in the allotted time if they had
to. Even if it was a little bit afterwards De Soto would still be proud of him;
as long as the mission was complete. He had decided that they could find a
working vehicle or use Pierce’s limited electrician skills to repair one if
need be. He was sure an opportunity would present itself, and as he knew fate
would have it, it had.
Their
near four hundred and ten mile journey had begun just off of the Smith Creek
State Wildlife Recreation Area. More accurately, they had landed in the water
almost a quarter mile away from there and began their actual walk on the shore
with its dead grass and stripped trees. They had run into the late Griffin
Macquire and his group about fifteen miles outside of some little place called
Yelm, at least that was what Dine’s map said. Everything was still decently
accurate but after twenty years some of the information had become obsolete and
borderlines were often hazy. They were back on track now though. Dine had
programmed their new route to their goal, which was still unknown to Bronson
and Nyx, and he had been giving very specific instructions on which exact
routes to take. Dine didn’t want any more hiccups like with Griffin and the
camp of Zhegans.
Now
the SUV
rambled down an old road that was littered with rocks, branches, and various
cans and broken bottles. Pierce had already been warned twice since getting on
the road about how much he needed to be careful, a flat tire would not do well
for making up lost time. Almost a full day had passed. Pierce and Dine had been
taking turns driving. Nyx didn’t know how to drive the older types of vehicles
and hadn’t had much training or experience operating machinery back in Elysium City
“This
may be a good spot to stop and camp. We need to stretch, eat, and refuel. This
looks like a good place.”
Dine
didn’t look at him as he spoke. He kept looking at the numbers on his computer
projected image, calculating.
“Alright,
we’ll break for camp and a three hour rest. Then we get back on the way.”
“Three
hours, how generous,” Pierce said turning the vehicle off.
“You
want to be sarcastic, I can make it two.”
Pierce
laughed off Dine’s threat. He was more smug now knowing that the captain was
angry and Bronson and not him. He didn’t mind taking advantage of that. Pierce
made a good lackey. He was the teacher’s pet when he was younger and a
brown-noser with his sarcastic remarks up until the apocalypse. Now he just
pissed everyone off and worked for the highest bidder. He wasn’t the best
head-hunter by any stretch of the imagination. Bronson’s skills at hunting
ghouls and navigating the perils of Earth made Pierce seem like a boy-scout
still working on his first merit badge.
Pierce
was more in tune with the business side of taking advantage of a dangerous
situation. He’d lost at least ten men he had hired to go with him and frankly,
he felt that was what they had been paid for. He acquired heads and items from
Earth that people didn’t have anymore and wanted. Personal effects had been a
specialty of his for a while, but those who really wanted their keepsakes
usually didn’t have the money to pay for them, at least not the prices he
quoted. That was when he realized how much the military was willing to pay for
someone who could operate outside of their normal parameters. General De Soto needed a snake in
the grass and Pierce had been happy to oblige.
He was
all smiles as he unloaded his gear. He was half tempted to whistle a tune as he
followed the others to the clearing, thinking about all of the credits that
would fill his bank chip when this was over. He didn’t whistle of course,
remembering Bronson’s warning about noise. He had a good feeling about the rest
of this trip though.
“Alright,”
Dine said getting everyone’s attention. “Nyx and Pierce, you’re on camp duty.
Clear this place out and get us a fire started. Use what we have left of the
MRE rations and take an inventory of what food and water we’ll have left after
tonight.” He looked at Bronson. “You and I will do a wide perimeter search
around the cam to avoid any problems like last time and look for possible food
and water sources.”
Bronson
nodded. Nyx didn’t like it though. She looked between her partner and Captain
Dine. She took a step forward, ready to dispute her instructions but Bronson
had already turned to head into the woods. Nyx paused, his fist clenched. Dine
gave her one last glance and motioned for her to get to it before adjusting the
strap on his rifle and following after Bronson.
Nyx
stood there staring into the woods for a moment, even after the two had
disappeared between the trees. The evening sun was cascading down on the
clearing. She looked up at it but not directly. Pulling the hood back up over
her to protect her face she pushed the thought that she’d hear gunfire coming
from the woods out of her mind. Bronson knew what he was doing.
“So I’m
guessing you want to do the cooking part?”
Nyx
almost didn’t register Pierce’s sexist comment at first. She turned back to him
and tilted her head slightly in confusion, her mind a jumble.
“Oh fuck
you.”
“What,”
Pierce laughed. “I was trying to give you the easy job. I’ll go out and get the
heavy wood while you clean up and cook.”
“Last
time we sent you out to get firewood you screamed like a child and alerted Griffin and his men. I
think maybe you should clean and cook.”
Pierce
shook his head.
“I think
Dine wanted us to stay together, we’ll both go. Lots of trees here, this won’t
be hard.”
Nyx
nodded and took one last look at the direction the other two had walked.
“Yeah,
lets’ go.”
Only a
few minutes later the pair had acquired enough firewood for the night and the
morning. They had done this mostly in silence but Nyx had begun to notice that
Pierce kept looking over at her with a half-smirk on his face. She sighed out
loud finally.
“What?
What are you grinning so stupidly about?”
“Oh,”
his smirk did in fact turn into a full-on grin now. “I was just thinking about
your little show earlier.”
“Seriously,”
she rolled her eyes. “You were supposed to be keeping an eye out for Dine, not
watching me dance.”
“Can you
blame me? I like to watch you dance.”
“Yeah I
know,” Nyx said picking up another stick. “I see you in the White Tiger on the
nights I perform. You never approach me about a private room though. I always
figured you for a lover of blonds with big fake tits.”
Pierce
just looked at her for a moment, he didn’t respond to her comment. He instead
cleared his throat and tied the bundle of sticks together with one of the vines
he ripped from the bottom of a near-by tree.
“Yeah
well, last night wasn’t your best dancing.”
Her head
shot around towards him.
“What?”
Pierce
laughed. Nyx wasn’t sure if she should be offended or not.
“I
didn’t have any music! I wasn’t prepared, Pierce,” she stopped herself. “You
know what? I’m not having this conversation with you. How did I let you sucker
me into this…” She trailed off as she picked up a couple more sticks, also
bundling the sticks together with a piece of vine that she cut off with her
machete.
Pierce
paused again. Bundle in his hands he stared at her as she finished up. His grin
was gone. His upper lip just playfully curled on the right side. His fingers,
sticking out of the fingerless leather gloves tightened around the sticks as he
sat there pondering. Nyx was about to ask if he was ready to go until she
noticed his stare.
“What is
it now? Something else offensive you forgot to say?”
“I don’t
get you,” Pierce said. “You’re one of the most beautiful women in Elysium City
Nyx
didn’t answer him immediately, she wasn’t sure how. She could have easily told
him off right there or given him a hundred reasons why what he said was wrong.
She realized that a lot of those words would have made her a hypocrite.
“Pierce,
I’m not going to lie and pretend I completely understand it myself, but I sure
as hell know you couldn’t.”
Nyx
turned away from Pierce. She wasn’t sure if she was more disgusted by the man
or somewhat endeared that he had the capability of thinking about others than
himself for five minutes. She threw her bundle over her shoulder and began to
walk back towards the camp. Nyx heard him come after her, also throwing his
bundle over his shoulder.
“Don’t
get me wrong,” he continued without invitation. “I was surprised Bronson’s plan
worked. At first, I thought he was just trying to see if you’d dance for us.”
Her
teeth clenched, “Bronson hasn’t even seen me dance before. I don’t think he
cares about that.”
“What?
Partnering up with a hot thing like you, our here in the midst of danger and
he’s never even gone to the club just to see what you look like under all of
these layers?”
“I
didn’t say he hadn’t seen me naked, I said he hasn’t ever seen me dance
before.”
Pierce
raised an eyebrow questioningly.
“First
time we met was a fight in the club, I was already topless.” She shook her head
before he could even ask, “long story and not one for you.”
“Fucking
tease,” he said with a smile.
For some
reason, Nyx laughed at that as they walked back.
No comments:
Post a Comment