“Now don’t be angry, gentlemen.” His eyes opened and he regarded the three of them with the utmost respect. “I only just found out. The moment I heard, I sent out eight people after them. Don’t worry, we’re going to get them.”
“These two demon hunters are important to the master. We can’t let them escape no matter the cost. But we don’t have enough people.” Longhorn leveled an order directly at the outpost leader. “I need you to send out more men – and you will go personally.”
This is what Hydra was waiting for. He shrunk as though he could not resist. “Of course, of course!”
“Quickly!” Vulture was clearly impatient. “This is the last time. The LAST fucking time! If these rats get away again because you were dragging your ass, I’ll make you pay! Do you hear me?”
Stranger Black interjected. “Alright. Brothers, we can’t waste time here either. We have a lead. We have to follow it.”
He watched the mutants leave, sneering and laughing at them once they’d gone. Leonine then approached, clad in armor, and addressed him respectfully.
“We’ve got four hundred handpicked men ready to go.”
“Let’s go.”
Hydra and Leonine left for where the soldiers waited. They were arrayed in a clean formation, wearing good leather and breathing masks. Each one was equipped with a modified rifle or powerful crossbow and had a broadsword or machete strapped to his back. Like statues, they stood without moving, indomitable like a proper army.
“These fighters are the most elite in the entire outpost.” Hydra walked ahead with Leonine at his side. As the outpost’s leader marched before the formation, his eyes filled with pride and arrogance. “I’ve been preparing for this moment for years.”
They weren’t many, but his people were heavily equipped and fought like devils. They were no less destructive than the sweepers themselves. Most importantly, these fighters were handpicked by Hydra. They were loyal and answered only to him.
He only had one command – follow him even into the depths of hell.
The fiends those mutants brought with them didn’t number over three hundred. Even in a straight fight, it wasn’t guaranteed they’d win, much less when they didn’t know they were about to get stabbed in the back. His enemy had nowhere to go!
“Move out!”
Not long after the sweepers left, Hydra gathered his people and crossed the valley into the treacherous oasis. When they reached the wilderness-devoured ruins, it was like a maze that stretched out before them.
It was a labyrinth of death, one that’d taken many lives. And it was their best shot! Hydra had a chance to kill his overlords in one fell strike. And yet, he felt a sense of disquiet.
Strange… why would he feel so anxious? He thought for a moment and realized that it’d all been too easy. So easy that it was starting to seem dangerous!
70 Sudden Changes
Ten years in the Wastelands had tempered Hydra. He had risen from useless scavenger to outpost ruler, but it was a long road. To make it this far, he’d needed more than brute strength and luck. He had relied on his ambition, intelligence and keen awareness of the dangers around every corner.
Just as he was about to enter the ruins, Hydra hesitated. His intuition was warning him.
Danger lived in every corner of these dilapidated ruins. It came in the form of deadly plants and animals, but now there was something else. It would be wise to wait a moment and see what may be lying in wait.
“Brother!” Snaketooth made his way to Hydra and spoke anxiously with him. “What are you waiting for? Leonine and our troops have almost surrounded the sweepers, who are completely absorbed with finding the demon hunters. Now is the best time to launch our sneak attack. If we wait any longer, it’s going to cost us.”
Now was not the time for indecision. If Hydra was too slow to act, the demon hunters and his most trusted men would be left on their own. They were capable fighters, but not capable enough to fend off nearly three hundred savage sweepers.
The bow was drawn, the arrow nocked – it was too late to call it off now.
Once the fight started, it would serve no purpose for Hydra to hide. Being overly cautious was more risky than charging ahead with everything he had. He had the advantage in numbers and his men were among the best – he didn’t see how they could lose!
“Listen up!” Hydra cast aside his distracting thoughts, hopping up onto a boulder and addressing his warriors. “This fight is integral to the survival of our outpost. If we win, our home will finally belong to us. We will drown in food, water, and women. But if we lose, we die together, to the last man, do you hear me? Losing is not an option!”
“Yeah!” Several shouts of agreement rose from the crowd.
“Onward!”
Hydra led Snaketooth, Leonine, and his crack troops into the ruins, following a safe path laid out by his brother that would lead them to the rear of the sweeper company. With every step closer to their target, the thirst for blood increased.
They could hardly be called human. They were more like a wolf pack with the scent of blood in their noses, hunting down their prey.
Hydra pushed everything else to the back of his mind. His every thought was fixated on destroying the sweepers and the mutant bastards that led them!
Then, a scene he hadn’t expected was unveiled before his eyes!
They came around a bend in the ruins leading to the ambush site, but instead of seeing what they expected, they were met with the image of three hundred sweepers aiming guns their way. They appeared to have been waiting.
Hydra felt his heart seize. “Snaketooth, what’s going on?”
There was no answer.
Crack!
A sense of impending danger flooded Hydra’s body as a sniper’s bullet whistled through the air from hundreds of meters away. Though he’d known something was off and his reactions were fast, he still couldn’t avoid it entirely. He dodged to one side and the shot tore through his armor to embed itself in his abdomen.
A sniper!
Hydra’s face was painted with absolute shock and deep in his eyes was incredulous disbelief. The sweepers didn’t have snipers. They could have only come from the outpost. The fifteen snipers had been chosen by his own brother, who he trusted explicitly.
Then it was obvious. It must mean…
As Hydra dodged the assassin’s bullet, Snaketooth pulled an envenomed blue dagger from its sheath. Like a bolt of lightning, he lashed out, his dagger – toxic as his namesake – aimed at Hydra’s chest.
“Snaketooth! You treacherous fuck!”
Anyone in the outpost could have betrayed him and Hydra would not have been surprised. Anyone except Snaketooth, his own brother.
How many times had they shared tragedy? Helped each other through life and death situations? How many times had they escaped calamity together?
Why? Why?!
Hydra’s first reaction wasn’t despair, but pain. He couldn’t believe it, or maybe he refused to believe it. The proof was right in front of him; Snaketooth’s surprise attack was bearing down, his murderous intent revealed. There was no question about it, as his brother’s deadly weapon affirmed. A single nick from the envenomed dagger and he wouldn’t be leaving here alive.
“Snaketooth! Why?”
With a mad roar, he ripped his saber free and knocked aside Snaketooth’s attack. As he hesitated to counterattack, another stifling sense of jeopardy washed over him. A terrible breeze came up from behind that made him shudder.
Hydra felt the shadow falling over him before he saw it.
Leonine’s two-handed sword came from behind, with all of the slaver’s force behind it. The attack came from the side, chopping towards his waist in an attempt to cut Hydra in half.
First the sniper. Then Snaketooth in front and Leonine from behind. One sneak attack after another, all in order to cut him down!
But Hydra was no simple man. He fended off Snaketooth’s deadly onslaught and was still able to swin
g his sword around to ward off Leonine’s strike. But in his haste, he couldn’t get a tight grip on his weapon and the shock of the slaver’s blow tore the skin of his hands. He was hit so hard that he was knocked back and hit the ground with bone-jarring force. Already, Hydra was sorely wounded.
Everything happened in the space of a breath. Hydra’s crack troops were cast into turmoil, shocked by the sudden coup. Even these elite warriors were at a complete loss.
“You two…”
Leonine had betrayed him as well? Bastard! When?!
Hydra’s leverage over Leonine only worked because he knew the slaver had a weakness, a weak spot he could exploit. He thought he had Leonine well in hand. How could he even think of betrayal? Did he not care what happened to his wife and children?!
“Surprised? You were so sure you could manipulate people through their weaknesses, but you never imagined someone would use the same method on you.” Snaketooth’s sinister features broke into a smirk when he looked at Leonine. “It looks like your slave trader trusts me more in the end. After all once you’re gone, I will rule the Greenland Outpost and I will treat its people better than you ever did.”
“That’s why you betrayed me? So you could lead?”
Hydra, always so fierce and brutal, was like a child whose last toy had been taken away. He still couldn’t fathom if any of this was real. Why would his brother do this? Why would he?
“Think of it like this: Greenland Outpost is a jewel in the Wastelands and to acquire any jewel requires a price.” Fiery passion burned in Snaketooth’s dark eyes. “I swore my allegiance to the master years ago. I love you, brother… I really do. But your greed and ambition impede the master’s plan. The only option left is to bring you the death you deserve!”
His brother had been bought by that fucking demon coward! When did he steal my family from me!?
“What the fuck are you assholes gaping at?” Hydra roared. “Kill them! Kill all of them!”
Yet none of his warriors hurried to Hydra’s aid. Suddenly, plumes of sand were kicked up from the ground and amidst a tumultuous wind, an enormous black silhouette emerged from behind one of the ruined buildings.
It was an airship, black as night.
As it came around and oriented its broadside towards them, the sound of its heavy guns whirring filled the air. It spat fire and bullets like an apocalyptic monsoon that swept over the tight-knit formation of warriors. In the blink of an eye, dozens fell to the ground, screaming as hot lead ripped through them.
The rest fled for cover and started to fire wildly.
“Kill them!”
Three hundred sweepers opened fire. Greenland Outpost’s greatest warriors were mowed down ruthlessly.
Crack!
Snipers began to fire again. Hydra pitched and rolled to avoid their bullets, but traded one danger for another.
From his left and right, Snaketooth and Leonine caught him in a pincer attack. Leonine brought his sword down towards Hydra’s skull which Hydra knocked away with one hand. But the dual daggers of a treacherous snake were coming his way.
Hydra was forced to stagger backwards.
Leonine came at him again with his enormous sword. Clang! The outpost leader was knocked several meters away.
Individually, Snaketooth and Hydra were quite strong, and the two of them together were almost more than Hydra could handle. What’s more, snipers had him in their sights. All of the outpost’s snipers were control metahumans, masterful sharpshooters, so Hydra knew it was only a matter of time before one of them got him.
“So this is how you plan to kill me?” Hydra pulled the eyepatch off of his head. His demon-like gleaming red eye fixed the two men with a glare. “You’re digging your own graves!”
Leonine scowled, brows knit tight.
“Don’t worry.” Snaketooth knew his brother. “His right eye has night vision and can track bullets. But it doesn’t do well in the light.”
Hydra’s eye was not dissimilar to a snake’s or lizard’s. He could pick his prey out in pitch darkness and follow the fastest objects. These were Hydra’s greatest abilities and he could rely on them to help him dodge the hail of bullets and track attacks to minimize their damage.
Crack! Bang!
Two more sniper shots sounded, but Hydra nimbly dodged them both. He raised his sword and went at them like a force of evil.
“Close your eyes!”
Snaketooth pulled something out of his pocket and threw it. Leonine had just enough time to cover his face before whatever it was exploded in mid-air. As if fireworks had detonated, a dazzling light lit the area, so bright that it felt like a dagger had been plunged into Hydra’s snake eye. He let out a shrill scream.
This was their chance!
Snaketooth, seizing the moment, rushed forward with his daggers aimed at his brother. Although Hydra was blinded, he dodged instinctively. One of the daggers missed his throat, but the other left a jagged wound along his chest.
Instantaneously, Hydra felt his body start to numb. He knew his brother was a master of poisons – his despicable toxins had entered his bloodstream.
“Snaketooth!” He screamed all of his rage and sorrow. Hysterical, he shouted, “You fucking disappointment! Die!”
Too fast! A steak of cold light flashed – Hydra had thrown his sword and Snaketooth was too slow to get out of the way. It buried itself in the traitor’s chest, bursting out from his back and pinning him to the ground.
Crack!
Another sniper bullet tore into Hydra’s abdomen and burst out the other side clean through. Hydra could feel the cold hand of death reaching for him, getting closer by the second. His plan was a complete failure. Without even thinking, he turned and ran.
Leonine rushed to Snaketooth’s side to help him up, but the moment he saw the man’s wounds, he knew he was beyond saving.
Fuck! Leonine’s face darkened. He dropped Snaketooth and gave chase.
Snaketooth’s eyes stared blankly at the ground while blood pooled beneath him. He hadn’t expected he’d be the one to lose. A bone-deep cold started from his limbs and crawled deeper in. His mind grew hazy. All of a sudden, it was like he was a boy again, hiding in a hole in the ground with his brother trying to escape the cold.
Ten years as a scavenger. Ten years of hardships and tragedy which the two of them faced together.
Misery, darkness, misfortune, cruelty… these plagues covered every corner of the Wastelands. They suffered all manner of torture and humiliation as they built their lives, promising to change everything.
The two brothers were tenacious, clinging to life and making themselves stronger. Over time, they earned a reputation, earned status. They gained power.
The elder brother had always been the stronger of the two. He was more driven and energetic, but also crueler. As his power grew, he lost more and more of his humanity and his mind became twisted. He never sensed him and his brother drifting apart.
Their natures had always been different. After Hydra survived their hardships, he was determined to repay the torment on the wilds ten times over – a hundred times! He tortured slaves and did unthinkable things. He was a man mad with vengeance. Snaketooth wanted revenge, too. But what he wanted was to wipe out the things that made life hard, not add to them. The mysterious stranger saw that in him, which was why he approached Snaketooth in secret five years ago.
He adored the master’s strength and wisdom, so he subscribed to his ideals. In all the wastelands, there was only one person who could change everything, and that was the master! This putrid world they’d inherited needed someone like the master to save it.
That’s why Snaketooth was determined to do whatever was asked of him. He had no interest in leading the Outpost, a fact his poor brother would never understand.
As death claimed Snaketooth, he did not regret his actions. Only his failure.
71 Crisis
The sun burned high in the sky, hot enough to roast a man. At the hottest point of the day,
nine people were picking their way through the ruins, like a line of ants scrambling over piles of stone and twisted metal.
Cloudhawk still felt like something wasn’t right. It was strange. He felt uncomfortable from the very start, like something bad was just around the corner.
Originally, their group had boasted eleven people. It included Cloudhawk, the Queen, and Mantis of course. In addition there were those from the Outpost: Snaketooth, Artemis and the teams they commanded. At this moment, Mantis had vanished somewhere into the wilds in typical fashion and Snaketooth had yet to return after leaving to guide Hydra.
“They’re so goddamn slow! Can they just fuckin' take the bait already?” Artemis impatiently swung her right arm, smashing the melon hammer she bore against a wall and smashing it into rubble.
Cloudhawk couldn’t help but shoot her a glance. Typically, women were lower than men on the social ladder in the Wastelands. They had naturally weaker constitutions and were less inclined to bravery. But nothing was absolute and there were many exceptions– Artemis was one such outlier. All of Hydra’s elite soldiers were special, but this woman was unique above them all.
She was attractive in face and figure, but more than that, her equipment made her all the more striking. She had a three pointed shield attached to the bracer of her left arm, and used her right arm to wield a metallic melon hammer with ease.
The shield was large, thick, and peppered with metal spikes. Its pointed base was as sharp as any blade. The hammer’s business end was round and larger than Cloudhawk’s head. It was streaked with red and didn’t seem to have ever been washed. He wondered how many bones it’d broken, how many skulls it’d crushed.
For all their weight and dramatic appearance, they hung off Artemis’s petite form, looking particularly out of place.
She felt Cloudhawk’s eyes on her and knocked her iron mallet against the shield, eliciting a clang like dull thunder. “Hey little brother, my toys ain’t bad, right? Wanna play with ‘em?”
The Wastelander Page 52