Back up on both feet now, Nyx watched it for a moment, wondering if it might suddenly return to life.
It remained still, though, so she stepped up to it and inverted her blade in her hands before bringing the point of the sword down and stabbing it through its head. The body of the mutant shuddered for a second, its legs once again twitching madly before it fell lifeless.
Satisfied that it was dead, she placed her foot on its head and withdrew her sword before stepping back. She let out a breath and relaxed before turning back to Nero and the others. As she turned, Nero suddenly fell to the floor, having finally freed himself entirely from the webs.
‘Oof,’ he cried as he rolled over and got up. ‘You killed it!’ he remarked on seeing her walking over to him.
‘Yep, it’s dead,’ she said, feeling very satisfied with herself and smiling at Nero.
‘Excellent, come on, let’s get these two free,’ he said, pointing at Cryptus and Runt.
‘That would be nice,’ Cryptus said. ‘Now I know what a fly feels like.’
Nyx stepped up and used her sword to slice the webbing while Nero pulled him free. He was soon on the ground and trying to pull off the strands of webbing that were still attached to him while she and Nero moved onto Runt.
They were halfway through when they heard a bang and a clattering of metal, followed by a roar.
Nyx looked over at Nero, and he glanced back at her.
‘Let’s work faster, shall we?’ he said.
Nyx nodded and started being a little less refined with her cuts, aiming to just get Runt down from the webbing, even if a load of it was still attached to him. She still had loads of it trailing off her coat, legs and hair, after all.
Seconds later, Runt was free as more noises sounded from the far side of the room.
‘There, the light. I think there’s a hole. Maybe we can get out that way,’ Nyx said and jogged over to it with the others behind her. There was one other door out of here, and Nero brought up the rear with his gun trained on that door.
Nyx reached the light source, which was a large crack in the side of the room. It was easily big enough to climb into, but there was all kinds of rubbish and debris in there.
‘Shit, can we get out through there?’ she said, looking into the hole. Runt was beside her and looking in also.
‘Leave it to Runt. Runt clear path for friends,’ he said before quickly climbing inside.
Now smashes and bangs were coming from this hole as well as Runt went to work. Cryptus stood next to Nyx, looking into the hole. Another boom and roar made Nyx look up. Nero was standing close, his eyes and gun fixed on the far door. Nyx looked at it, too, as nervous energy filled her body, expecting the door to slam open at any moment and that thing to charge in. Could they deal with it? she wondered.
‘Come in, come in, Runt clear path,’ the mutant called out from the hole. Cryptus looked up at her.
‘Ladies first?’
‘Piss off, get in there,’ she said with a shake of her head.
‘You don’t need to tell me twice,’ Cryptus said and stepped into the crack. Two seconds, later he was out of sight as Nero turned to her.
‘Go, get in there,’ he said. ‘I’ll be right behind you.’
‘You’d better be,’ she said, and reluctantly pushed herself into the hole, stepping over girders and squeezing through gaps in the metal before needing to crouch and crawl under some more debris. She looked up to see Cryptus and Runt a few meters further on, standing in the yawning entrance to the large crack that Nero and Nyx had originally entered through, though, they had failed to see this crawl space when they had first arrived here.
Nyx smiled at knowing where they were.
Several loud metallic bangs followed by two, and then a third shotgun blast wiped the smile from her face.
‘Nero?’ she called out.
Chapter 5
Nero
‘Go, get in there,’ Nero said. ‘I’ll be right behind you.’
‘You’d better be,’ Nyx said before she squeezed into the hole with a troubled expression on her face.
Nero watched her go and then backed into the hole. He started to turn only for a loud bang to sound in the room. He looked back to see the large door open wide, and the enormous mutant ogre standing just inside the room, panting, its face bloody on one side.
Nero froze, wondering if the creature might not see him, allowing him to retreat once it had left the room.
The ogre scanned around and spotted Nero crouched in the crack in the wall. It roared and ran at him.
‘Shit,’ Nero muttered to himself as he raised his shotgun. The creature was as mad as all hell, and probably not really thinking straight as it ran right for him without any real acknowledgement that he was pointing a gun at it. Most of these kinds of mutants knew what a gun was and would try to avoid it, but not this one. Nero aimed, taking his time, lining up the shot to get the best result he could.
When the creature was close, close enough to pretty much guarantee a hit and to blast it with as much force as possible, Nero fired.
His shotgun bucked like a wild horse in his hands as it went off. Racking the foregrip, Nero fired again in quick succession. The mutant dropped to the floor in a mass of flailing limbs. but was up and lunging for him in a second, its head surging forwards to take a big nasty bite from him.
Nero fired once more at point-blank range right in the things head, making it flail backwards and drop to the floor.
Nero racked the grip and waited.
‘Nero?’ Nyx called out.
‘I’m alive; hold on,’ he said, watching the mutant. But it didn’t move. After several more seconds, Nero felt sure it was dead, then backed into the crack and started to make his way through, eventually reaching the crawlspace and seeing Nyx waiting for him.
‘You shit, you scared me,’ she said.
‘I scared myself,’ he said. ‘I got it. though.’ Nyx offered her hand to help pull him through. He took it, only to feel something grasp his ankle.
‘Oh, fuck,’ Nero said before the thing pulled on his leg.
‘What? Oh, shit,’ Nyx said as Nero was yanked back into the hole. Nyx grabbed him with both hands, dropping her sword as Runt jumped forward and took hold of him as well.
‘I thought you’d killed it?’ Nyx yelled.
‘Aaaagh, so did I,’ Nero said as Runt and Nyx held his two arms. Nero kicked with his free foot, trying to hit the thing that was holding him, but he wasn’t sure where it was and ended up kicking both himself and the creature, as well as the wall a few times. One of those kicks must have connected, though, as suddenly the thing roared and let go.
Nyx and Runt hauled him out, down off the metal, and onto the hard packed dusty orange ground. Getting to his feet, Nero turned and went to grab his gun that was on the floor near to him where he’d dropped it.
Looking up, he saw the ogre forcing its way out of the hole, its face just a ruin of blood and gore with only one good eye left that swivelled about madly. Standing between him and the ogre, Nyx flicked her sword up off the floor with her foot, catching the handle before swinging her arm back and stabbing the blade forward, driving it into the thing’s brain.
The mutant ogre shuddered and died, falling to the floor as Nyx withdrew her blade before swinging it up and over her, bringing it down on the mutant's neck with a thunk. The ogre’s head rolled away from its body as blood poured from the wound.
Nyx turned to him with a wry smile on her face. ‘Saved your ass yet again, Nero. Are you losing your touch?’
Nero smiled. Nyx winked and stepped up to him, allowing him to wrap his arm around her. ‘You can save my life anytime you like,’ he said.
‘You charmer,’ she said with a smile and gave him a kiss on the cheek and a squeeze of his bum with her hand.
‘Thanks for the help in there,’ Cryptus said, I wouldn’t have liked to have run into that thing without you guys.’
‘My pleasure, but I think I st
ill owe you one for helping me at the Watchtower,’ Nero said. ‘I would never have escaped that cell if you hadn’t found me.’
‘Actually, you can thank Runt for that. He was in the garage when Rex brought you back. He saw you that night and told me you’d been captured.’
‘Aaah, well, thank you, Runt. I wondered how you knew I was in there.’
‘Runt happy to help, hmm, yes,’ the small mutant said with a yellow smile.
Nyx stepped up to him, knelt down to put herself at his height and wrapped her arms around him. ‘Thank you, Runt,’ she said.
Runt flushed and chuckled nervously as Nyx let him go. He looked quite embarrassed by the whole thing.
‘I’m not sure my debt to you has been fully paid, however,’ Nero said, feeling like Cryptus had done much more for him than he had done for Cryptus. This man had really put himself on the line for him back at the Watchtower, so he really did feel like he owed him one. ‘So, if you need any help with anything, we’d be happy to do whatever we can,’ he offered. He looked down at Nyx. ‘You agree, right?’ Nero asked her.
‘Uh, yeah, sure,’ she said, but there was hesitation in her voice, and she didn’t seem as keen as he felt. He wondered what was wrong, but now wasn’t the time to ask.
He looked back up at Cryptus. Out here in the sun, he was finally able to get a better look at him. He looked pretty much as he had done back at the Watchtower, wearing his long hooded cape with well-used boots visible beneath it. Only Cryptus’ eyes were actually visible in the shadows of his hood, as the lower part of his face was covered in a mask that seemed to be assembled from bits of junk he’d found in the wastes.
Cryptus frowned, but then nodded at the pair of them. ‘Our vehicle is up there,’ he said, pointing up behind him, a good way around from where Nero had parked his charger. ‘Come and meet us and follow us back to our camp. I think I know how you can help me.’
Nero nodded. ‘Be right with you,’ he said and turned away, aiming to walk back up the slope. Nyx followed and kept to herself as they climbed out the rocky valley. It wasn’t too difficult to get back up, but it didn’t really lend itself to holding any kind of conversation either.
Since leaving the Watchtower behind, they’d discussed a few elements of what had happened over those few days, but they had not really spoken about Cryptus. Instead, Nero was more interested in Nyx’s past and how she’d survived living there.
Also, she’d always seemed neutral on Cryptus and his role in their liberation of the Watchtower. Seeing her express some doubts was new to him.
They soon reached the top of the slope and found their car waiting for them untouched and alone on the ridge.
There wasn’t a camp for miles around here.
Nero turned and reached back, pulling Nyx up over the last rock. She stood and brushed herself down before looking up at him with a smile.
‘So, what’s up?’ he asked her.
‘What do you mean? Nothing’s up,’ she said.
‘You didn’t seem that happy about me offering help to Cryptus, so, I was wondering if there was something wrong.’
‘Aaah,’ she said. She sighed to herself and seemed to think it through before looking back up at him. ‘Look, don’t take this the wrong way, but I’m not sure I trust him,’ she said.
‘Why not, he’s proven himself,’ Nero said, not really sharing her feelings on him.
‘Yes, but… I don’t know, there’s just something about him, something I can’t really put into words. It’s just a feeling I have. I know, I couldn’t be much more vague, but just be careful, okay. You are right, of course, we do owe him, so, I understand wanting to pay him back. We’ll see, I guess,’ she said.
Nero pulled her in for a hug. ‘I understand. I don’t fully trust anyone in the wasteland apart from you. I certainly don’t trust Cryptus as much as you, but, as you said, he did save my life and helped free you, so… Well, we’ll see how this goes,’ won’t we…’
‘We will,’ she said.
They climbed into the charger. Nero inserted and turned the key, bringing the beast to life with a shudder of the engine block that protruded from the top of the hood in front of them. Nero revved it a couple of times, enjoying the throaty purr of the engine before dropping it into gear, releasing the handbrake, and setting off with a wheel spin. Nero guided the charger along the edge of the valley, soon bringing Cryptus’ vehicle into view. It was some kind of custom-made dune buggy with large wheels and bodywork that consisted only of roll bars. Cryptus sat on an elevated seat, looking like some kind of royalty of the wasteland while Runt sat within the buggy itself at the steering wheel. Both of them wore dirty looking goggles. The buggy set off as Nero and Nyx approached, allowing them to fall in behind. Heading north, they drove over a series of gentle rises and dips along the side of the valley that stretched off into the distance. They travelled for much of the day, speaking little and getting some rest as they were both tired after their adventure in the wreaked destroyer, and when night fell, they found a suitably hidden spot close to some rocks that they could spend the night at.
They sat around the fire cooking their food, talking through what they had been doing since leaving the Watchtower. Cryptus seemed genuinely interested in their adventures.
‘So, how about you?’ Nero asked. ‘You said you looted the Watchtower after we’d gone.’
‘I did. The place was chaos for a while, so, I took advantage of that and went straight for Rex’s quarters, picking up that revolver in the process. I didn’t stay long, though. Things were getting a little out of hand in there with people fighting for the privilege of being the new leader of the Watchtower. It’s why I was able to get away with a few choice items. They were too busy fighting for power to notice me. We pretty much went straight back to our base following events at the Watchtower,’ he said.
‘And that’s where we’re going now?’ Nero asked. They were sitting between their two cars on one side and some large rocks on the other with a small fire going in a shallow pit they’d dug. They’d extinguish it shortly as it had the potential to attract the undead in the night, but for now, as he chewed on the last few scraps of meat they’d cooked, it was keeping them warm. Nyx lay on her side, her head on his lap, using her long coat as a blanket to ward off the chill night air.
During the day, the wasteland was hot and unforgiving, but it always cooled down at night, becoming quite chill sometimes. The Cataclysm had ruined the weather patterns of the planet, making it a fairly constant temperature wherever you went. Nero had heard tales that the poles were still cold and covered in ice, but that was a long way from here.
‘It is,’ Cryptus said. ‘You’ll see, it’s maybe another two days’ ride to get there.’
Cryptus was right. They spent the next day driving north, leaving the end of the valley behind in the late morning and aiming slightly to the west side of true north, moving across a mainly flat, but rocky desert. Out here, there weren’t many well-used tracks, so the going was a little slower as Nero guided his charger through the landscape, trying to keep an eye on what was coming up. Runt seemed to know the lay of the land well, however, and drove on with confidence. Nero followed but took nothing for granted.
They bedded down for one more night. Nero attempted to question Cryptus further about what they would be helping him with, but Cryptus kept brushing the questions off, saying that now wasn’t the time and there would be a time and place to discuss this once they were back at the base.
Midway through the next day, Nero spotted a hill in the distance. They were headed right for it. Was this Cryptus’ base? Off to their far right, smoke rose into the azure heavens from beyond the horizon to fill the eastern sky with a black and yellow haze that did not look at all healthy.
Nero knew that the landscape they were in and driving around was, once upon a time, the bottom of the seabed before the Cataclysm, before the fires of that day burnt away the oceans, or, most of them. What had once been islands in the sea no
w became curious flat-topped mountains, sometimes with buildings and settlements on top of them. The small mountain that rose up before them was one of these, and they were headed right for it. Eventually, the road rose up, and Runt guided them to a track that had been carved into the side of the hill through regular use, rising up one side of the rise until it finally crested to the top of the former island. The plateau was very level and flat, with only a few man-made structures to give it any height. Runt led Nero over the island, across what seemed to have been some kind of airfield that was now cracked and dusty. The buildings off to the side of the landing strips were surrounded with two rows of chain-link fencing, which looked to have been here a while, but it had also obviously been added to and repaired many times over the years. Having only seen a few undead scattered through the wasteland during their trip, Nero was slightly surprised to see a good deal more up here.
He guessed there were maybe forty or more just from what he could see right that moment. Most of them wandered around the edges of the fencing in their usual aimless way.
‘There’s a few more zombies up here,’ Nyx said, voicing Nero’s thoughts.
‘I noticed,’ Nero answered her.
‘I have no idea what that means, though,’ Nyx said.
‘Me neither.’
Runt led them around towards what looked like a well-fortified gate, with a lot of spiked barriers and cars around it. In order to get close to the gate, you needed to wind your way through a zigzag of obstacles, all of which had been modified with spikes to catch the mindless zombies before they got close to the entrance. It seemed to be working, too, as there were countless impaled walking corpses stuck on these spikes, fruitlessly trying to reach for Nero and Nyx as they threaded their way into the final stretch towards the gate. Inevitably, there was one lucky, or unlucky, depending on how you looked at it, zombie that had somehow made it through. It had been standing at the gates wanting to get in, but with the approach of the two vehicles, it turned and started to stumble towards them. Runt jumped out of the buggy with a hatchet that glinted in the sunlight and smashed the creature in the side of its head with it before landing two more hammer blows after it hit the floor. Runt looked around before opening the outer gate and driving through, letting Nero follow into the area between the two gates in the double row of fencing. There were more spikes along the edges in here, but they were free of any undead. Runt closed the first gate before opening the second and driving into the base proper. After Runt closed the second gate, he walked past their car on his way to the buggy.
Wasteland Road Knights Trilogy Page 19