“I got the back of your head. Don’t worry about a junkie Renegade,” Doze said.
“Just keep an eye on the back of my head, not my ass, Doze. I can still break you.”
“That’s nasty, Keisha, You’re one of the guys.” Doze protested.
“It’s the end of the world, and my breasts designate my real gender, not my metaphorical one. Just keep your delusion going, and we’ll be fine.”
“That Keisha’s hardcore,” Borlund smiled and told Raziel.
“Stop ‘crushing’. She doesn’t do that romance thing. Why do you think she’s on the team?”
“Hey Raziel.”
“What, Mike?”
“So we sling these things and electrocute these junkies?”
“You shock ‘em unconscious as the HDs clear our path.” Borlund interrupted.
“Wicked nice. We should get a supply of these mech-bugs.”
“Borlund made them. Be nice, and he might supply us,” Raziel said.
“You know I made these things to get Klannis,” Borlund said.
“Yes, I do, but since you already got her, what else are you going to do with all that knowledge? We are partners, right? Don’t let your mind go to waste. Fighters fight, scientists direct them where to fight. We’re their team’s coach.”
“I’m not a scientist. I kick ass as much as anybody.”
“Did you invent these HDs and shock weevils?” Raziel rhetorically asked. “You’re just a participating scientist. Don’t be ashamed of that label. A scientist keeps humanity ticking to the next day.”
Borlund had to contemplate what Raziel told him. He did combat and made things to aid him in that combat. He guessed necessity was the mother, but he just made things. He had obviously shared more with Raziel than he ever thought.
“I just make what I need. You’ll have to show me the scientist protocol.”
“Just invent shit that works and understand why it works. It’s that simple,” Raziel said. “You’re already there. You just didn’t name it.”
Keisha held up her fist to stop them.
“I just saw a reflection on the left of that bonfire. They’re poor at hiding behind the couch for the surprise party.”
“That means they can see us as well. Scatter out to the fields and go tactical,” Raziel directed.
“Kinda tough going stealth in an old dead cornfield,” Mike said.
“The reason you scatter is to make their targeting difficult, Genius. Hide among the dead standing stalks,” Keisha said. “We have some scary HD firepower here. Those murder-bots will keep them occupied while we shock them. It’s fish in the barrel time.”
Borlund transformed 10 of the HDs to be combat-ready in front and looked to Raziel.
“What she said.”
Raziel knew what to do.
“Okay, turn on your inner comms and spread-out. When the HDs engage, cross-bow’em, and throw the weevils. This should be clockwork, but this planet’s clock has been broken for years. Expect the unexpected and move-out,”
The BoltLayers spread across the fields in a staggered formation and stealthily followed the HDs.
“Have they done this before?” Borlund asked Raziel.
“Training drills, that’s why they execute smoothly.”
“Your team is well organized.”
“I call them my Covaelant Crushers. It’s a science thing. Just have those Hunter-Destroyers ready to set-off those deadly fireworks.”
“We’re going to do this two-fold. The secondary loader HD squad will clear the cars while the front bots will take-out those Gripz freaks. Your team will just be the clean-up team. Have them neutralize all the stragglers. We’re about to hit this fast and hard. When you fight, you don’t give them any oxygen.”
“I guess you are built for combat tactics. You’re the entire package.”
“Shut-up and alert your team of the strategy. Acknowledge me when we win. Praise is premature in the preplanning of a conflict. Snaggerz show and prove,” Borlund admonished his initial impressions.
“I get it, game-face time.”
Borlund smiled in a grimace.
“Yep.”
They moved about 150 yards from the bonfire when the Gripz Renegades fired the starter's pistol. The front HDs were pummeled with multiple hand rockets. After the rockets exploded with minimal damage, the HDs returned fire.
“It’s on! Cover your partner and advance!” Raziel yelled into the communicator.
“Staggered shuriken formation, ATTACK!” Keisha called out the attack and the BoltLayers advanced.
They were greeted with concussion bullets and were knocked off their feet with those mini=explosions!
Mike recovered and began to combat crawl through the stalks towards them.
“They are using boom bullets! That means they can’t hit the broadside! Sound-off and stay low in your advance!”
They all called out systematically and began to do a low advance. The HD bots kept the enemy occupied.
“Do those things have enough ammo to suppress them?” Raziel asked.
“They don’t need the plasma rockets until there is no other choice. Those bots have dual tracer rail cannons on each arm. They fire frequently enough to mow down a forest.”
“Damn, we were in Boston. We weren’t ‘that’ advanced to evade that much gunfire,” he said.
“The Skull Diggers were. Do you think those things were made specifically for your clan? They were Army-knives for a reason.” Borlund halted Raziel’s individuality.
“Then, what do you have for the Gorgon guards?”
“EMP pulse cannons made for personal disabling. They have Dragon Flamers for the Xazen wolves, They have every counter for everything thrown their way. Your APCs are over-equipped. We wanted to be on top.”
“How did you make all that ammunition after the Drop?
“One more time, factory equipment,” Borlund said exasperated.
The first 10 HDs began to lay down suppressing fire while the BoltLayers went to the side of the preoccupied enemy. They were ignored as the other 20 HDs began to extinguish the flaming vehicle mountain and commenced to dismantle it.
Keisha gave a hand signal for everyone to snipe the rear 10 Gripz Renegades.
Keisha closed her fist and the BoltLayers fired simultaneously killing the rear Renegades. As they fell, Keisha yelled.
“THROW THE WEEVILS!”
Everyone chucked an entire lot of the shock weevils in the enemy’s location. The Gripz Renegades saw the movement to the side of them, but couldn’t retaliate due to the torrential bullet rain dealt by the HDs. Borlund accented their ‘fish in a barrel’ tactic.
As the barrage continued, Keisha looked at Doze.
“Commando?”
Doze smiled.
“Commando!”
They both advanced to the enemy location to neutralize some Gripz.
“What the hell are they doing?!” Borlund asked in surprise. “The Gripz are suppressed!”
“Suppressed, but not dead,” Raziel said. “Even factory machinery can’t make perpetual firepower. These are just the first foes. We have a long way to go to get to Nevada. Your HDs did their job. Let my team do theirs.”
Just as Keisha and Doze broke the Gripz barrier, Borlund ceased fire to let them do their jobs.
They both jumped in the defense pit with their survival knives at the ready. As they took out the first 2, the rest of the team exploded from the cornfield and followed.
“Get the shocked ones and avoid those rifles! Use your knives! Go short-range on them and secure your cross-bows!” Keisha directed the assault well.
The efficiency of the team had a liquid flow to it. Borlund witnessed a symphony of a cold afflicting assault and was amazed at their calculated copasetic composition of neutralization.
“Robots are slaves,” Raziel said. “BoltLayers kill to a much different tune. The path is clear to Iowa City. It’s your turn to drive.”
llll
&n
bsp; It was later the next afternoon when Chloe and her middle-aged guests finally were cleared of toxins ib a room next to the entrance of Wonderland.
As they heard the hiss from the airlock, they began to stand.
“I think we’re clear. Don’t speak, your speech will sound suspicious, and the Gornx Clan is inherently jumpy,” Chloe told them.
“Aye, Klannis. Silence will be our lord to complete our quest,” Sagen said and nodded at Araklimn.
The door opened and the Gornx clan leader entered. He walked up to Chloe and arm shook with her.
“You haven’t been out this far for two years, Klannis.”
“I’ve been sneaking Red Hooks for that long, Vetter. I’ve been busy.”
Vetter saw her companions.
“Who’s the old guy and Shakespherian actor?”
“That’s Krucks and Araklimn. They’re trying to get to Forest Hills without any confrontations. They’re trying to stop somebody big. I need your WGC enemy evasion map.”
Vetter knew the code for distraction and had to get her his wild goose chase map. They all were in intelligence and shared the same code.
“I need to check them out before I give you any sensitive map. That map uploads mobile opposition through satellite in real-time. They can find anyone and lead them here. They need the Penitol test.”
“I’m with them,” Chloe said. “Isn’t my word solid?”
“How long have you been with them? If it hasn't been years, your word is as solid as sand, Klannis. You’re in intelligence. Don’t let your familiarity cause a fatal slip. You’re forgetting the first rule of spycraft.” She played her part well, so Vetter had to be as believable.
Chloe turned to the 2 men.
“Sorry, Guys. You have to take a truth serum for verification.”
“You know of us, Klannis!” Araklimn protested.
Sagen interrupted.
“We all only have become truly knowing of each other for neigh an entire week. Our allies are staunchly mindful of this current era.” He turned to Vetter. “We will ingest your potion. En vino veritas.”
Chloe smiled because Vetter played along without question.
“Does this take the normal eight-hour activation time?” She told him how long she needed to delay them.
“We don’t have a pet Raziel to improve our elixir. It took eight hours last time, so it takes eight hours now. You’re getting BoltLayer bourgeois. You’re in Gornx territory.”
“You will find our quest is voracious and we will not betray you,” Sagen said. “We would never back-stab or cross our allies.”
Vetter looked at Chloe.
“These guys must be from a very different place.”
“And time,” she concluded. “They live for chivalry, not scatter-blast dopamine hits.”
Vetter hadn’t seen people of that caliber for years. He wondered why she was delaying them. Being in intelligence himself, he knew not to ask.
He left the room and closed the door.
“He’s getting the Penitol liquid. Get comfortable, you’ll be in here eight more hours,” she told them. “It’s a precaution for them.”
“We will comply. They have their ways of discovering a traitor. We have slain for treason in our own method in our era,” Araklimn said.
Vetter came back with a guard holding 2 glasses of liquid.
“I take it you can hold your liquor.” He gave them crackers and bit into one. “Eat these to settle your empty stomachs. The Penitol drink is laced with a little beer.”
“Aye, it’s a goblet of mead, but we will not imbibe from a stranger,” Sagen said.
“Smart man; take a swig from both glasses, Rolf.”
The guard took drinks from both glasses and offered them to the men. The men ate their crackers and took the glasses. They drank every drop. After staying in quarantine, they were very thirsty.
Chloe took their glasses and walked to the door.
“You have eight hours to wait. Don’t go stir-crazy in here. We’re almost to our next leg.” She walked out with Vetter, the guard and the door locked behind her.
“Calm yourself,” Sagen told Araklimn. “These are but hoops we must overcome to get to The Rayless One.”
“I will remain patient. All that this will do is enhance my ire.”
A warrior will climb through all the blood and bodies to claim their prize.
Chapter Seven: Calamimotous Dual Journeys
As the sunlight intruded on Borlund’s sleep, he woke up to Raziel humming a tune while driving.
“Where are we?” he asked Raziel groggily.
“Good morning. We’re at the Cedar City Utah checkpoint.”
Borlund became lucid very quickly.
“We’re in Utah?! How long did you let me sleep?!”
Raziel looked at the dash clock.
“We switched at seven last night, and it’s five-forty this morning, so I’d say about eleven hours give or take.”
“We agreed on eight-hour shifts to stay sharp!” Borlund was upset.
“You’re getting them in a bunch this time,” Raziel returned. “You ran the gauntlet in Nebraska. After you hosed down the ramming racks, you needed your sleep. I was keeping ‘you’ sharp this time. Night-driving at three in the morning after that harrowing Nebraska jaunt could get us both killed when you doze and veer off the road smack into a building or off a bridge. I’m up and we didn't die. Get over the very recent past. We’ll switch in ten more miles to calm you down. We’ll be at Yucca Mountain this afternoon.”
“I’m calm, let’s switch.”
“Look at the dash GPS. We’ll switch at Hamilton Fort. I was trying to make it there before you woke up. Thanks for ruining my surprise,” Raziel said.
“I don’t look surprised to you, King Understatement?!” Borlund was dismayed but settled himself down. “It’s just a few more miles, so I’ll wait. How are we going to get inside a highly secured nuclear site anyway?”
“Rembrandt’s a hacker. He got the government codes when security wasn’t maintained during the Drop. I input them into all the HDs last night before we switched. You were out immediately before we even began to move again. That’s why I let you sleep.”
Borlund was beginning to get more comfortable with his former foe. When they were rivals, he only saw a BoltLayer in 1 dimension. Raziel fleshed-out his new opinion.
“Why did Brakken want your clan decimated?” he asked Raziel. “Did you wrong him in any way?”
“I think his reasons are two-fold. The Rayless One gave him the order, and Fischer abandoned him. Mix those two reasons and we became your mortal enemy cocktail in his mind.”
“…And we followed him blindly.” Borlund had an epiphany. “I almost killed you over a sibling rivalry I had nothing to do with.”
“You’re the one who told me the past was the past. Stop mulling; we’re driving in this HD together, one designed to kill me I might add, and going to retrieve the vital component needed to destroy the one who started all of this. This victory is so close, if you don’t stay focused and drop the ball before we finish, we will all lose. Keep the past in the past. Don’t think about what was, strive for what’s going to be.”
“Is that part of the scientific protocol; optimism?” Borlund asked.
“Not in rule-form, but think about how I invented a tesseract time teleporter. You have it too, HD inventor. I’m just giving you the proper name for your process.”
Mike interrupted their conversation by radioing in.
“Raziel, it’s coming up on six in the morning. I’m getting hungry. Let’s go kill something.”
“We’re stipping at Hamilton Fort in ten. When we stop, hunt until your heart’s content. Just kill enough for everybody.”
“I could eat a bison burger.”
“Just avoid the moose. Two cross-bow arrows to the face would only piss it off. I still need you to load that plutonium.”
“I guess I can just tout your compassion,” Mike said sarca
stically. “See you when we park.”
Borlund grinned as they headed to Hamilton Fort.
llll
Chloe and her questers were Just passing Lechmere, south of Community College trying to get to Forest Hills. She looked at the updating digi-map on her display device and saw all the Renegades, clans, and dog packs.
“We’re about to go west through the Boston College campus to avoid our enemies.” She showed them the map.
Sagen saw all the beeps on the digi-map and knew what route they needed to travel to avoid the opposition.
“We shall take your detour to this Boston College campus to avoid these demons. We must get to The Rayless One.”
As they trekked to the campus, Chloe asked Sagen a question.
“When you were interrogated in that room, what did Vetter ask you?”
“I am understanding interrogated means questioning my voracity. I told Vetter where we came from and what we were here to accomplish. I was a wizard from the year of our Lord, twelve twenty-seven, and my quest is to deliver Araklimn to Lord Kirkland’s descendant.”
“I’m surprised he let you go,” she said. “He knew you weren’t lying and didn’t lock you up for lunacy.”
“Once I voiced The Rayless One’s title, he let us leave. I do believe he has scribed his mark upon Vetter,” Sagen said.
“Vetter saw the Saqz Clan get obliterated by that guy. I kept telling Fischer he was the new kid on the block, and to stop tussling with the Red Hooks, but I think that the first skirmish was a little more immediate and personal. Now, I know him and Brakken are brothers.”
“Aye, we share the same shock,” Araklimn said. “Who could fathom such a devilish revelation?”
“Who would ever think a 22nd-century woman would be able to talk to a living 13th-century royal guard with his mage? This world is littered with many revealing surprises.”
They came upon the campus and began to walk across the old football practice field.
“Was this a druid open temple your people worshiped at?” Sagen asked. “We had a similar area, but with large stone column structures in Wiltshire.”
Chloe smiled.
“This isn’t like the Stone henge ruins. This was a field for our warriors to have practiced on about a century ago. They were called the Eagles. They weren’t mystics. They were in a group we called the NC double-A.”
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