by Tom Cain
"Feels like one of the tires is out" she said.
Mia grabs and pulled the chrome lever which controlled the doors and they opened with a creak. John, Marko and Burke jumped out, a few soldiers followed, rifles pointing in all directions, ready for anything.
"Ah she’s right, one of the tires has blown" Burke said having seen the rear right tire had blown.
"Give me twenty minutes and two guys and we will have this repaired" Burke said.
"How are you going to do that Burke?, this thing doesn't have any spares, also how could something pop a tire that thick?" said Marko looking around across the darkened open area.
"These tires are loaded with Gunk, it prevents holes from remaining open, I just got to pump a bit more in there, and add a little Burke flair and we will be back on the road".
There was an eerie silence that had fallen over the group.
The last flickers of sunlight licked the dusty landscape, a gentle breeze washed across the plains. John felt uneasy, Mia got on top of the roller to keep a look out for any approaching lights. Grip took the mounted assault rifles on the roof and kept a watchful eye with Mia. John, Marko and a few others remained outside while Burke carried out his magic. Burke took a large canister of Gunk from a bag inside the roller, he used the air valve to shoot it inside.
The ground suddenly trembled. Sand moved under the groups feet.
"What was that?" Marko said surprised his eyes shifting around the landscape rapidly.
"Guys!" Mia shouted getting the attention of the group, "there is something coming this way" she said.
"I don't see anything Mia what's going on?" John asked.
The ground shook again.
"Mia there's nothing over there just darkness" Marko shouted.
"Valeria can you see anything?" John asked, Valeria turned to look and her eyes glowed, she shook her head.
"No, it's not above ground, it's below" Mia said with a sharp tone.
"Burke, hurry up we got incoming" Marko said.
"Ah what? Again?" Burke said as he started to rush the fix. Half a mile away across the flat plains was a rapidly moving bump in the ground. A wave of earth and dust and sand was coming towards them. Something writhing underground, only the distance sound of rock cracking was heard. Just as suddenly as it started it stopped, about one hundred meters before reaching the roller.
Deadly silence befell the group again. Burke looked up wide eyed as the noise suddenly died down.
"Burke you keep fixing what needs to be fixed" Chrissie said scanning the distance.
"What the hell was that?" Mia asked from the roof.
"I have no idea, not a clue" said one of the soldiers.
"Ok well we should be done in a couple of minutes" Burke said struggling to fasten one of the bolts to the wheel arch.
"Good, this place gives me the creeps" Marko said.
Burke finally finished fixing the broken wheel and had assured the group it shouldn't happen again. Mia started the roller with a crack of the engine, the group felt uneasy, each of them scanning the ground round the vehicle. The team stayed quiet for a while as they all became aware that anything could happen out here. The wind picked up outside as the night started to set in. The roller crept on, making slow but steady progress across the sands.
"We should have a look at getting a camp set up for the night" John said to Marko and Mia.
"There looks like there is a small dip in the desert over to the east, that seems like the safest place to camp, down in that bowl" Mia replied whilst steering towards the dip and clicking the headlights on.
"Yeah, lower ground sounds good for camp, but announcing we are going there to whomever is watching us right now doesn't" Marko asserts clicking the lights back off again.
"Woah woah woah" Grip interrupted "We ain't going to actually stay out here with whatever the hell that thing was under the ground" he stared at John.
"Look I don't know what that was, it looked big, it's underground, and it felt aggressive, but Afterburn Lake is still a whiles away. There is shit out here we don't want to let see us in the dark, I would prefer to be camped and set up a perimeter" John said.
"Hey Grip we are going to be sleeping in shifts anyway, only a fool sleeps in the lands without someone watching" Marko chips in.
A tall, thin and dark soldier from near the back of the roller gets off his seat and speaks with quite a heavy accent.
"I brought some mines, I can rig them for proximity. I have heard it's the only way to defend against a tunneller when they are submerged".
"What's your name soldier?" asked John.
"My name is Galan Rufsko, but Ruf is fine" said Ruf as John shook his hand.
"Nice to put a face to the name Ruf, what's a tunneller?" Marko asked.
"I used to do some work out here for a group back in Zone three, when I was out here we experienced similar tremors, I was told by some locals out here that giant creatures called tunnellers live under the earth in Banditland. I’ve never actually seen one, but the guys told me a load of things about them. But of course, these were crazy local Landers, not your straight talking city types" Ruf informed the group.
"Guys we are closing in on the bowl now" Mia shouted back to the group.
The desert bowl was a three hundred meter wide sand and mud basin with a flat fifty meter center. The roller or more importantly a fire wouldn't be visible from ground level. A few baron trees and weeds are scattered around. The moon is laying low in the sky as the roller pulls to a stop in the centre of the bowl with a squeak.
"Right, this is what we are going to be doing" John addressed the group "we are going to need someone up on the mount for the first shift, it's eight pm, so suns going to up in nine or ten hours, we need to break that up and sleep. Grip you get the first shift, lucky you, you got that gun for the next two hours, Mia you got it second" Marko interrupts John.
"I will get third". "Sounds good, Mia you are up top and scout for the next few hours before your shift on the guns, you feel tired?" John asks.
"Nah It’s alright, I got it for the next few hours" Mia replied.
"Chrissie I’m going to need you to hang outside and get Rufs back while he places those Proximity mines, Ruf those mines are going to need to be spread out, we aren't just worried about the tunnellers, we have to protect ourselves against any greeners or whatever else is out here. I will take a shift at patrolling the area. Valeria, we will patrol opposite sides and swap out with whomever next".
A tough looking, red haired, dirty faced soldier sticks her hand up.
"I will take the second patrol shift" the soldier said .
"What's your name soldier?" asks John.
"Masie" she replies.
"Ok Masie you got second shift" John continued. "Ok we need some cover from the light of the fire outside" John looks around for suggestions.
"We got a couple of tarps in a compartment at the back of the roller, we could mount a few of them on some of the spare roll cage poles" Burke throws in his cents worth.
"Good Idea, I will help you get that set up" Marko said.
"Alright, the rest of you can get some sleep after we have everything prepped, we leave at first light for Afterburn Lake"
John nodded his head with confidence at the soldiers and headed out into the darkness.
Burke quickly follows John and heads round the back of the roller and starts to unscrew four bolts holding a small compartment just below the rear window. Marko joins him, keeping a careful eye out on the surroundings. It's deadly silent. Grip jumps up onto the small climbing ladder in the middle on the roof, and undoes the hatch lock, it opens with a clunk. He pulls his goggles over his eyes and clutches the duel assault rifle mount and scans the horizons. A few soldiers gather up some of the spare poles laying around at the rear of the roller and bring them outside, each of them still feeling very uneasy but at least with purpose. They set up a square frame, tapping, tying and strapping the poles together. Burke brings the tarps around
to the side and hands them over to the tallest soldiers who fling them over the top of the frame.
"This will keep some of the wind off and maybe shield us from people seeing the fire" Burke said.
Meanwhile, Ruf and Chrissie are walking away from the roller and placing mines.
"So how many of those you got Ruf?" chrissie asks.
"On me? about seven" he replied sternly.
"Is that going to be enough? they look kind of small" said Chrissie.
"Yeah that's what I thought the first time I saw them too, they are small, but believe me they bang big, are they going to be enough? Good question. I hope so." He replied.
Ruf took a small shovel from his back which folded into two bits and jabbed it into the ground.
"We need about a foot down to place it, we will place them at different depths to catch the bastards off guard" Ruf said digging.
"Ok, well I got your back Ruf lets just do this quick" Chrissie said nervously looking around.
"I'm going as fast as I can" Ruf replied.
"I can't be too quick else we might get picked up by the mine and we won't have to wait for the tunnellers or greeners out here" he continued.
"Alright, alright, let's just get this done" Chrissie's eyes fixed on the swaying dead trees out in the distance.
Ruf planted the mine and activated the trigger.
"We have ten seconds to get twenty feet away from this thing so let's head out now" Ruf let go of the trigger, covered the mine and shunted Chrissie in another direction.
"Let's get on with the next one, where's it going?." Chrissie asked.
"Up on the lip of that slope I think, looks like an ideal place for anyone coming in here to attacks up to enter" Ruf said starting off towards the lip.
"How much do you know about these tunnellers Ruf?, I mean what are they? Where did they come from?" Chrissies asks.
"Well I don't know too much about them if I'm honest because they aren't often seen. So I only really hear stories about them appearing now and then to feed" Ruf replies as they slowly make their way to the next point, and trying to remember where the mines are placed. Ruf continues.
"The tunnellers, I have heard are mutants essentially, I'm not sure what from, some people say from worms, others say from lizards or desert dwelling creatures. One thing is for sure, they aint naturally supposed to be here. Big things with too many teeth, they sense the vibrations of things moving above ground. I heard once that one of the Eight tamed a few, but those are most likely rumors. These things don't really play nicely, burrowing deep underground, until something above disturbs their path. Never heard of one coming out in the cities though, maybe they can't get through the concrete and steel or don't like all that noise above or something". Ruf stops on a spot and looks back at the previous mine location.
"I had heard of giant snakes and lizards out here but nothing about things living under the ground" Chrissie replied then stopped looking at Rufs face which was now screwed up squinting at the last place they placed a mine.
"You ok there Ruf? You look confused." Chrissies asked.
"Yeah, yeah I'm fine I'm trying to figure if we got far enough away from the last one. We don't want to place them too close or too far cas the bad guys could find their way around or between" He replied.
"I'm not so worried about the bandits or greeners out here if I'm honest we got a pretty heavy defence set up out here, I'm more worried about the monsters" Chrissie said watching Ruf dig in the new spot.
"You think we are good for an attack out here then?" Ruf said grunting as he plunged his foot down on the shovel.
"Well we got a plenty big group out here, all armed to the teeth, we got a damned Stock roller for greens sake which is also armed to the nines, and let's not forget we got John Test, of whom I'm pretty sure can't be killed. But, monsters, that's a different story" Chrissie's said with confidence.
"Yeah, I’ve heard about Test and his accomplishments, after meeting him I'm not sure how much of that is story and how much of it has a ring of truth" Ruf said activating the next mine and placing it gently in the hole he dug.
Beep, click, the mine activated and Ruf started to cover it with loose dirt.
"Right, onto the next one then" Ruf said moving on.
“You saw what he did to Hark and those pumped up thugs” said Chrissie.
“Yeah, they were suped up greeners, we handled them but I wouldn’t say John took them easy, . We lost people. If Test was as tough as they say would we have lost all those soldiers?” Ruf asked.
“Ah I don’t know. I guess time will tell. I trust him, that’s all” said Masie.
The frame was up and the blue and green plastic covers were pulled tight against the metal beams, Burke is starting a fire in the lid of a barrel using some cushions as tinder and some wood from a nearby dead tree. The wood crackles, and the cushion sends up a plume of black smoke into the night's sky.
"You want some beans?" Burke asked Masie.
"Yeah sure, I got some too actually, that's all we could really bring from Little London" Masie replied.
"I don't think we will need much more food, maybe one or two more camps and then we will be there, problem is will we need food to get back or not?" asked Burke.
"Of course we will, I am not planning on dying, we didn't leave so long ago and already we have got problems, but we’ve dealt with them and kept going. I for one am going to keep on doing that" Masie replied.
"What or who are you going back to in Little London?" Burke inquired.
"Ah I got nothing in Little London, but I have been told that there is still some good farm land up north somewhere. I want to get away from all these shit people, live a life in peace, I don't mind getting my hands dirty either so suits me." Masie explained.
"You are a farmer?" Burke now sitting up, getting interested.
"No, I'm not a farmer, but I have nearly had enough of living like this. It's always desperate. Little London seemed like a refuge from all the bad out here, but really they are just their own brand of bad, so I want to start again, move up North, see if those farm still exist and see if the land is growable up there. Tins are getting boring." Masie proclaimed.
"I haven't heard anything about up North; I heard it got torn up by the battles up there. I don't know anyone who's gotten out of the state if I'm honest. Everything changed once Ivan Swiss got a hold of New Kansas" Burke said.
An older soldier joined the conversation.
"Ivan Swiss just brought order to a crazy world" the soldier said.
"Oh yeah? How do you reckon that then?" Masie turned to ask.
"Well, no-one except a few have ever actually seen Ivan Swiss, the world before the BCC came around was a fucking mess. Everyone at everyone's throat. No one was safe, all areas from all over the state crossed into each other. Large war parties grew and attacked each other. Swiss put an end to carnage. Not saying the guys a saint, he is, if he's real, a pretty unsavory guy. But I can say this, I was living near the border of what's Zone Seven now and I can tell you before they put the border up we had it rough. Some of the other areas had it lucky and were slightly more settled, but us over there we needed someone to step up and take control and that's what Swiss did. I don't know how he did it. I have never heard that he has ever killed a single man personally to get where he's got" the old man took a swig from his metal flask, the water residue resting on his beard.
"I joined up with a mercy crew out of Zone Two." Masie said.
"Did you ever meet those Zone Seven Pitdogs?" she's asked the older man.
"I was one of them my darling, not saying I'm proud, some of the fights we used to get into weren't pretty. But as I said we had to do what we had to do." The old man shrugs off some bad memories.
"I thought they all died in that big fight with the BCC a while back" Burke stated.
"Not all of them, I, I am still hanging around. They used to call me Hatchet, nothing to do with the way I would fight, just my last name is Hatcher, and t
hey thought it sounded tougher." Hatcher laughed.
"Oh well that's a bit of a letdown" Burke let out a sigh.
"Hey I'm an old timer now. I can still hold a gun and take care of myself don't you worry, but can't be attacking any convoys or weapons depots anymore, I got me a lady waiting for me back in Little London". Hatcher took a moment to think.
“Saying that, we are about to take on Swiss towers, so I guess it's kind of the same or even worse, oh and Masie, that’s your name right?". Hatcher asked, Masie nodded, he continued.
“You don't want to go far north. I don’t just mean here, I mean deep north. The Yaoguai took that place a whiles back, some crazy shit happened and then the lights went out. I don’t know if there is any farm land left up there”
"Really? Ah dammit, what about the west? did you hear much about that? actually, don’t tell me, I don’t want to know. Either way it's nice to meet you Hatcher" Masie said taking a spoon full of beans.
It wasn't long before Masie was called up to relieve Grip from the gun mount on top of the roller, she should have spent her time sleeping, and instead it was full of stories. Grip came down off the roof and climbed straight on a couple of spare roller seats to have a sleep.
John was still out walking the perimeter of the basin, Valeria too. Occasionally the soldiers who were still awake would catch a glimpse of her eyes glowing in the darkness. The mines were all now set and Ruf and Chrissie made their way back to the camp to get some rest. Burke had fallen asleep, Marko and Hatcher are sitting by the fire.
"So I heard you were in the Pitdogs in Seven. Is that true?" Marko asks Hatcher.
"Yeah, that much is true" He replied.
"What really happened up in Holdern then?" Marko asked. "Ah Holdern, yeah, the great blow out, the Holdern Hangmen they used to call them. A bunch of no goods taken control of Holdern Heights and were hanging people for no reason up there." Hatcher took another swig of his flask.
"They said that Henry could lasso a guy from one hundred meters and hang him from anywhere" Marko smirked in disbelief.
"No that wasn't true, Henry did have a hell of a talent though and he was good with that lasso. We went up there expecting monsters but found a bunch of sick and twisted people trying to defend their territory with fear. We ground them down with enough gun fire to raise a building and caught as many hangmen as we could" Hatcher was interrupted