Freelancers: Falcon & Phoenix

by Thackston, Anthony

“Is it making you feel nervous?” she asks, not really caring either way.

  “Just worried about your hand cramping up is all.”

  “Worry about the road.”

  “You need to worry about what’s around us. Turn off the light.” Little Wang leans forward, placing his head between the front seats.

  “I don’t want to run into anything,” Falcon tells him.

  “Exactly. We don’t want to be seen. There’s too much moonlight as it is.”

  Phoenix keeps her gun on Falcon as she turns to the little brother. “Seen by who?”

  “We just passed into Native Line.” Little Wang turns his head side to side as though looking for something in particular.

  “We still have at least five miles,” Falcon tells him.

  “They’ve been reclaiming land for the past few months. The line goes farther into the empire now.”

  “The Emperor allowed that?” Falcon asks.

  “He couldn’t stop it.”

  Phoenix sits upright in her seat while Falcon turns off the one headlight. She hands the pistol to Falcon. He takes it but she keeps her grip firm on it. “Don’t forget.”

  “I honor my deals.”

  She releases the gun and picks up the rifle.

  “Give me one,” Little Wang says.

  “No,” Phoenix checks the rifle’s magazine to make sure it’s full.

  “Come on. You’ve got four of them. And three people using are better than two. Is he supposed to shoot while driving?”

  “Yes,” Falcon says as he ratchets the slide of the gun. He turns back to face Little Wang. “Just keep your eyes open.”

  The little brother does as he’s told and turns back around to watch their rear. They all scan the dark land. It’s hard to tell what some of the objects near the road are. As they get closer, they become easier to identify. Most of them are wrecked cars, stalled out on the side of the road. Some of the cars have what looks like large flat objects leaning against them.

  Falcon grits his teeth. “He’s right.” He points at one of the cars. “Those are ramps. The Natives use them for air attacks.”

  “What do you mean, air attacks?” Phoenix asks.

  “I’ll tell you once we’re out of here.”

  “Or she can find out,” Little Wang says as he turns around.

  Falcon looks over his shoulder and sees a pair of headlights. “Natives don’t use cars.” He looks forward again.

  Phoenix turns around. “Those aren’t cars.”

  Falcon checks the rearview mirror and sees the lights drifting farther from each other. “No, they aren’t.”

  “Look out!” Phoenix points to her side of the car. Falcon swerves to the left just as a motorcycle comes up one of the makeshift ramps. A bright flash of fire light bursts into the rear of the car as a flame spreads across the road behind them. Little Wang watches as two bikes race through the flames from behind. The riders each hold up something burning in their hands.

  “Molotovs!” Little Wang ducks down into the back seat.

  Phoenix turns her body around and steadies the rifle on the shoulder of her seat. She takes aim at one of the bottles and fires. The glass shatters in its holder’s hands and the contents burst into flames and spill out all over the biker. The Native's partner watches as the burning man and his bike fall to the road. Not wanting the same thing to happen to him, he throws his incendiary at the back of the car.

  “Incoming!” Phoenix shoots at the biker and misses as Falcon swerves the car to the right. The molotov lands right next to them and shatters in a mass of flames on the road.

  Falcon straightens the car and checks the rearview mirror to see their pursuer lighting another bottle. “Take the shot,” he says to Phoenix.

  She slides the bolt of the rifle back and fires. The biker swerves to avoid being hit. She bolts another bullet in place.

  “Right!” Little Wang points out her window.

  Falcon points the hand gun toward the oncoming motorcycle. He holds it right behind Phoenix’s back and pulls the trigger. The Native biker hits a ramp before the bullet finds its mark. Falcon swerves to the right and the bottle smashes on the concrete.

  Phoenix takes her second shot and, again, the biker swerves. “Too slow,” she says as she leans back against the dashboard to trade to the rifle for the machine gun. She readies it to fire and takes aim.

  A molotov soars through the air and hits the road just behind the car. Some of the liquid hits the bumper causing a small amount of flame to cling to it. Fortunately, it’s not enough to cause bigger problems. The biker starts to relight another but Phoenix pulls the trigger while sweeping the gun from right to left, ensuring the biker can’t dodge the shots. One of them finds its mark and the Native is knocked backwards off of the bike. Phoenix watches the motorcycle fall to the road and skid into another makeshift ramp just as another bike becomes airborne. This motorcycle lands right behind the car. Bullets fire, striking the back of Phoenix’s seat. Lucky for her they don’t go through. She returns fire and knocks that biker to the road.

  She turns back around in her seat. “Watch it!”

  Two more Natives hit ramps on each side of the road. Falcon and Phoenix lean out of their windows and shoot the airborne bikers, knocking them off of their motorcycles. Their bodies hit the concrete, shattering the homemade incendiaries in their hands. Their riderless bikes fly over the car and crash to the ground. Falcon races the car through the fire on the road.

  “How many of them are there?” Phoenix watches more riders heading their way from an intersecting road.

  “Thousands,” Little Wang says.

  “Just here?”

  “Probably,” Falcon tells her and he shoots a rider heading straight for them.

  “Give me a gun,” Little Wang says again.

  “No,” Falcon and Phoenix say in unison as they both take shots through her window at the oncoming riders.

  They pass through the intersection just before the riders hit the main road. A molotov bursts on the pavement behind them, sending a pool of fire over the concrete. Phoenix starts to climb out of the window. Falcon reaches over and grabs the ammo belt to keep her from falling out. She fires off bursts at the Native bikers and manages to hit one of them. The others start to light more bottles.

  One of the bikes gets too close for comfort just as Phoenix runs out of ammo.

  “Get back in here!” Falcon yells at her. She ejects the magazine before ducking back into the window to grab another one and reload.

  Just as she pulls the slide on the gun back, a hand reaches through the window and grabs her. She drops the gun as another Native on a bike starts to pull her out of the car.

  “Phoenix!” Falcon aims his gun but she blocks his sight.

  Outside of the car, Phoenix has one hand on the Native's arm and the other gripping the top inside of the door. Falcon can only watch as she tries to keep from being ripped from the vehicle. He cuts the wheel to the right, and centrifugal force pushes the car back over her The tactic gets most of her back inside and gives him just enough room to take the shot. The bullet hits the bike, making the rider release her before crashing off of the road.

  Phoenix stares at Falcon, not sure if she’s shocked or if she’s thankful. There’s no time to ask which as a flame-illuminated biker pulls up along the driver’s side. Falcon aims his gun and fires. He misses as the biker pulls ahead to the front of the car. He throws his molotov on the hood of the already beaten up vehicle. Falcon and Phoenix bring their arms over their faces as the car hood bursts into flames.

  “We can’t let that get down in the engine,” Falcon says as he takes a shot at other bikers who start to pull up alongside him.

  Phoenix opens the glove box, hopeful there is something useful inside. It’s empty. She turns around to the back and reaches for the pack Falcon took from the Marauders. A bottle bursts on the road behind them, erupting into flames. “Dump that,” she tells Little Wang as she draws her pistol and fires over
Wang’s head through the open rear windshield. One of the attackers falls to the road. The others ride through the burning street.

  “There’s nothing here,” Little Wang says.

  She takes a moment to look at him. “Your jacket.”

  “What?”

  Falcon swerves as another bottle erupts on the passenger side.

  “Give me your jacket!” She orders Little Wang. He takes it off, quickly, barely able to hand it to her before she snatches it out of his hands.

  “Be careful,” Falcon says, already aware of what she’s planning. He aims his gun over his shoulder and wild fires at their attackers. A lucky shot hits one of the lit molotov bottles, causing another biker to catch fire. In his panic, he swerves his bike into another, taking them both crashing off of the road.

  Phoenix climbs back out of her window with the jacket. She positions herself to sit on the door, trying to hold on to the ceiling of the car for balance while swinging the jacket at the burning car hood.

  “Hold on to her,” Falcon says as he veers to one side, narrowly avoiding more fire. The move forces Phoenix backwards and almost out of the car but Little Wang grabs her legs, giving her the leverage to sit back up. She reaches inside for the machine gun and pulls it out to fire bursts at the bikers still on their tail. The bikes pull back a ways, veering side to side, avoiding her shots. She drops the machine gun back inside and returns to swatting at the flame, dousing it little by little.

  Falcon looks back to see one more bottle burst just behind them. Through the flames on the road, he watches as the lights of the motorcycles get smaller. He slows the car down to stop.

  “What are we stopping for?” Phoenix asks still swatting at the fire.

  Falcon steps out of the doorless driver’s side and stands to watch as the Natives turn around. “Look.” He points in their direction.

  Phoenix swings herself off of the door and onto the road. “That’s it?”

  “We passed the other side of the line. We’re back in empire territory.” He walks to the side of the road and scoops up two handfuls of dirt. “The Natives stick to their territory, unlike the Marauders.” He walks the dirt to the hood of the car and drops it on the rest of the flames, putting them out.

  Phoenix walks to the back of the car as the last of the motorcycle headlights turn around. Small fires from the other burst molotov cocktails dot the road. She puts out the small fire on the bumper with her boot.

  Falcon walks to the rear of the car. “We got lucky.” He points to even more headlights going the opposite direction on the intersecting road.

  “We would have run out of bullets before they ran out of bikes.” She looks at Falcon in disbelief.

  “You’ve never been on the Native Line, have you?”

  Phoenix shakes her head. The realization of just how close they were to death, only now, hits her.

  The sound of a revving engine snaps them back to their current situation. They both spin around to see the car speeding away from them.

  15

  “Well there goes that,” Phoenix says as she and Falcon watch their getaway vehicle speed up the road without them.

  “And he’s got the rifles,” Falcon adds, looking over his shoulder to make sure no other Natives are within molotov throwing distance.

  “Start walking.” Phoenix points her hand gun at him.

  “This again?”

  “Unless you have a faster way.”

  Falcon sticks his gun in his belt. She’s right. There’s no point in getting into another stand-off and he did make a deal with her. He turns back around and laughs at the unexpected sight of their car, stopped, just up the road.

  “What’s so funny?”

  Falcon points toward the vehicle. “That’s the Dealer. Always putting just enough gas in that it’s too far to walk back and demand more.”

  “That’s one way to keep costs low.” She holsters her gun and the two run for the car.

  The Freelancers re-draw their guns as they near the vehicle. Falcon walks to the driver’s side and sees Little Wang holding the machine gun. He fires just above the car and Little Wang drops the heavy weapon.

  “Don’t get any ideas,” Falcon tells him.

  The car thief hangs his head low. “What’s the point? Without gas, I’m just a walking target out here. Not even enough bullets in this thing to save my life.” Lifting his head, he glares at Falcon. “This is your fault.”

  “Yeah, I get that a lot.” He looks at Phoenix who puts her gun away. None of them are going anywhere and if Wang wanted to walk away from them at this moment, she wouldn’t try to stop him. Nor would Falcon.

  “You were a good lookout back there.” Falcon takes the machine gun.

  “Who cares.” Little Wang gets out of the car.

  “Well, now that we’re out of the fire, no one.”

  “Is that what I think it is?” Phoenix stares just past Falcon.

  Turning around, he spots the run down gas station just off of the road. “That was probably ironic even in the old world,” Falcon tells her.

  “Think the tanks have anything left in them?”

  Falcon starts for the back of the car, signaling for Little Wang to follow him. “We’ll push.”

  Phoenix jogs to the driver’s side and gets in. She shifts to neutral and Falcon and Little Wang begin pushing the stalled car across the road. Phoenix turns the steering wheel hard. With no power steering, it takes a good amount of effort to turn the dead weight of the vehicle. A glimmer catches her eye and she looks down the road to see a pair of oncoming headlights.

  “Hey,” she says to no response. “Falcon.”

  “What?”

  “More Natives?”

  Falcon turns to face down the road. “No. But whoever they are, the Natives will probably get them.”

  “They’re coming in really fast.” She rises out of the car.

  “We need you to steer,” Falcon says, strained from pushing the car. He seems to be taking the brunt of the work.

  “Where are the Natives?” Phoenix watches the two pairs of headlights grow larger as they head their way.

  Both Falcon and Little Wang stop pushing. They stare down the highway and the car slowly rolls to the middle of the road. It comes to a stop and rolls back a few feet, leaving the left lane open.

  “Marauders.” Little Wang’s voice shakes.

  Phoenix looks at Falcon. “Why aren’t the Natives attacking?

  Falcon only shakes his head, unable to answer. “We need to hide. Head for the gas station.”

  The three of them run to the building. As they get closer, it becomes obvious the place is an empty shell of its former self. Windows are busted out and an entire side of the building is nearly gone.

  “Inside?” Wang asks.

  “They’ll look there.” Falcon tells him. “Go around the back.”

  Little Wang runs ahead of Falcon and Phoenix. As they follow him, they see a cage with one propane tank on its side resting against the building.

  “Come on.” Falcon climbs up the cage. Phoenix follows him. He crouches halfway and makes a cradle with his hands. “You first.”

  She puts one foot in his hands while balancing herself on the wall. “Ready?” he asks. She nods and, in one motion, Falcon stands straight and lifts Phoenix up. She reaches up and grabs the edge of the roof.

  The roar of approaching engines breaks the night air. “Hurry up.” Little Wang starts shaking as he bounces up and down, nervously.

  “You’re next,” Falcon tells him as Phoenix pulls herself onto the roof. Little Wang dashes to the top of the cage and barely waits for Falcon to clasp his fingers together before his foot is in them. Falcon pushes him up as he did Phoenix who leans over the side to help pull the little brother onto the roof.

  She reaches back down for Falcon. “Ok, let’s go.”

  Falcon hops off of the cage.

  “Falcon, come on,” she demands.

  “I just want to see who it is.” He walk
s to the corner and peers around in time to see the vehicle lights growing brighter.

  Phoenix and Little Wang go to the awning above the gas pumps and peek over the side. Two vehicles pull up beside their stalled car. The Dealer’s wreck of a dune buggy is instantly recognizable, even though only the moon lights the scene. But it isn’t the Dealer who gets out.

  Little Wang begins to speak but the hammer click of Phoenix’s gun stops him.

  “You say one word….” She looks back at the vehicles as Big Wang climbs out of the dune buggy and walks to the stalled car. Her eyes shift to the other vehicle. The door of the raised truck opens and Phoenix instantly recognizes the driver.

  “Not a word,’ she says to Little Wang before, low and quickly, moving back to the building.

  Phoenix looks over the side to see Falcon back on the propane cage. “You see who’s here?” She reaches down for him to grab her hand.

  “Daken,” he says as they both struggle to get him to the edge of the roof. Despite their weight differences, Phoenix manages to pull Falcon to the building's edge. He gets hold of it and pulls himself up the rest of the way.

  “I’m surprised you didn’t go out there, guns blazing,” she whispers as they make their way to the awning.

  “I should. But I’ve only got this.” He taps the handle of the pistol sticking out of his belt. “And once I’m out, I’m out.”

  “I could cover you.”

  They step onto the awning then lower themselves to crawl the rest of the way.

  “The minute we run out of ammo, it would be over,” he whispers. “He would shred this whole place with that thing.” He points to the large machine gun slung around Daken’s back.

  The three of them peek over the edge and watch as Big Wang and Daken look through the car.

  Daken pulls out both the machine gun and the rifle. “They were here.”

  Big Wang turns the key of the car. It tries to start but never turns over. “Out of gas.” He walks to the front of the car and puts his hand near the grill. It’s still warm. “They couldn’t have gotten far.”

  Daken hands Big Wang the rifle and raises the machine gun up to the gas station. He pulls the trigger and holds it, sending rapid fire bullets into the gas pumps. Big Wang follows suit and fires the rifle, bolting round after round until the magazine is empty. Daken stops firing when the gun clicks. They take a look at their handy work. The pumps are shredded.