“Yeah.”
“No skin, no ears.”
Kenny frowned. “I dunno, the last time I saw one it came at me right after I dropped something.”
“Maybe it smelled your cologne. Wait… no… if those things have any sense of smell that would knock it out.”
“Hah.” Kenny smirked.
The late afternoon sun left the area around them devoid of shadows and well lit from all angles. A gentle breeze stirred up the dust and lighter bits of debris in small whorls that appeared and dissipated at random. The smell of burnt flesh and chemicals drifted past in traces.
“Slab.” Kenny tapped a piece of solid concrete embedded in the ground at the bottom of a patch of water erosion. “This is probably the back room. I bet they had a vault in the floor. We just have to get under a few centuries of windblown dirt to reach it.”
Eldon walked over and helped dig. Their effort eventually revealed a metal door. Kenny squatted and cleared it out with his hands, unearthing the combination wheel of an old style safe.
“An in-floor safe. That’s exactly what I’m looking for.” Kenny grinned.
His levity evaporated as the smell of burnt rotting meat came over him with breath-stealing strength. A shambling humanoid shape wobbled out from behind a wall a few meters behind them. It would stand almost six feet tall if not for the way it hunched forward in a knock-kneed posture. The body resembled uncooked beef, glistening with a coating of slime. Dark venous streaks throbbed through its flesh and luminous membranes stretched over each eye socket, creating two huge blue portals. The top of its head pulsated with the rhythm of a heartbeat. One arm reached towards Kenny as its lipless mouth tried to grin.
The color drained from his face at the creature’s proximity. He turned and sprinted in the direction of the truck, brown duster coat billowing out behind him like a cape as he ran, holding his hat down with one hand.
“Shit. Shit. Shit.” One expletive came out of his mouth each time a boot hit the ground.
The rad ghoul bolted with surprising speed given its previous ungainly appearance. Eldon lurched backwards, hesitating when the creature remained fixated on Kenny. He spun and took aim, favoring the outside leg to minimize the odds of his friend taking any spray. After a short pause to correct, Eldon clicked off a single shot that exploded most of the thing’s right calf in a shower of yellow goo. It rolled forward with a gurgling hiss, like an air hose dropped into a bucket of jelly. It started to drag itself back on its one remaining leg when a barrage of fire from Eldon liquefied it the rest of the way.
“Since… I’m already halfway… back to the truck… I’ll get the tools.” Kenny stooped forward with his hands on his knees, gasping.
Eldon swiveled as another rad ghoul ambled out from behind a dirt mound, then another, and another. Before he could take good aim at one, a dozen more approached in a mass.
“Oh fuck this.” Eldon clicked his rifle to full auto and offloaded half his remaining ammunition.
The line of rad ghouls burst from left to right as he swept across them. Bright azure flames lit the twilight; yellow goop flew everywhere. Eldon stepped back from the exploding ooze despite them all being at least thirty yards away. When the last one fell, Eldon spun in a cautious circle, watching all angles.
“Move, move, move!” Eldon yelled. “Too damn late for quiet.”
The code lock on the toolbox had just opened when Eldon resumed machine-gunning rad ghouls. Kenny rifled through the compartment and grabbed a laser cutter, stopping by the driver door to take one of the shotguns from the gun rack.
No more had shown up by the time he got back. He swooped in on one knee and dropped his rifle and the shotgun on the ground next to the safe.
“Did I mention that they travel in big groups?” Kenny did not look up.
“How big?” Eldon sounded calm.
“Forty or so.”
Eldon mouthed “motherfucker” without adding voice to it. “Thanks for the heads up.”
“Just think about the five hundred grand.”
“Five hundred grand?” Eldon blinked. “You offered me twenty for this.”
“Yeah.” Kenny looked up for a second. “That’s when I thought it would just be a quiet ride in the country. Wouldn’t be right of me not to split this with you even, assuming it sells for the whole mil. Might even get more than that if I hold out on a desperate buyer.”
Eldon grinned. “Now I know why she stayed with your dumb ass.”
Another ghoul spiraled to the ground in a fountain of slime as Eldon shot it in the head. Kenny readied the laser cutter, an oversized laser pistol with a side handle and deflection plate around the barrel. The bright orange beam glowed like a tiny sun, painting the rubble hill in long flickering shadows.
The sound of Eldon’s controlled gunshots and the answering splats serenaded Kenny as he worked. After a minute, he made it most of the way around the rectangular door, but had not quite finished when Eldon yelled.
“Reloading!”
Kenny dropped the cutter and grabbed his rifle, firing in bursts at the endless sea of rad ghouls that had popped up all around them. So many dead made it hard to tell which ones still crawled at them through the ocean of slime and which ones just slid down the hill. He got a half dozen or so by the time Eldon resumed shooting; now in control of his panic, he took careful single shots and double-taps at new arrivals. Their numbers made even that sound like a slow-firing machine gun.
“At least these fuckers die in one shot.” Eldon laughed. “Gotta be alive… Poor bastards.”
A heavy metallic scrape announced the defeat of the safe door. Kenny stowed the cutter and slung the case over his shoulder. With a grunt, he dragged the door out of the hole and let it fall to the side. It landed with a ponderous thud that shook the ground.
Inside the hole, a gold plated revolver sat pristine within a dusty clear plastic case affixed to a wooden base. Engravings covered most of its metal surface, and the mother-of-pearl handgrips bore the scrimshaw likeness of a man that he had never heard of. He lifted the box with care and tucked it under his arm. Sifting through the rest of the stuff, he took a box of old military medals as well as a decorative silver bayonet, also mounted to a wooden plaque.
He threw the shotgun up to Eldon, who caught it with his left hand. Assault rifle in one hand, shotgun in the other, he backed toward the truck, keeping the weapons aimed at the darkness. A ghoul sprang out from within a section of concrete sewer pipe to Eldon’s left, causing him to fire the shotgun. Its body vanished from throat to knees where it stood. Arms and legs fell to the side as the head spun in midair for a fraction of a second before splattering on the ground like a rotten melon.
Eldon winced. “Man, that is just nasty. Defies words.”
“Did you get any on you?” Kenny glanced over as he jogged to the truck.
“Nah, man. I’m good.”
The loot went into a hidden armored cabinet between the rear seats. Kenny thought about putting the cutter back in its proper place, but just tossed it on the seat for now, given the danger.
“You okay?” Kenny smiled at the look on Eldon’s face.
“Man, I saw some wild shit before, but those damn things are a whole new level of wrong.”
Tires spat dirt out in front as Kenny reversed away from the old town. “I figured you got spooked, never saw you open up like that. You always talk about those short controlled bursts.”
“There ain’t no SOP for zombie invasion, man.” Eldon consolidated the ammo from several semi-depleted magazines into one almost full one. “That falls squarely in the whiskey tango foxtrot category.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means improvise.” Eldon slapped the mag into his rifle, smiling at the green ammo readout ticking up to 48.
Kenny rubbed his chin. “By the way, technically they’re not zom… aw, fuck it.” Kenny laughed.
Eldon’s eyebrows merged. “Either way, they’re dead, we’re not.” He motioned
to the back seat. “Was that the thing?”
Kenny leaned back in the seat and tilted his hat forward. “Yep.”
he truck rumbled over the western desert of old Nevada, following long, crumbling roads that stabbed the horizon. Kenny had taken a longer route back; one he knew would avoid any temptation to stop anywhere else. After two days, the wall came into view. A massive barrier of concrete and steel blockaded the entire West City off from the Badlands, it had a series of designated entry points along its route as well as hundreds of laser turrets.
“What are you laughing at?” Eldon glanced over.
“Nothing much. Every time I see the wall, it just reminds me how the Scrags think it’s a curtain of fire that eats the souls of their dead. One Scrag probably saw the lasers fire once… the birth of legends.”
A gate opened at their approach, and Kenny eased the truck over the first speed bump into an airlock-style chamber between the inner and outer wall. Four Division 1 police officers walked out of a small station embedded in the wall. Two orbited while two approached, one on either side.
“Afternoon.” The officer on Kenny’s side looked around at the truck. “Do you have any biological contamination, animal life, fruit, or dangerous substances on board?”
“I think he’s asking about whatever the hell that was you cooked last night.” Eldon chuckled as he handed his ID over.
The woman examined Eldon’s ID and noted he was a former Marine. She handed it back to him with a quick nod and a salute. The officer on Kenny’s side checked his ID longer, but also returned it.
“Found an old milkshake machine in a beat up diner, hoping it’ll sell.”
The other two ran a series of sensors over the truck, looking for any dangerous chemicals or biological matter.
Eldon noticed the lack of mention of the old gun but said nothing until after the police allowed them through the inner gate and drove into the city proper.
“You didn’t tell them about the cowboy piece?” He looked at Kenny with raised eyebrows.
Kenny nodded. “Yep. It ain’t illegal or harmful, and it’s worth a shitload. Just trying to keep it quiet till we get paid. I don’t want it to get held up in customs then get told it disappeared.”
“Noted.” Eldon sat back and closed his eyes, finally able to rest.
Kenny went south along a major elevated highway. The truck sank into its wheels, lowering its profile and trading ground clearance for the ability to go faster. It took about forty minutes to arrive in the area that used to be Baja. California. The contiguous urbanization stopped a few miles shy of where Kenny lived. He smiled as he gazed out over exposed ground, cacti, and the closest thing to open space that the city could offer, glowing in the orange of an early evening sunset. At the southernmost city plates, a ramp led down through the fifty-meter thick backbone of West City and set the truck back upon the Earth.
Home was a large one-story house at the edge of about three quarters of an acre of scrap yard. Rows of junk piled up on top of more junk, sorted by its general type. When not out running around the Badlands, he made a modest living trading in old car parts, cyberware that had gone south, and other things he could find here and there.
Eldon laughed every time he read the signs at the end of each row: ‘Totally Useless Shit’, ‘Useless Shit’, ‘Shit’, ‘Possibly Useful Shit’, and ‘Shit That’ll Sell’.
The truck slid to a halt just inside the main gate, which closed on its own once they had cleared. Eldon’s lime-green hoverbike waited for him on the back porch of the house where he had left it; its gold struts gleamed in the waning light. Kenny collected the valuables from the armored box and left the milkshake machine in the truck bed.
“Beer?” Kenny headed for the door.
“Damn right.”
Kenny went inside with the swag. Eldon gathered his stuff from the truck and made a pile by the bike before going inside. The door led through the kitchen into a large living room with the usual setup of a needlessly large holovid screen, couch, table and little kitschy things Kenny’s wife had put here and there for ambiance.
Eldon took a synth beer from the cabinet, squeezing the button on the side that triggered the chemical cooling process. By the time he fell into the couch, a layer of frost had spread over the can. He took a long beautiful sip of it. Simulated or not, it was just what he needed right now. The sight that greeted him when metal rim lowered out of his vision made some of the beer bubble up in the back of his throat.
Kenny’s daughter, Alyssa, stood in front of him, wearing a coral-colored man’s dress shirt open down the front. From head to bare feet, the only interruption in her unblemished tan was a pair of shiny pink panties that did not leave as much as they should to Eldon’s imagination. She curled her toe into the rug and made a playful lip bite. Dark brown hair with lighter streaks swished back and forth down to her waist as she tilted her head, while trying to put on a sexy grin.
“Hi, Eldon,” she cooed.
It took a second for his mind to process what he looked at.
“Girl, what in the hell are you doin’ running around like that?”
Eldon leaned forward and pulled the shirt closed. “I don’t need to see them little things, child.” He stood up and took a few paces towards the kitchen, shaking his head and trying not to look at her. “Girl, why you gotta do that to your daddy? You know he’s all fucked up, worried about you.”
Alyssa flinched at the unexpected reaction, and folded her arms around herself. She looked about ready to cry as Kenny sprinted into the room, drawn by Eldon shouting. He sagged into a slouch as soon as he saw her. From the side, he could not tell if she had anything on under the shirt.
“Look, man…” Eldon held his hands up.
Kenny gave him a disarming look. “I know… She’s been doing this for a while.”
Eldon relaxed.
“You’re talking about me like I’m not standing ten feet away from you!” Alyssa’s eyes welled up with tears.
“Alyssa…” Kenny held out an arm and walked towards her. She backed up and ran into the rear of the house toward her room.
“Oh, now you want to be here?” Her door slammed after she screamed.
“Look, man… Imma get goin’. Hook me up when the shit sells. Seems you got some things to get sorted.” Eldon finished off the beer in two gulps.
They exchanged a handshake.
“Definitely. Thanks for having my back out there.”
“For a payoff like that, I might be willing to go out there again, zombies or not.” Eldon tossed the empty into the kitchen trash bin from the living room. “It was kind of cool watchin’ them explode.”
“They’re not too dangerous unless they get close.”
“Sounds like my last lady.” Eldon chuckled. “I never saw your ass move that fast in my life. Alright man, later.”
Kenny removed his coat and gun belt, setting them on the table in the dining area as he passed it on his way toward the sobbing. The only response to his knock was the end of the crying. After a minute of nothing, he just walked in. Alyssa lay curled in a ball on the bed with her back to the door. She had changed into a plum colored oversized tee that went down to her shins.
“So what was that about?”
She sniffled.
“You keep on kicking that mine cart, daring it to roll. Someday it’s gonna go and you won’t be able to stop it until it crashes.” He stuffed his hands into his pockets and made a resigned face. “I don’t want you to get hurt.”
“I don’t wanna talk.” She sniffled.
He stepped over the discarded shirt, sitting on the edge of the bed with his back to her. “I know. But we need to.” He pulled his hat off and held it in his lap, staring at it. “You’re mad at me when I leave you at the Rodríguezes’, you’re mad that I left you alone for a week. You’re mad at me for what happened with mom.” For a moment he sat listening to her breathe. “You know I miss her too.”
“Why did you get rid of her the
n?” She wailed.
“That woman was not your mother. That shit she’s on made her a different person. I was afraid she was going to hurt you, or herself. If I could get her off that crap, I…” He choked up. “If we didn’t separate, the police were going to take you away from both of us. I couldn’t live with that.” He let out a long breath. “They made me choose between you or mom, and they wouldn’t have let you stay with her.”
Alyssa pushed herself into a sitting position and glanced through her hair at him. “I thought you hated her.”
Kenny brushed it out of her face. “I hated what happened to her, what she had become. I couldn’t sleep at night worrying if I would come home and find one or both of you dead.” Kenny’s attempt to remain stoic faltered. “I tried… as hard as I could, but she was so erratic. I didn’t want to lose you too.”
She moved next to him, placing one hand on his. “Are you pissed at me?”
He tugged her close with an arm around her shoulders. “Your mother had to leave because of what she did to herself. I never for a minute thought any of it was your fault.”
“Will she ever come back?” Alyssa looked down.
“I can’t say for sure. Me and Eldon just found something worth a lot of money. I’d spend it all if it would fix her.”
After a long pause, he broke the silence. “So why did you give Eldon a peep show?”
Alyssa giggled, blushing. “Umm…” The playfulness faded as she once again became somber. “I guess I wanted to see if you’d care.”
“Why wouldn’t I?” He looked at her in disbelief.
“You’ve been kinda weird lately… ignoring me.”
He pulled her into a one-armed hug, thinking about how the two of them had been inseparable when things were good.
“I’ve had a lot on my mind, mostly about your mother. I know I’ve been moody lately.” He squeezed her. “I’m sorry. It wasn’t fair to you for me to shut down like that.”
“You could have given me a little warning about just running off like that.” Her gaze darted into nowhere as a bad memory got her crying again.
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