The Big Waste (After-Skirmish Book 1)

by C. W. Ashley

  Iggy’s eyes started to adjust to the heavy darkness of the basement as he carefully descended the shrouded steps. From what he could tell the passage was a single person-sized cylinder that had the dark grey sheen of metal. Small slivers of pale green light protruding from underneath his feet as he reached the bottom of the step ladder. The minor illumination was just enough for Iggy to spot the panel of where they keyhole was. Droplets of sweat rained on the back of his hand as he hastily unlocked the floor hatch. There was a loud creak as he pulled it open and his eyes were hit with the harsh green light of the room causing him to stumble. He lost his footing and fell into the basement with a painful crash.

  Fortunately for Iggy, it was not a long fall and he landed on his good shoulder. It was forming a regular-sized bruise but with nothing dislocated or broken. A large ceiling light was flooding the area around him with the sickly light green glow that caused his recent accident. It revealed the room, which was something between a crude laboratory and makeshift hospital room. The hot metal scent of power-tools and industrial machinery blanketed a more subtle smell of fresh blood. Clutching the 2nd key on the ring Iggy reigned in his curiosity about the room and resolved to find the daughter of Hughes, with the lingering confusion as to why she would be kept in such a strange room.

  A large container was immediately visible under a mess of scattered papers and assorted wires. It was shaped like a bulky coffin with smooth edges with a faded set of characters printed across the lid. It read ‘FH-MODE…’ with some unrecognizable letters that may have been scratched off. Iggy’s chest went tight when he spotted a square panel on the lid which had a keyhole roughly the same size as the one on the hatch.

  You really keep your daughter in here, Hughes? In this locked chamber?

  Iggy’s moderate concern was replaced by cold terror when he heard the hard cracking of gunshots on the ground floor above him.

  As Iggy turned the second key on the chamber, there was a series of beeps and flashes coming from around the room. It was as if he set off an alarm during a robbery. The lid of the chamber lifted open automatically, accompanied by the piercing hiss of trapped air. Clouds of white vapor obscured Iggy’s vision as he reached for his 2-2 rifle in cautious instinct. Two red lasers of light cut through the mist and locked on to Iggy like a stare before he felt a slender hand reach past him and snatch his rifle away. In a split second, the vapor cleared enough for him to see the barrel of his own gun pointing at his face.

  His heart was thumping against his ribs like a battering ram. To say he was off-guard was an understatement. One twitch of the trigger could end everything. But the gunshot didn’t come. There were no sounds apart from the fading hiss of the opening chamber, and once Iggy blinked, the owner of the red laser stare and freshly taken rifle came into full view.

  A young-looking female, slight of build and completely naked stood before him, holding the rifle at him with one hand. This drew attention to the fact she only had one hand. Her left arm was lowered to her side and stopped short at the elbow, with no forearm to speak of. But it wasn’t just her arm, she was missing some of her skin too.

  A portion of her face was that of an attractive young woman, her face shape was perfectly angled like a model from a video ad, with high cheekbones and thin but pouting lips that sat just beneath a pert nose. Dark, straight hair fell just past her shoulders, which had its true color obscured by the green glare of the room they were in. But these features were offset by the fact that roughly 40% of her face and body was missing skin, and revealing the true structure underneath: the metal and clear plastic of ‘tin-man’ machinery. Iggy discovered that Hughes’ ‘daughter’ wasn’t his biological offspring, he had built her.

  Still pointing the rifle, her red eyes glowed brighter as her head tilted up and down with her intense gaze as if she was softly ‘scanning’ Iggy before her lips parted to speak.

  “You are not Father, identify yourself,” said the female.

  Her voice was direct and with a slight hint of a metallic reverb. She had the dialect of an automated voice that could be heard in a high-end Citadel shopping center. It was both comforting and unnerving to Iggy to hear it from the most sophisticated looking human-machine he had ever seen.

  “Your father sent me down here! He gave me these keys! Said that you could help us,” Iggy half-shouted in panic, dangling the bloody keys visibly.

  The daughter glanced at the keys before speaking again, not moving the rifle an inch.

  “That’s father’s blood. Has he been wounded or killed?” she said with no discernable emotion.

  “I-I don’t know if he’s still alive. He was shot by poachers; you can hear them upstairs now. They are going to kill all of us.” Iggy said solemnly, forcing himself not to grip his shoulder in pain. He didn’t want to make any sudden movements with a gun trained on him.

  “Father wanted me to ensure your survival?”

  “He...he said you could help, we are all out of options for survival,” Iggy said.

  The ‘daughter’ paused, before dropping her head slightly to examine her own body.

  “Father attached my legs this morning, but I’m still incomplete.” She said as he raised her missing arm to examine it. “I can kill. Let’s engage them,” she said with the slightest hint of enthusiasm in her cold voice.

  She finally lowered the rifle but did not return it, choosing to rest it across her shoulder instead.

  Guess it’s hers now. She didn’t take much convincing though.

  “You’re gonna help us fight them? Just like that?”

  “Just...like that,” she confirmed before taking a few steps back and looking straight at the ceiling hatch that Iggy fell through. “No more counting...” she continued quietly.

  With no warning, she ran straight at Iggy with unbelievable acceleration. He instinctively raised his arms only to have her leap vertically towards him, high enough to step off his shoulder and further launch herself upwards 10 feet through the hatch as if gravity didn’t apply to her. Iggy noted how light she was as she jumped from him. It was as if her body was hollow. She didn’t even make a sound as she landed.

  Guess her new legs work just fine, now how am I gonna get back up there?

  “Don’t hurt the Vampire or Werewolf! They are on our side!” Iggy shouted as he searched for a way to climb back up the ceiling passage to the ground floor.

  He heard the light patter of her metal and flesh feet as she scrambled up the ladder, Iggy knew it was up to her now.

  Chapter 20: Artificiality

  “No more counting, I’m finally living. Take human life to preserve humanity. Father knew best.”

  Her legs thrust her vertically up the ladder through the passageway. She moved with such force and balance that she didn’t need to touch the grip the rungs with her single hand (which was firmly holding the 2-2 rifle by the barrel). The red glow of her eyes switched to green as she scanned the ground floor above her, attempting to get a position on all the living things before entry.

  Clarissa cursed and spat at the two poachers who burst in through the front door as she blasted at them with double-fisted firepower. They were dressed like Desert Military – adorned in beige combat boots, pants and infantry jackets that matched their camouflage skin assault rifles. Their faces were covered with thick tactical goggles and dark brown bandannas. They were trained well, firing back in short controlled bursts at their vampire opponent, steadily pushing forward through the living room, making use of suppressing fire to cover each other’s advance.

  Clarissa’s superhuman abilities were keeping her alive, allowing her to react and move quicker to avoid being caught out of position as she retreated. She was being especially careful to dodge all rays of sunlight that were beaming in through fresh bullet holes in the front wall.

  Clarissa could hear other poachers circling the house. She was too disoriented to estimate the number. She noticed that Sil still had not moved from her original spot and the poachers were getting
dangerously close to her. The dazed werewolf was becoming more aware of her surroundings but was still unfocused, not to mention exhausted.

  The closest Poacher popped out of cover and fired at Clarissa as she ran behind a brick pillar, narrowly missing her head by inches. Wiping her sweat and blood-drenched Mohawk from her face with her wrist, she let off a few rounds of blind fire with her nearly empty pistol. Clarissa snarled with weak frustration as more bullets drilled the environment around her position. She knew she had enough bullets in both guns for one more quick volley of gunfire before she was out. Her mind was in the biggest tug of war with her spirit, between the acceptance and defiance of death. She took a deep sober breath, knowing it could be her last.

  “Sil! Get up and fight! They are gonna take our home!” Clarissa ordered with fury as she let loose with both guns, blasting at the location of the poachers who were now aware of another hostile in the room.

  Sil’s ears finally picked up, and she pulled herself to her feet. “Rissa’s...home...Nishin’s home...our home!” Sil roared mightily and leaped from her crouched position bearing claws at the poachers.

  Sil slammed one to the ground. The second turned his gun on her. Clarissa’s final revolver round tore through his arm, knocking him to the floor and sending his rifle flying. The rifle skidded across the torn carpet and landed underneath a thick beam of sunlight.

  “FUCK!” Clarissa shouted as she ran back into the room towards the downed poacher. A hail of bullets punched through the front wall from outside. She stumbled back as more sunlight filled the room and blocked her path to the poacher’s end of the room completely.

  Sil fought the poacher she pounced on with spirit and grit, but was so fatigued she could barely land a slash with her claws. Her swings were sluggish, her strength gone. The combat-trained poacher was able to block most of her attacks before driving a hard counter-punch into her chin, followed by a lifting knee to the gut. Sil’s hard skin absorbed most of the damage, but her lack of balance caused her to stagger from the blows, giving the poacher time to aim his rifle at her head.

  A new gunshot sound jolted Clarissa to her bones as she turned to witnessed the red explosion of a bullet-popped skull. The Poacher’s headless torso fell to the floor beside blood-soaked Sil, arms still flailing wildly without any follow-up messages from the now missing brain. The android daughter had demonstrated the power of the 2-2 rifle on a human head, with one-handed aim.

  Before Sil or Clarissa could react, the remaining poacher dove for his weapon upon hearing the gunshot and fired on the daughter from a prone position. She was already moving in a running jump. Launching herself so high in the air she was able to push herself off the ceiling to dive-bomb at her new opponent at a cutting angle avoiding all gunfire in dramatic fashion.

  Clarissa’s open-mouthed stare told the tale of someone who had never seen a diving tackle performed before, and certainly not by a naked half metal girl at that. Though her descent was swift, the impact was light. The daughter’s agility was balanced with her almost weightless frame which wasn’t powerful enough to disarm the rising poacher, who was able to shove her to the floor before training his sights on her to shoot.

  Sil intervened with a hard swipe of her claws behind his knee, almost severing the leg with one swipe. The first audible scream was heard from the poacher, gruff and raspy as he hit the floor once again, and cut short when the lithe android sank a broken shard of one of the ceramic plates into his neck. Sil and Clarissa stared in awe at the mysterious female who had just eliminated two poachers in front of them. The daughter’s gaze fell on the now very dead body of her father which she quietly acknowledged before turning between Sil and Clarissa.

  “There are hostiles remaining, chances of survival for you are both slim,” she said coldly.

  Clarissa scowled at the tone, trying to hide her exhale of relief. “Speak for yourself, Tin-Girl,” Clarissa scoffed as she eyed the smoking rifle. “But how did you get that gun?”

  “I took it off him.”

  “By force?” Clarissa demanded.

  “He offered almost no resistance,” the daughter said coolly.

  Clarissa balled her fists, stepping into the room but still well away from the sunlight. “Y-you...couldn’t! he was wounded...he was…”

  “Nishin!” Sil barked over Clarissa, motioning towards the kitchen.

  Iggy hoisted himself out of the hidden cabinet, clutching his shoulder as he slowly found the floor under his feet. His eyes widened at the sight of the poacher corpses on the ground, before turning back to the daughter.

  “You could have helped me out of there you know! Stacking those boxes to reach the exit took too long!” He complained as he simultaneously acknowledged that Sil and Clarissa were still alive.

  “This is his daughter? She don’t look like a Blightspawn to me,” Clarissa snapped at Iggy.

  The daughter ignored the comment and removed the jacket from the headless poacher before pulling it on. Iggy wasn’t sure if she felt modesty for her nudity or it was strictly practical.

  Sil slowly rose to her feet sniffing the air wildly around the daughter as Iggy picked up the two assault rifles, throwing one to Clarissa.

  “Metal Girl...push Nishin?” Sil asked with a raspy grumble, followed by a loud chuckle from Clarissa as she cocked her new gun.

  “No Sil, I just woke her up to help-”

  Iggy’s bashful explanation was cut short by a large explosion on the kitchen wall. Bricks, plaster, and dust propelled into the living room like a frag grenade, followed by a number of thumping footsteps and muffled yelling. The daughter saw straight through the dust and yanked a stunned Iggy into cover by the pillar before the gunfire filled the room.

  “We need to get to the car now!” Iggy screamed as the group shuffled through the doorway into the garage. Sil paused with hesitation, sniffing around the house one last time before darting after them, narrowly avoiding the poacher’s aim on her way out.

  “I count 3 hostiles inside father’s house, but I can’t detect the remaining number outside.” the daughter said calmly as Iggy opened the Blockgain, shuffling Clarissa into the backseat.

  “They hunt in groups of 4, and I doubt they’d send more than two teams after me and Hughes. With the two you killed in the house there should be three outside,” Iggy deduced as he waved Sil over, who scrambled in the backseat with Clarissa, who embraced her warmly as she entered.

  “Nice arithmetic, Crasher, no better foreplay for a tin-girl than mathematics.” Clarissa snarked, masking her physical pain with humor.

  Ignoring the vampire, Iggy handed the other assault rifle to the android before climbing into the Blockgain with her and gunning the engine, just as the poachers burst in the garage, firing on the car.

  “HOLD ON!” Iggy screamed as the Blockgain roared to life, exploding into acceleration which launched it through the garage door and out into the green hills. Clarissa held Sil tightly as she heard stray bullets slamming into the car, hoping that none of them would punch through the sun blockers that were keeping her from being incinerated by the daylight. Iggy swerved the Blockgain round a grassy knoll and back on the forest path he entered, hoping to lose the poachers but still get back on track to Maim Creek.

  Chapter 21: Help Wanted

  The thick canopy of the forest created a dazzling natural light show. Fractions of sunlight cut through the heavy network of leaves that partially lit the path to Iggy’s escape as he swallowed large gulps of delicious tree-fresh oxygen, in mild disbelief that he survived an encounter with multiple citadel poachers. Beside him, the android daughter was attempting to reload the assault rifle with a spare mag that she pulled from the pocket of the poacher jacket she was wearing, though it was a somewhat difficult task with only one hand.

  “Crasher! Are we out of there? I can’t hear any more gunshots,” Clarissa said into the voice box, once again blind to the world outside of the backseat.

  “Yeah, I’m heading back through the original
path through to Maim Creek, whatever ambush was waiting there came straight to the Hughes’ house. I’m gonna cut through the mountains, we still got 3 hours,” Iggy responded as the Blockgain shook with turbulence over the dirt terrain.

  "You and Sil are lucky this job is nearly over. You gonna fuck around and get me killed with that bounty," Clarissa grumbled.

  "I had no idea about Malkin and Nails, never thought citizens would be living a double life in a shell,” Iggy protested.

  "But if you did know, would it have made any difference? Would they still be alive?" Clarissa asked pointedly while stroking Sil's rough hair.

  Iggy's mind played back the grisly result of his rescue. His stomach turned with guilt and horror of his capability to end lives with his vehicle. "They gave me no choice. They chose to hunt Sil, so I got involved," Iggy said with steel cold conviction. Sil was dipping in and out of consciousness, but she was still aware that Iggy's tone was serious.

  The daughter slapped in the new magazine and cocked the rifle before resting it across her lap. Her head turned towards Iggy mechanically as he drove, her eyes focused but vacant, glowing the softest hue of green.

  "You're Randall Gainsborough, twenty-seven years old, born in Athens. Human. Considered extremely dangerous operating a vehicle," the daughter stated as if she was reading a dossier.

  "That sounds like my citadel Wanted Record," Iggy said nonchalantly. "What should we call you then?" Iggy asked as he glanced at her flesh and mechanical patchwork body.

  The daughter's eyes lost their green tinge as she moved her empty gaze from Iggy's face to her handless arm as if she was trying to make sense of her own existence. "Father was going to tell me a name when I was complete. But I saw no label before leaving."

  "The name on your container said FH-MODE with the rest of the letters scratched off, any idea wha-" Iggy began.