by C. W. Ashley
“I told you, she was never going to go for it. This is why we had to do this here, Richter. She would have had me strung up from the towers if I had told her this back in Folsom!” Grady ranted, throwing his thick arms up in frustration.
“You had to do this here? You had to punch her out and make a permanent enemy out of her? We could have smoothed it over and had her transferred! Now we are probably going to have to kill her.” Baker replied in a calmer but equally blunt tone.
“Fucking kill her then, just make sure you do it properly, this bitch has taken shots to the head before. It put her down but didn’t finish her,” Yotie spat while pointing at the knocked-out Landlady. Grady dropped his head again and took a deep breath before lifting her limp body on the pool table.
“Aright....just make it quick. Knife to the heart, drive it deep. Clean and painless.”
Richter nodded at Yotie and the lead henchmen began to punch in Koi’s number into his communicator. Richter walked over to Clarissa and ran the back of his hand down the Vampire’s cheek before Grady slapped it away with a look of deadly rage.
“Don’t touch her, Ricky. Don’t even say her name. Just get it done.”
Baker looked deep into the black pools of Grady’s fish eyes before scoffing and turning towards Yotie and motioning him closer to them, away from the door. The mutant stepped between them and looked between Grady and Baker curiously.
“I just told Koi we were gonna crease her, but you look like you got an idea, Baker,” Yotie said with a smirk.
“Yeah, I do. Why kill her when we can make some money? I just remembered that the Thorn institute was looking for new attendees,” Baker mused before stroking his chin. “How much do you think they’d pay for a Vampire with a body like hers?”
Grady’s eyes widened and his lips parted with mild shock. Yotie glanced at the sleeping vampire in thought before licking his lips with a fat yellow tongue.
“Them horny Thornys would pay at least two mil for her. She’s a security risk though, don’t know if a high-end house would be able to keep her under control,” Yotie said in a hushed voice as he glanced between Baker and the front door.
“It ain’t no ‘House’ you squid faced fuck, it’s a torture fetish prison for rich Citi-Sicks. Do you know what they’ll do to her there!?” Grady said in an unfamiliar thunderous growl as he stepped towards the smaller Yotie in a threatening manner.
“She’ll be tortured, raped in half and fed to the highest bidders,” Baker said calmly. “But that 2 million will go a long way, especially with your upcoming takeover, Grady. So, we are going to go with the paying option.” Baker gently pushed aside the slightly quivering Yotie and pushed his chiselled face right up to Grady’s, showing no fear or remorse. “Or you can kill her, and be 2 million in the hole with Cook’s gang. Make a decision.”
Yotie gazed at Baker’s unflinching stance with awe as the lithe human underboss stared down the gigantic red mutant, who took a step back before wiping his hand across his scaled forehead.
“Do what you’re gonna do,” Grady said in surrender.
Baker nodded at Yotie and grabbed his long-coat from a nearby coat rack before opening the door and waving two of his guards in. Both of the helmeted mutants were momentarily stunned to see Clarissa out cold on a pool table but quickly refocused when Baker ordered them to bind her and prepare her for transport.
“Okay, get the cars. I’ve kept Cook waiting long enough. You and Koi are in charge of her delivery and price negotiation. Grady, it’s been a long fucking day. Just go back to Folsom and take tomorrow off. I’ll call you when I’m back from HQ,” Baker said as he left the office in a swift manner.
Grady took a deep breath and looked at his former mentor with hollow eyes as the guards fastened black cords around her hands and feet and carried her away.
Yotie redialled for Koi but there was no answer. He stared at the phone intently, desperate not to make eye contact with Grady until the large mutant finally left the room. After a few more tries the communicator finally crackled on and Yotie heard his long-time partner’s voice.
“It’s Koi, can you please open the front gate? Randall and his companions have repaired their car and departed.”
“Randall!? Ya mean the Citi-Crasher?” Yotie asked, slightly surprised. “Ya be talkin’ like a damn Citi professor, don’t be pickin’ that talk up from em, it don’t suit ya.”
“You...Ya right, jus...open the door, fuckin, door.” the voice said.
“Yeah...yeah, fine. We gotta leave right away for a drop off anyway so make it quick.” Yotie responded before ending the call and walking over to the door controls outside.
“I gotta get whatever powder be giving her that Citi-speak, holy shit,” Yotie mumbled to himself.
Slowly, as the front gate craned open, Yotie patted himself down for a cigarillo and headed for the toilet room, his bladder ready to burst after Grady was in his face. The mercenaries in the hideout began to pack up their gear and leave for HQ on Baker's orders, so they didn’t pay much mind to the open front gate, or the intruder that entered.
Chapter 25: Ladykillers
The hideout was in full motion. The two dozen or so armed gang enforcers along with a handful of outlaw associates were packing their guns, powder, food, and valuables into crates, ready to be loaded onto their vehicles. The doors and gates were being locked down at every ‘station’ and shutters were being pulled down over stalls and workshops. Without the gang members and their loot, it would be hard for the average Wastelander to know the train station was an underboss hideout, which was undoubtedly the point. The creaking, slamming and hissing of hydraulic metal doors combined with coarse gang chatter and the thumping industrial hip hop would create the perfect cover for a noisier intruder. But for the almost silent entrance of Mode, it was just another distraction.
The lithe android avoided the well-lit platforms of the hideout, instead using the high verticality to traverse undetected. With perfect balance and precision, Mode leaped from across a network of pipes and steel beams that hung like tree branches across the ceiling. Even with her single hand, every step, jump, swing, and landing was perfect. She effortlessly balanced on narrow pipes that were half the width of her feet as she crouched to scan the space beneath her. Mode was able to pick up Clarissa’s location quickly; surrounded by 5 heavily armed guards she was tied to a gurney which was being prepared for loading inside a large D-class pickup truck known as a workhorse.
Her green scanning eyes slowly began to shift to red as she jumped to a new platform, putting her above a large network of wires which converged at a humming generator. The large machine was guarded by a single mutant outlaw who was nodding his head to the current song blaring through the hideout; ‘Case of Rickets’ by The Boil.
Mode reached into her poacher jacket’s main pocket to retrieve a shard of broken glass, no bigger than her palm. Both her pockets were filled with them, collected from the smashed window of the gas station. With a simple flick of her wrist, she hurled the glimmering shard downwards with deadly precision, sinking it deep into the un-armored neck of the outlaw mutant. Despite seeing his own blood spew out over his chest like a garden hose, the loudest sound he could muster was a hiss and a gargle before he collapsed to the floor, pawing at his throat before expiring.
After confirming the kill was unseen, Mode fell down to the fuse box platform silently. She pulled out Koi’s communicator from her inside pocket and dialled the extension for the Blockgain’s channel.
“Randall, I’m in position,” Mode whispered.
“Good work! How long will the fuse box take?” Iggy asked over the communicator with a hushed voice.
“It will take three seconds.”
Mode lifted her newly-attached shock-prod tool that pulsed with live sparks. It had its two-prongs altered to resemble a long double hook for practical use as per Iggy’s suggestion.
“Alright, try to remain hidden okay?” Iggy said over the sound of the Blockgain’s
engine rev in the background. “Remember, Clarissa is our top priority.”
“Affirmative Randall, I will retrieve her,” Mode said.
Mode ended the call and punched her shock-prod arm inside of the fuse box, instantly piercing the panel protecting the switchboard and activated the tool to full power. It pumped crackling electricity across the fuse matrix and violently shorted out all power in the hideout. Everything went black, and all the sound of machinery went dead. The silence was replaced by the confused murmurs and half-panicked shouts of the gang inside, who were scrambling through their recently packed cargo for flashlights.
“Which one of ya stupid pricks took a whizzle on the third rail?” Yotie shouted with amusement as he emerged from the bathroom.
“I left Matchlock posted near the fuse box. Probably fucked around trying to charge his portable-vid,” said the outlaw Greem.
“Just find some lights and let’s get out of here. We can call maintenance when we come back. I don’t care if the door is open. There is nothing to steal here,” shouted Baker as he dragged a sack full of silver powder out of his bedroom.
“FIND THE LIGHTS!” Greem shouted to a group of shadowed gang members who were rummaging blindly through their cargo. “Hey Yotie, why the fuck is the front door still open? I didn’t see Koi come in?”
Yotie glanced at the wide-open door in suspicion before attempting an explanation to his fellow outlaw. But before he could speak, he witnessed two small red lights behind Greem, illuminating the space in front of them in a mild crimson.
“Ah, I see someone found a fuckin’ ligh-”
Greem’s voice morphed into a desperate wretch as blood ejected from his neck in chaotic fashion. Yotie couldn’t muster a gasp before his comrade dropped to the floor as a twitching corpse, and the two red lights vanished from view. Instinctively grabbing his pistol from his hip, the panicked outlaw fired two shots into the air yelling at the top of his lungs.
“We got a break in! Get the lights on!”
The entire hideout was now on high alert. Narrow beams of light illuminated sections of the tunnel, most of which were flashlight gun attachments. Bursts of fire rattled through the air aimlessly as the panicked gang fired in the dark with little idea of what they were shooting at. Keeping his head down, Yotie ran towards the parked vehicles at the end of the train tunnel listening to chaotic cries of confusion as he went.
“Where the fuck are they?”
“How many of them?!”
“Shit they got Claine in the neck!”
“Fuck! Someone get those lights on!!”
Grady, who was still in the office when the lights went out was startled by the screaming and gunfire. He cautiously emerged from the door to find both office guards dead with bloody throats and eyes as wide as waste-geckos.
“I’d never hire you two for tower security,” Grady scoffed before relieving the corpses of their submachine guns.
Crouching behind a railing panel with both guns held near his neck, he took a deep breath and tuned all the noise from his mind, letting his black eyes fully adapt to the darkness. Between the room flashing bright with gunfire every couple of seconds, Grady’s advanced eyesight locked him on to the red glare of Mode’s eyes and the crackling light of her new arm.
“Damn girl, you move fast…”
Grady carefully took aim and waited for Mode to leap to a set of beams that were right within his sights.
“Gotcha!”
With both guns, Grady squeezed off a hell-storm of fire at the android with bullets wildly slamming into the infrastructure all over the ceiling of the station. Mode was struck with a couple of rounds to the leg which caused her to miss her mark. She fell into the destination board directly above the 2nd platform, barely managing to hang on to the corner of it with her opposable hand.
“There she is ya dumbasses! The destination board! Watch out for the red eyes!” Grady yelled to the gang before making a sprint to the parking area, tossing both of his submachine guns aside.
The destination board was lit up with inaccurate but heavy gunfire and Mode was forced to let go and fall to the rails beneath her. Not being able to land correctly with a damaged leg, the android smashed against the tracks, causing her shin to break. Scrambling into a hopping motion, she began a slow retreat as the gang located the area where she fell and closed in.
Just as the crowd of henchmen began to gather around the platform, a new source of light flooded the hideout, along with the mighty rumble of a muscle car engine.
Just like pins in a bowling alley.
The Blockgain Chaser tore through the darkness, blazing its harsh headlights in the path of its speeding charge. Just over a dozen were grouped together in the same spot, and only had time to gasp before the derby vehicle plowed into them. The impact was wickedly violent; decapitating the bodies on direct impact while crushing and slicing through the rest. Iggy slammed the brakes and careened into a 180-degree turn before catapulting along the rest of the platform, smashing into everything he could see, living or not.
“Mode! Are you okay? Did you find Clarissa?!” Iggy shouted into his car’s built-in communicator as the car finally skidded to a stop.
“R-Randall, the fuuuse box aff-fected my s-scanners, plus I have been d-damaged further...S-she is not in my immedi-di-diate area.” Mode said with a static, malfunctioning voice.
“Shit! I’ll have to get out of the car, stay there!” Iggy said with heavy panic and dread in his voice.
“Aff-f-f-firmaaaat-ive.”
A few stray bullets slammed into the Blockgain Chaser’s new armor, reinforced by some of the platings from the wrecked interceptor. As the last few gang members jumped off the platform to avoid the roaming vehicle, Yotie stepped on to the far end of the platform, brandishing his rocket launcher.
“So it was you guys! We shoulda creased ya when we saw ya,” Yotie shouted as he took careful aim. “This is for Koi, Citi-slick!”
As he went to pull the trigger for his heavy weapon Yotie was halted by a devastating stabbing pain in his shoulder, crying out and dropping to one knee. He turned around to the shadowy figure with burning white eyes who had buried a clawed hand right below his collarbone.
“You...not...explode home!” Sil barked deeply, leaning closer towards the shaking mutant.
“YYYYAARRRRRRRGGHH!!!”
With one savage motion, Sil tore Yotie’s arm from his torso leaving his helpless body to flop around in agony as blood gushed from the gory stump.
“Sil!!! Find Clarissa! Get her ou-” Iggy shouted as he exited his car, interrupted by gunfire from some remaining gangsters alerted to his position.
The wild female sniffed the air obsessively, trying to pick up the vampire’s scent. The stench of machinery and gunpowder obscured the trail, but Sil found a general direction and began to trot over to it, also watching for enemies in the dark with her nocturnal vision.
Iggy, armed with his Elephant Revolver crouched low as he slithered out of the line of fire, knowing that the cover of darkness was the only thing keeping him alive. Palming his way past the structures on the platform Iggy squinted his eyes, looking for any sign of his android companion, hoping the remaining gunmen wouldn’t see the same indication.
A single pair of red lights flashed once which Iggy took as the most discreet signal that Mode would offer and scampered towards it as silently as possible. The red eyes flashed once again, revealing Mode to be on the train tracks in a crippled state.
“Shh, Mode, I’m gonna get you back to the car,” Iggy whispered while scooping the android up, wincing at her mangled leg. “Sil will get Clarissa and we will get out of here; I’ll fix you up...I’ll fix you…”
Iggy lifted her extremely light wounded body back onto the platform before climbing on to join her on it. As he kneeled down to lift her back up, Mode’s eyes flashed brighter than they have ever been.
“Randall! Evaaade!”
Mode’s shouting voice was just enough to startle Iggy in
to a duck, which caused a bullet to tear past his scalp instead of inside it. The flash of the gunshot revealed the tall slim shooter, Richter Baker. Iggy instinctively drew his Revolver and fired back, once again unprepared for the recoil of the weapon and missing wildly, only causing Baker to flinch before closing in for another shot.
“I can see in the dark, Citizen. Stop fidgeting about and let me aim,” Richter taunted before firing another shot that sunk directly into Iggy’s thigh.
Iggy dropped to the floor with a yelp and raised attempted to raise the revolver to return fire, only to find his pain-stricken body unable to hold the gun straight, also barely being able to see his target in the shadows. As he grunted in frustration, the tall underboss came into point-blank range before smacking the revolver from his hand before centering his pistol on Iggy’s forehead.
“You cost me a lot of fucking money.”
“I... Will preserve your...Life Randall”
Mode’s warped voice was followed by the buzzing jolt of her shock-prod as she jammed it into Baker’s ribs from a downed position, completely catching him off guard. Mode could only muster a small shock but it was enough to jerk his firing hand to shoot wide and firing clear of Iggy’s head. Seeing his chance, the wounded Driver charged Baker with a full-bodied tackle. It knocked them both to the floor with Iggy mounting him, throwing desperate punches with his brief advantage while cursing through his teeth.
“You...fuck! I heard everything!” Iggy grunted as rained his fists into Baker’s chiseled face. “You were gonna take her to the Thorn! You sick-fuck!”
Once the shock wore off, Baker began to scramble off his back, tying up Iggy’s arms and stifling his attack. Demonstrating his strength and durability, he laughed in the face of Iggy’s assault.
“Hah! You simp! She isn’t that good, Citi-boy, stick with your comfort bot’s pussy.” Baker taunted before snatching Iggy’s wrist and pulling it backward following with an incredibly hard gut punch from the bottom.