by Logan Jacobs
“Gah, I have to do everything,” she grumbled. I caught a glimpse of her through the access hatch as she crawled past the opening and toward the juncture where the truck was connected to the cab. Then there was a loud boom, and the Flame-Rat on my left had his head explode. Blood spurted in a dark blue geyser from his neck stump, and the body crumpled back into the car, flamethrowers still spewing fire. The inside of the car lit up with flames, and it swerved off. I could hear the driver screaming over all the chaos. Served him right.
There was another boom, and the flames on the right flew wide and straight up into the sky. The interceptor car overcorrected and smashed into the side of the Behemoth, so I turned into it and pressed down on the gas pedal. The car’s front tires blew out and the back tires of the truck rode up on top of the little VW Bug on crack, crushing the entire top of it. The Behemoth bounced and swerved as it crushed the car beneath the rear axle. I struggled but got it back under control just as Tempest crawled out of the access hatch and clambered back into the passenger seat.
“Thanks,” I said through gritted teeth.
“You're welcome,” she smiled arrogantly. “Anything else you need me to do, oh great--”
I didn’t hear the rest of the sentence because a crossbow bolt shot through my shoulder, and I was yanked out of the driver’s seat of the truck and out into the air. The pain took backstage to the shock that I was now sailing through the air for some reason. I saw the bright purple sky overhead and heard the harsh whine of engines all around me, and then I slammed into the platform on the back of the flame decorated Hot-Rod right next to Cyber-Babe.
A thin metal cable lay spooled all around me and Cyber-Babe held the other end in her metallic hands.
I heard Master in the cab cackle maniacally, but the agony in my shoulder was keeping me from giving my usual witty comeback.
“Slang him, Jaxer,” the freaky little dude cried and clapped his hands. “Slang him!”
Cyber-babe, aka Jaxer, grinned wickedly, grabbed me by the front of my jacket, and hauled me to my feet. I hadn’t noticed earlier but she was easily seven feet tall so I stared right into her surprisingly big and pert cybernetic boobs. She cocked her arm back for a head smashing punch while she held me still with her vice like left hand.
I didn’t see any other choice, so I leaned in and bit her tit.
Hard.
My mouth was flooded with the sour, electric taste of aluminum, like chewing a gum wrapper attached to a nine volt battery. The metal crunched, sounding just like a soda can being crumpled, and Jaxer cried out in pain. Her hand loosened on my jacket and I brought my good arm around to drive the elbow into her forearm. I drew my Equalizer and swung it up to shoot the cyber-bitch in the face but a Road Rat intercepter crashed into the side of the Hot-Rod, and my shot went wild. Right into Blaster’s head. His purple brains splattered on the inside of the windshield, and his foot must have slammed on the gas because we shot forward so fast I almost flew off the platform.
Through the back window of the Hot-Rod I watched as Master tried to grab the steering wheel to get control of the wildly swerving car. Fire shot from the engine blowers, and we continued to gain speed. Jaxer had been thrown up and almost completely away from the car, but she held onto the roll bar with one hand.
I had to holster the Equalizer to keep from being tossed from the platform, but once I managed to steady myself, I yanked the crossbow bolt out of my shoulder. The pain was excruciating before the regen mod locked it down for me. Thankfully it, plus the amount of adrenaline coursing through my veins, meant I was still able to use the arm despite the damage and pain.
The Hot-Rod was going so fast that we’d outpaced the Behemoth and were now in front of it. I risked a glance backward and saw Tempest at the wheel. She tossed me a casual wave as if we were motorists in nothing more than a little morning traffic.
“Hang on, Marc,” she said into the comm. “Coming to get you.”
The Behemoth lurched forward and began to gain on the Hot-Rod. Once she was close enough, my plan was to hop onto the front of the truck and climb back inside but that plan got ruined as Monster-Truck cut Tempest off and began to swerve back and forth in between us.
My attention got brought back to the platform because Jaxer had managed to get back up, and she was pissed.
Then she started throwing metal punches at me.
I used the crossbow bolt as a makeshift club and started to fend off her powerful, robotically enhanced blows. She was fast and very fucking strong, but I could see the little burst of green electricity flow to her cyber-muscles just before she threw a punch, so I was able to predict them a bit. I threw a few quick punches of my own but her skin was touch and somewhat flexible so that my fists just glanced off.
An engine roar from behind me told me that Monster-Truck was gaining. If Jaxer didn’t knock my block off, Monster-Truck was probably going to crush me, so I had to get off this fucking car pronto.
Then I caught a blow from Jaxer that glanced off the top of my head.
I spun to the right and saw stars for a second before I tried to scramble around behind the hulking cyber-babe. That’s when I noticed that her feet were all wrapped in the cable that was still connected to the crossbow bow that I held in my hands.
I looked between her and the huge spinning tires of the fast approaching Monster-Truck. Jaxer reached out to grab a hold of me, and I threw the crossbow bolt right into the front wheel well of the Monster-Truck.
It got caught up and then wrapped up in the twirling axle. It acted like a winch and yanked Jaxer clear off the back of the Hot-Rod. Her very human face went wide in utter shock just before she was crushed into a tangle of broken metal and green goo in the wheels of the Monster-Truck.
The Behemoth was hot on Monster-Truck’s tail as the alien beast bore down on the Hot-Rod. Just as it was about to overtake the slowing Hot-Rod I jumped up and flung myself onto the hood of the Monster-Truck and ran up the windshield, across the flatbed, drew my Equalizer, and shot the lone lancer in the back before I hopped onto the front of the Behemoth as it slammed into the Monster-Truck.
Monster-Truck went over the top of the Hot-Rod, crushing it practically flat, and then went into a wild spin off to the right, and our path was clear. It pulled out of the spin and tried to catch back up but was beset by Biker Boys. As I climbed over the hood and into the passenger seat of the Behemoth, I lost the Monster-Truck as it disappeared in a cloud of dust.
“Hey there, big fella, you need a lift?” Tempest said and winked at me.
“Anywhere but here, babe,” I replied and grinned back at her. Then I pulled my jacket aside to check on my wound. The regen mod had stopped the bleeding, and I could feel the flesh starting to stitch itself back together. My shoulder was a little stiff but otherwise seemed to be working okay. I took the brief respite to reload my pistol, grab the carbine from the floorboards, and take my chainsaw-on-a-chain from the backseat and set it at my feet.
“And then there were three!” Chi-Cheshire smiled forty feet wide up in the sky. “Our three remaining teams have secured a spot at the finish line. If they can survive that long that is!”
“That doesn’t sound good,” I mentioned.
As the grinning cat's face disappeared and it was replaced by swirling clouds that seemed to form from out of nowhere. Lightning flashed across the clouds in thick, bright blue forks. Thunder crashed.
I noticed that the Biker Boys had pulled away from the chase and were now headed in the opposite direction. Even the Road Rat interceptor cars were slowing.
Far off to the right I thought I caught a glimpse of Vex on his sleek, black hog, but then the sky opened up in a downpour of hail the size of golf balls.
“Aurora! Nova! PoLarr!” I yelled into the comm. “Get in here.”
A few moments later my sexy alliance mates all crammed into the backseat of the truck, and I gave them a quick once over. They all had various cuts and scrapes, but for the most part we looked okay.
“Aurora,” I said and pointed to the big open spot, “can you shield that for a bit?”
“I think I can manage that, sugar,” she replied with a deep breath. “Now that we aren’t swatting those angry little flies anymore.”
“You good to drive, Tempest?” I asked.
“Yeah, I’m five by five big guy,” she replied.
“Good, cause I think our trip is about to get real bumpy,” I said and watched as the storm clouds roiled above us and the desert road became slick with hail and mud. “We need to get out of this.”
“Yeah, but where?” Nova asked.
Up to the left, I saw the shadowy outline of a canyon. I engaged my Occuhancer and was able to make out that odd looking petrified trees made a kind of canopy over the top of the wide canyon.
“Let’s try that,” I suggested and pointed toward the canyon. “What could go wrong?”
With a shrug, Tempest turned the wheel, and we entered the dark mouth of the canyon.
Chapter Eighteen
The second we were in the canyon the wind and hail died down to a manageable level. The road through the thirty foot high cliffs was wide enough for four Behemoth’s and wound like a slowly moving snake through what had once, eons ago, been majestic mountains. Tempest hit the lights, and bright cones of light illuminated our way in the darkness created by the storm. I thought I spotted some tire tracks in the mud but couldn’t be sure. They had been thin, like motorcycle tires, but also could have just been dirt moved by the sudden downpour which seemed to be letting up as quickly as it had started.
Sporadic hail still pelted the cab and pinged off the armor of the truck, but I was no longer worried that it was going to shatter the windshield.
We’d gone maybe a mile and a half into the canyon when the clouds overhead broke and dissipated as if they had never been. The blazing red Cruxian sun beat down once again. The evaporating moisture from the rain made the valley humid as hell and soon we were all drenched in sweat.
Tempest killed the lights because we now had to squint in the harsh red light of day. We moved slowly through the canyon doing only about forty-five miles an hour. It was hard to see what was around the next curve and bend in the stone walled valley.
As Tempest drove, I took a few moments to study the canyon walls. There was something about them that was weird. Up near the edge, maybe twenty-five feet, there were large, equally spaced cave entrances just below the lip of the cliffs. They looked too uniform to be nature made. And that’s when a thought hit me. Something Chi-Cheshire had said maybe only thirty or forty minutes earlier but in the blood, fire, and chaos I had forgotten.
“Oh, shit,” I muttered.
“What, sugar?” Aurora asked and stifled a yawn. Not that she was tired, but it was a side effect of the amounts of adrenaline that had been surging through us.
“I think this might be Gore Gorge,” I said with a grimace. “Ooops.”
“What are you talking about, Marc?” Nova asked and poked her head up between the seats.
“Chi-Cheshire mentioned it when the last leg of the race started,” I admitted. “I think this just might be it.”
“Oh, yeah,” PoLarr chimed in. “Well, it sounded inevitable so, no oops.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” I shrugged. “Doesn’t seem too bad so far.”
That's when three things happened all at once.
First, jet-engine wails blasted from the weird cave entrances twenty-five feet above us and reverberated through the canyon like shrieking turbo-fueled banshees. A second later ten hang-glider things burst from the caves with leather capped, goggle wearing, long armed aliens strapped under them. The aliens fingers were tipped with glinting razor talons. The gliders had turbine engines lashed to the top of them, and they swooped into the canyon like vultures on the scent of fresh carrion.
Second, the Monster-Truck shot over the edge of the cliffs above us, and its driver screamed a loud war cry. The passenger had taken the place of the lancers in the back and held an explosive tipped spear high above his head. The Monster-Truck was battered and dented like the sides of a golf ball. Its windshield was gone, and the wind whipped frothy spit from the driver’s mouth as he yelled.
Third, Vex flew over the edge of the opposite cliff on his apocalypse-chopper. Two of the Vultures attempted to pick him from the air, but in a flash, he pulled his compact bow from the handlebars of the bike, turned in the saddle like some kind of futuristic Apache warrior, and loosed two electrified arrows at the Vultures. The arrows hit their targets, and the jet-powered hang gliders spiraled and crashed into the side of the cliff in balls of flame.
The Monster-Truck and Vex landed at exactly the same time thanks to Newton’s second law, which held true even light years away from Earth, twenty yards ahead of us.
“Okay, that’s our cue to go,” I urged Tempest.
“Yeah,” she nodded, put the truck in gear, and slammed on the gas.
“Might be time for you guys to head back out,” I said to the ladies in the back seat.
“Already on it,” Nova replied as the three ladies climbed down the access hatch and out to their positions on the truck.
When I looked ahead, I was greeted by the sight of utter mayhem.
Vultures swooped in and tried to snatch the lancer in the back of the Monster-Truck. He managed to keep them at bay with his spears as he hurled them up at the flying scavengers. Usually they missed, and explosions rocked the sides of the canyon causing several rock slides.
Vex fared much better against the Vultures. The ones that dared get close enough to try to pick him off got neatly sliced in half by his vibra-sword which spun in bright blue circles around him. At one point he glanced behind him, and I swore our eyes locked. I felt a tingle in my brain as if poked by an angry finger. I poked back with my own angry thoughts and thought I saw his bike swerve just a tiny bit.
I was pulled away from shooting hateful eye-daggers at the NecroWraith when I heard the shriek of tearing metal, and the roof of the cab tore off like a can lid. A Vulture stood poised on top of the truck. The wings of the hang glider had folded in like an F-14’s so that the wind drag didn’t rip him from the truck. His metal taloned fingers started to reach for Tempest.
I spun in my seat as I whipped the Eradicator up to my shoulder and pulled the trigger. The blast was loud in the confines of the truck, but my aim had been true and crimson flowers bloomed bright from the Vulture's groin to his sternum. He pitched from the side of the truck and fell beneath the back wheels. The hang gliders must have run on high test rocket fuel because when he hit the ground it exploded in a ball of flame that tossed the back end of the trailer six feet into the air.
PoLarr yelled into the comm and through the new sun roof I saw her fly into the air where she was caught by a swooping Vulture.
“PoLarr!” I cried while I tried to get a clean shot at the Vulture. But I should have known I didn’t need to worry.
Through the magnification of my Occuhancer I watched as PoLarr swiftly drew her Equalizer and shot the Vulture point blank in the skull. Brain bits and chunks of bone sprayed out the other side of his head, and the hang glider went into a dive. Just as swiftly, PoLarr holstered the gun, hit the harness release for the now dead pilot, whipped his body out of the way and let the force of the decent push her body under the flying wing. While it fell she calmly shirked herself into the harness, buckled it, grabbed the controls, and fired the turbo-engine to pull out of the dive with barely a foot to spare.
“Turn and burn, baby!” She screamed in triumph and took to the skies, where she reigned supreme.
“That was a close one, PoLarr,” I said, relievedly into the comm then turned to Tempest. “I’m headed up to take her position. We don’t need anyone sneaking up our backside.”
“Speak for yourself,” Tempest replied
with a devious grin.
“Dirty!” I chastised and grabbed the handle of my chainsaw-on-a-chain, put it into “sword” mode and slung it across my back before I climbed up and out the hole in the roof with my carbine held in my right hand.
Wind whipped my sweaty hair around my head like a tornado as I climbed up onto the trailer next to Aurora who was at the machine gun. She struggled with the bolt of the gun that seemed to be jammed. Down by the end of the trailer Nova was hunkered behind the metal shield around the quad-harpoons. Her eyes blazed green with fury as she fired her machine cannon from her waist at the circling Vultures.
I rushed to Aurora’s side without a word as she banged on the top of the machine gun. Sure enough there was a piece of rock wedged into the bolt of the machine gun. It must have gotten lodged there during one of the many explosions.
“Don’t worry about, just use the grenade launcher,” I shouted over the wind.
“Barrel is bent, sugar,” she said and pointed to the large bore grenade launcher mounted under the machine guns. Sure as shit, the barrel was bent at a very funky angle.
“Dark matter it is, then,” I shrugged at her. She grinned back at me as purple-black energy coalesced around her hands.
“Fine by me,” she said and began hurling softball sized blasts of the purple energy at the flying Vultures who now flew in circles over our heads.
PoLarr dove and spun among them in an amazing display of aerial combat prowess. She piloted the glider one handed while she placed well-aimed shots with her Equalizer in the other.
But she was only one person and couldn’t keep all the Vultures at bay.
Three of them dove in and landed on top of the trailer. Their wings folded back behind them, and they brandished crude looking blunderbuss guns. I tried to fire the Eradicator from my hip, but an explosion rocked the side of the trailer, and I lost my footing. I glanced behind me as I got to my hands and knees and saw the Monster-Truck ahead of us, the lancer was trying to take out our front axle with the explosive spears. Tempest had to swerve wildly to keep from getting caught in the blasts.