by Peter Okafor
Runner stopped suddenly. He had been navigating on his own, using the knowledge he had gathered from his experiences at the wasteland. He could lead them a little further past the ruins to Broken Bridge, a once mighty craftsmanship of men that had become nothing but a fading memory.
“Where are we going exactly?” Legion asked. “We certainly don’t have a map.”
Runner remained silent. He had begun to ascend a pile of melted car chassis and broken bricks that had formed something of a hill. Each step he took, a large ruin was revealed slowly overhead. He took the final step and stood on top of the hill. His arms folded across his chest. Before him was what remained of a large bridge fallen to ruin.
“What is that thing?” Slim Jim crept behind Runner.
The bridge was broken in two. One half was visible and stood close to them, while the other was far from his sight and cloaked in a haze. He saw the pile of chassis, a remnant of cars abandoned in a long line by their owners ages ago. They looked grey, dark, and rusted. Even for one who had traversed the wastelands on and on again, he swallowed his saliva in anxiety, knowing that they had to cross the bridge.
“It is the Broken Bridge. I heard it used to be named after a man in the world before. George Washington was his name.”
Runner began to descend to reach the entrance of the bridge.
Slim Jim shook his head. “Never heard of him before.”
Slim Jim and Legion descended the hill and joined Runner at the entrance. But something was amiss. They were short of one person. Runner searched with his gaze and found Big Edd taking his sweet time to walk down the hill. The man walked tiredly, holding his knees at several intervals.
“Come on, Eddy. We got to hurry,” Legion shouted.
Runner understood that not everyone was cut out for such terrain. But the wasteland does not care nor the storm that would soon come for its regular sweep. He gazed at his watch.
“We have twenty minutes before the storm hits. Let’s find shelter.”
He already had one in mind, a ruined building that overlooked the bridge and had its roof still intact. All he needed was to look for planks and broken ceilings to close up any door openings, and they would be safe for the night. He looked to the sky, but nothing had changed. It still was a grey mass, like thick dark clouds blocking any light from the sun or moon from reaching the world.
They went into the shelter and rolled out their tent beds for a rest even though it certainly wasn’t night. Runner lied on his bed, while Legion brought a candle alive with fire. The illumination was enough to force out the darkness in the shelter. She opened a can of baked beans with a spoon and shared the meal with Big Edd.
Runner sank his hands in his pocket and brought out the parchment Olivia had given to him. He unfolded it and read:
Runner,
Forgive my method, as I’m only being careful not to alert my father’s spies to my intentions. A few months ago, I discovered that the Citadel of Healing was running a programme in coordination with Nexus Pharmaceuticals to test the horrible side effects of Sense pills. I’m yet to discover more, but you must be careful as I believe there might be an ulterior motive to the Remnants of Men, beyond finding a consistent source of water. I regret to say that even I do not know if the lake exists, but I pray it does, or God help us all. I have searched the archives at the Citadel of Learning but didn’t find much except that the fallen government of MegaCityTwo once tried but failed in their endeavour. Find the ruins of the fallen city, Runner, and stay alive.
Your truest of allies,
Olivia Patterson
He folded the paper and placed it back in his pocket. Now, he knew where to go next. Everyone knew the sad story of MegaCityTwo. It was a utopian city raised approximately at the time of his birth. Old Max had told him that the city fell when a man named Ribald Hardback decided that life was too good for the inhabitants and destroyed the generators that were the powerhouse of life in the city. Well, another version from a drunk that sat at the foot of his door in Rat Town claimed that Ribald Hardback unleashed a viral outbreak that turned the inhabitants into zombies. Hmm…He might have believed the story if not that the narrator in his drunken stupor had staggered into a marsh of cannibalistic plants in the wastelands and was swallowed whole by a strange vine.
Runner rolled over on his bed. He knew the worst was yet to come, but he only hoped it would be over quickly. He closed his eyes for a nap.
“Arrrrggggh!”
The scream was coming from outside. Runner jumped to his feet, his hand reaching for the knives sheathed at his belt. Legion quickly smothered the candle fire with her fingers.
“Help!”
The scream was faint and came in the distant dark. Slim Jim and Legion went to remove the planks that covered the doorway to their shelter.
“Hurry, Jim. Someone is in trouble,” Legion said and pushed the plank from the doorpost.
“Stop,” Runner whispered.
“Why? Someone might be dying,” Legion said, and Slim Jim nodded.
“Just hold it there.” Runner stood to his feet. “I know this trick. It is one of many employed by gangs of scavengers to trap scrap hoarders and loot their items, leaving them for dead.”
Slim Jim dropped the plank back in place. “Smart,” he said.
“Believe me, I most fell for that once, but if not for my friend, Troy Decker, I wouldn’t be here,” Runner said and sat down on the floor.
Something banged on the plank door violently. It came again and again. Runner tiptoed to the left side of the doorpost and took cover. He held his knife ready at his left breast and placed a finger on his lips to signal the others to be silent.
“Open, Runner. Please open,” a voice came from behind.
“Dope…” Runner muttered as he recognized the voice. “Dope. What do you want?” he shouted.
There was silence, and then a loud banging again. “Please open. They have caught the others. Open…open…please.”
Runner peeped through an opening between the planks and saw that Dope was alone. He beckoned at Slim Jim, and the boy came to aid him in removing the planks.
“Enter,” Runner said.
Dope rushed in and quickly took refuge at a corner as Runner and Slim Jim closed the door again. Runner turned to Dope and watched the boy quiver in fear.
“The screams. We heard the screams, and then we…we went to help, and they just came out of nowhere,” Dope stammered his words.
“Who?” Legion rose to meet his feeble gaze.
“Ishmael. Crazy Ishmael and his gang of man hunters,” Dope replied.
Runner sighed. He knew Ishmael, the bully of Bug Town, and his gang of marauders were going to be a problem but didn’t expect them this soon.
Runner pushed Dope to hit the wall. “You were a goddamn ranger of Section 5. How didn’t you know that this was a trick by the marauders? Now we have to risk our lives and go back for them.”
“What?” Legion jerked forward. “We both know the rules out here. If you fall behind, you die behind. We were given only fifteen days to find the lake. We can’t go back for them. Our food and water reduce with each day that passes.”
“And who are you to decide their fates?” Slim Jim yelled at her.
Within moments, Dope voiced his intents in a counter, and an argument turned into a racket. The noise filled the room, and Big Edd squatted at a corner, covering his ears without uttering a word.
Runner noticed some bottles on the floor. He knew going after Ishmael’s gang with knives and iron bars was suicide on its own. What he needed was something powerful to scatter the gang in a panic, and that was where the bottles came in. Now, he just needed to add spirit from his first aid kit and then a flammable piece of cloth to serve as a wick.
“I will go alone!” Runner yelled.
They stopped arguing and faced him.
“I will go alone, but I need some help to brew a Molotov cocktail.”
Chapter Eleven
At
Daggers Drawn
Everyone brought out their first aid kit and began to empty their methylated spirits into the bottles. Runner tore a piece of white cloth and soaked it in the solvent. He forced it into the mouth of the bottle and held it in place with a bottle stopper.
“This is a bad idea.” Legion grunted. “We should forget about them and continue. They made their choice when they decided to stray away.”
Runner glanced at her. “We must look after each other to survive, or else we would all die here.” He took his gaze down and noticed the red light on his wristband flashing. “They are monitoring us through these bands on our wrist.”
“Yes.” Slim Jim examined the band on Legion’s hand. “Cutting edge tech. It has receptors that act like compound eyes and get short-ranged images, thermal sensors, and life monitor.”
“They expect us to fail and die worthlessly, but we should prove them wrong.” Runner finished.
Slim Jim gathered all the Molotov cocktails they had made and brought it to Runner, making five in all. It was enough for what was planned. The boy turned to leave, but Runner held fast to the boy’s jacket.
“I need to talk to you. In private,” he whispered.
Slim Jim lent Runner his right arm and helped him to his feet. “What is it?” he asked as they walked to one dark corner of the shelter.
Runner looked around to make sure Legion, Big Edd, and Dope were busy making the preparations. He didn’t know if he could trust Jimmy with the warning Olivia had passed to him, but the boy hadn’t proved to be untrustworthy.
“You once told me that your parents owned Nexus Pharmaceuticals.”
Slim Jim nodded.
“And you mentioned that you discovered something sinister about their testing. What was it?” Runner asked.
Slim Jim glanced at him and remained silent for a moment. Runner understood why the boy felt reluctant to spill his secret. They might have built a quick friendship, but trust was something that was hard to give or receive in hard times. There was only one way to loosen Slim Jim’s tongue.
Runner sank his hand in his pocket and brought out Olivia’s letter. “Take a look at this.” He showed it to Slim Jim.
The boy read it quickly and was indifferent. He did not seem surprised and handed the letter back to Runner.
“What is it?” Runner put his hand on the boy’s shoulder.
Slim Jim slid down with his back against the wall until his buttocks hit the ground. A sudden gloom came over him as if the world was about to end, but the world had ended once before, and there was nothing worse that hadn’t already been done.
“Runner,” he said. “We are all going to die.”
Runner squatted beside him. “You’ve got to tell me what you know.”
He gazed at Runner with the corner of his eyes and then spoke, “Two years ago, while taking a tour of my parents’ company, I stumbled into a testing facility. What I saw, Runner…what I saw…”
“What did you see?” Runner seemed eager.
“They were men, but they…they looked more like…animals. It was like their mind was taken from them. I was so captivated at the moment that I forgot I was inside the facility and then one of them came at me. He was pale, eyes red with rage, but too healthy to be a sickly man.”
Runner observed that Jimmy’s hands were trembling, and he held it still to calm him down. “I realize that this is a bad memory, but I need to know, so please continue.”
Slim Jim rubbed his palms together and clasped them over his mouth as if he was cold. “The man caught my neck and tried to strangle me. He was so strong like nothing I have ever seen. Thick red veins grew on his face, mostly around his eyes, and then I grabbed a scalpel from a table and drove it into his neck. Even while struggling with death, he caught my ankle, so determined to tear me apart until guards in hazmat suits came in and incinerated him.”
“So, are you trying to say that there is some kind of killer freaks locked up in secret in MegaCityOne?” Runner asked.
Slim Jim jerked and held Runner by his shoulder. “Can’t you see, Runner? It has something to do with Sense pills. My parents are the top manufacturers of Sense pills and are like besties with the supreme councillor. They kidnap slum dwellers and use them to test their product. I discovered that certain people don’t respond well to the pills, and an overdose or long-term use mutates the human organs.”
“Don’t tell anyone about this, okay?” Runner stood up.
“Sure,” Slim Jim said faintly.
Dope and Legion approached with gas masks on their hands. Big Edd gathered the makeshift incendiary and brought them before Runner. For some reason, the plump man had not voiced a single word since they met, and Runner assumed it was nervousness.
Runner drew out a baseball bat from the side of his backpack. He sat down and began to wound a barbed wire around it. He took some nails he had pried off broken doors and drove it in the head of the bat until the pointed ends sprouted through the other side.
No one could tell what he would find out there. Slim Jim’s story of the rabid men and Olivia’s discovery had made him increasingly paranoid. He looked through his weapons to make sure he was prepared for every obstacle he might encounter and then stood to his feet.
“You are coming with me, Dope.” Runner pointed at the boy.
“Why me?” Dope opened his arms in protest.
“I don’t trust you, for one, and you know where the others have been rounded up.” Runner walked towards the doorway.
“I will go with you.” Legion volunteered despite being against the rescue.
“No!” Runner turned to her immediately. “No, you must stay here with Jimmy and Eddy. If we don’t come back in—” he gazed at his wristwatch “—an hour, you must continue without us. Jimmy knows where to go. I know most of us think this freshwater lake is a wild goose chase, but it is imperative that we find it. Our families are out there in the city. I can’t imagine what would happen to them when the water runs totally dry.”
“Okay,” Legion said calmly.
Big Edd and Slim Jim came to the door. Each held the plank at one end and then with a great force, pushed it out of the doorway. Runner and Dope went through and into the cold night.
“Good luck.” Jimmy gestured at Runner with what looked like a half-salute.
Both boys ran into a ruined building with its walls broken and roof falling halfway to the ground. Runner ducked behind a wall and peered from the side. He saw fire in the distance and assumed it was where the others are held. He brought out his gas mask and wore it.
“What do we need that for?” Dope asked. “The Sense pills we have ingested are enough to rid the air we inhale of toxins.”
Runner raised a Molotov cocktail for Dope to see. “There is going to be a lot of smoke when we start throwing this at them.”
With a smile on his face, Dope grabbed the incendiary from him. Runner felt weird that one of the people he hated most in Rat Town was now his partner in ass-kicking. Now, he had been waiting for an opportunity for long, and here it was, waiting to be claimed. He stood up and grabbed Dope by the neck of his jacket. Before the boy could make any move, Runner used his right leg to sweep Dope off his feet, literally, and the boy slammed upon rubbles on the floor.
“By god, Dope, if you don’t tell me what you did to Troy, I will stab you with my wrench knife and let you bleed to death here. Do you understand me?”
Dope nodded with his hands covering his face in fear.
“So, start talking.” Runner placed the knife between Dope’s legs.
“Ishmael’s boys were looking for two slum dwellers that killed two of their own. I figured out it was you and Troy when you went to loot copper wires…”
“You sold Troy out to them?” Runner pushed the knife to reach Dope’s testicles.
“Wait…wait…I’m sorry, okay. I figured if I gave him up, I would have my revenge for what you did to me before the bomb went off in the big city. Unfortunately, not long after they
paid me for handing him over, that bitch, Olivia Patterson, came with rangers from Section 5 and had me arrested for stabbing you.”
A sudden pain stabbed at Runner’s heart. His mind weighed heavy for leaving Troy to suffer for what they both did. He grabbed Dope and pulled him up to his feet.
“Believe me, if anything happens to him, I will come back and finish this conversation. Let’s go and help the others. After that, you will help me get Troy away from there.”
Dope nodded and then said, “Do I have a choice?” But the look on Runner’s face was all the answer he needed.
They continued onwards, moving lightly not to attract unnecessary attention until they had the others in sight. Runner halted, and Dope did the same behind him. They hid behind a barrel that was one of many lit with fire to keep warm in the cold. Runner glanced at his wristwatch to make sure there was enough time before another storm swept.
Satisfied, he peeked from the side and saw the others kneeling down with their hands tied behind their backs. He took his gaze further and found a man standing on the bonnet of a rusted car. He was addressing them.
“Oh, fuck me!” Dope cursed. “It’s goddamn Ishmael himself.”
Runner’s gaze lingered. The man had an unappealing demeanour. His hair was styled to a Mohawk, dyed pink like a punk star, and his jacket bore spikes that seemed like one from those biker gangs.
“You expect us to fight this crazy dude and his gang of fucked up cannibals that call themselves men? You must be crazier than he is, Runner,” Dope said.
“We fight.” Runner maintained.
He moved behind another barrel to listen to Ishmael.
“Someone killed one of my own a few weeks ago, someone among you. Give him up, and I will let you all go. I assure you I’m merciful. Ishmael is merciful. Repent, confess to me, whisper the words to my ears, and I shall forgive, no?”