Dead Mech (28 page)

The Rookie struggled against the noise of
the rapids to hear a response. “Jay!”

He did hear a low growl directly behind him,
but before he could turn he was slammed into a boulder by the
current. His breath was knocked from him once again and he gulped
water. His chest wound blazed with pain and he realized it had
opened back up.

Oh shit
, he thought.
I’m leaving
the deaders a trail right to me.

***

Masters forced the dead mech’s consciousness
down, down, down until it was nothing but a dead end piece of code.
His head hurt like hell and he was having trouble thinking
straight.

“Keep it together, Pilot,” he scolded
himself aloud. “This is no time for weakness.”

With the cockpit closed, Masters focused on
getting the mech moving. The thing could take quite a beating, but
with a cyclone heading towards him, he needed to get the hell out
of there.

Stabbing pains shot through his skull,
requiring all of his concentration to take one step. And then
another. And another.

***

Putrid hands grabbed the Rookie about the
shoulders and pushed him under. He blindly thrashed and fought
against the deader and was able to get to the surface for another
breath before more hands grabbed him.

He could feel them about him and he kicked
out, his foot sliding through something soft. He tried to pull
back, but his foot was caught. He swung his arms wildly, his chest
wound screaming, hoping he could keep the things off of him, to
keep them from biting.

The current slammed him against a boulder
and another and another. Then all went dark.

***

Masters saw the boulder coming at him and he
braced himself for the impact. The Hill Stomper shuddered as the
waste storm drove the boulder into its right thigh. Masters’
concentration faltered and he almost succumbed to the blinding pain
in his head, but he fought on, forcing the mech towards a near by
mesa.

Masters realized his throat was raw from
yelling, but the wind was so loud he couldn’t hear himself. He
walked the mech up to the mesa as close as it would go, shielding
the cockpit up against the cliff wall.

Then he promptly passed out.

***

Mathew stopped his mech at the edge of a
bluff that overlooked Windy City and gasped.

“Sweet Jeezus. What the fuck happened here?”
he whispered.

Before him, what was left of the city/state,
burned and smoldered, a red hazy glow against an early night
sky.

“Oh, that’s not good,” he muttered. He
powered up his weapons systems and jumped his mech off the bluff,
rolling into a crouch as he landed, his plasma cannon ready.

He checked his scanners, but the destruction
was so great that he couldn’t get a clean reading. Cautiously, he
walked towards the city/state, guns up.

***

“You see, dear Rachel,” the Boss started,
seating himself between June and Olivia. “It’s simple supply and
demand. When we run low on supplies, the people demand blood.”

“The people demand nothing,” Olivia
muttered. “It’s you that wants blood.”

“Mother, mother,” the Boss said, wrapping a
hand around the back of Olivia’s neck and squeezing. “You just
don’t get me do you? I love my people.” He squeezed harder. “And my
people love me…or else.”

He stood suddenly. “First two in the
pit!”

“Green triangles!” Chunks called out. Two
villagers, an older man and a young woman stood up.

***

Mathew walked his mech to the edge of the
burning city/state. He tried his scanners again, but still no
decent readings.

“Damn!” he swore. “What the fuck happened
here?”

He thought he saw movement through the
collapsed city/state walls and moved closer, opening all com
channels.

“Attention! This is Mech Pilot Mathew
Jespers. Can anyone hear me? Is anyone alive? I can offer
assistance.” He was met with nothing but static.

Then, again, movement. He switched to
loudspeakers. “Attention! This is Mech Pilot-” Mathew stopped short
as the bulk of a dead mech stood up from the rubble.

“Ah, shit…”

***

The older man began to weep and looked up at
the Boss. “Please, sir, please don’t make me do this,” he
pleaded.

The young woman wasted no time, though,
punching the man in the stomach, doubling him over. She immediately
brought her knee up into his face, knocking him to the ground. With
intense determination she brought her bare foot down on his face,
again and again, until his features were nothing but pulp.

Chunks leapt into the pit and checked the
man’s pulse. “Dead.”

The woman pulled a tooth from her heel then
helped Chunks drag the body away.

***

The deader stood there, watching Mathew, a
burnt corpse dangling from its fist, its cockpit open and zombie
pilot thrashing inside. The deader ripped the corpse in half and
tossed the torso into the cockpit. The zombie fed ravenously, bits
of charred skin falling to the ground like fleshy crumbs.

Mathew watched for a moment then fired his
plasma cannon. The zombie pilot disintegrated instantly. Mathew
watched the dead mech stumble back, sway and then finally collapse
to the ground.

“And that’s how you… do… that? …fuck
me…”

Four more dead mechs revealed themselves,
all in various stages of feeding.

***

“Black circles,” Chunks announced.

“How many have to fight?” June asked,
fingering the diamond on her tile over and over again.

“Four fights,” the Boss said. “That’s how
many we need to die to live.”

“We could all just eat less,” Olivia
said.

The Boss backhanded her across the face. “Or
you could shut your fucking face!”

Two young men dropped into the pit.

“Oooh, now this looks like an even match.
Should last a bit longer,” the Boss said, smiling.

The men greeted each other and embraced.
“Boo! Get a shack!” the Boss joked, elbowing June in the ribs.

***

All weapons ready, Mathew backed away from
what was left of Windy City. The dead mechs followed, walking
through collapsed walls and broken buildings without a thought.

“Hey fellas, I was just passing by,” Mathew
called over the loudspeaker. “Sorry about your friend there, it
wasn’t anything personal.”

One of the deaders dropped its meal and
picked up the pace towards Mathew.

“Whoa, there big fella! I wasn’t trying to
interrupt your snack. You guys just carry on.”

The other dead mechs dropped their meals
also.

“Okay, now you’re just making me feel bad.”
Mathew eyed the deaders and fired.

***

“Commander, I’m picking up solid geothermal
readings directly below this area,” Jethro said.

Capreze looked out onto the nighttime
landscape, assessing the location. “Well, looks like as good a
place any. Pilots? Any thoughts?”

“We’ve been awake for over 24 hours, so this
looks fucking perfect,” Rachel answered over the com, yawning.

“Fine by me,” Harlow agreed.

“As long as I get first watch,” Bisby
added.

“That means you’re on breakfast duty,”
Capreze said.

“Better me than Rachel,” Bisby joked.

“Hey!” Rachel responded good naturedly.

“Okay, then let’s set camp,” Capreze said,
stopping the transport. “Biz, you set the perimeter.”

***

The villager that won the fight wept openly
as he clambered from the pit. He strode past the circle and away
from the rest of the villagers, his sobs slowly fading into the
night.

“They were born the same day. They’ve been
best friends since birth,” Olivia said. “I helped deliver them
both.”

“Boo fucking hoo,” the Boss mocked. “Get on
with it!”

Chunks waited until the body was removed
from the pit then hollered, “Red Diamonds.”

June’s bladder nearly loosed. Without
looking at her, Rebecca stood up and lowered herself into the
pit.

“Pilot? You’re up,” the Boss chuckled.

***

A well directed missile strike took out both
legs of one of the attacking deaders as Mathew tried to pilot his
mech back into Windy City, hoping to use the crushed remains of the
buildings as cover.

He could tell by their actions that none of
the dead mechs he was dealing with were thinkers. But, that was
little comfort as the three left standing charged him.

Unleashing a barrage of plasma fire, Mathew
was able to slow two more down, but doubted he had put them
completely out of commission.

One of them lifted its own cannon and
fired.

***

“Are we set?” Capreze asked, getting up from
his seat and stretching.

“Yes, Commander. I have the transport
anchored,” Jethro responded typing at his tablet. “Ready to punch
the hole.”

“Fire away, mechanic.”

Jethro tapped twice and a muffled ‘whump’
could be heard directly below the transport. “Hole punched, sir.
Checking readings now.” Jethro studied his tablet for a minute.
“Looks good. Dropping cable.”

A whirring sound kicked in. “Should only be
a minute and we’ll have full power.”

Capreze patted Jethro on the shoulder,
mindful of the mechanic’s discomfort. “Great job, Jethro. We’d be
dead out here without you.”

***

“I don’t want to hurt you,” June pleaded to
Rebecca as the two women faced off in the pit. “Please, don’t so
this. If we refuse to fight-”

“Then we both get a bullet in the head,”
Rebecca snapped. “Now get your fists up, girl, because I am going
to kill you.”

June stared at Rebecca for a moment then
nodded. “I am sorry.”

Rebecca laughed. “I’ve got forty pounds on
you. You’ll have nothing to be sorry for. And neither will I when I
crawl out of this shithole.”

“Shut the fuck up and fight already!” the
Boss goaded.

***

Mathew easily dodged the deader’s wild shot,
but in doing so he mistimed a step and stumbled on some of the
city/state rubble. He saw the ground coming at him and put his
mech’s hands out to stop his fall. Before he could right himself,
two of the dead mechs were on him, pinning his mech to the
ground.

“Fuck!” he swore aloud, realizing a rookie
mistake was going to mean the death of him.

He thrashed about, trying to get his legs
under him, but the deaders began to pummel the back of his mech
relentlessly.

“Fuck! Fuck! FUCK!”

***

“And we have juice!” Jethro announced over
the com.

“Great,” Bisby responded. “I’ll stick my
schlong in it.”

“Biz!” Rachel scolded.

“What? Why do you hate that so much?” Bisby
asked, unrolling a cable from his mech’s leg and pulling it over to
the transport. “These cables have been called schlongs before you
were born.”

“Yeah, but considering two of the three
pilots here are women, maybe you should think of a new name,”
Rachel responded.

“Speak for yourself, girly,” Harlow joined
in. “I’m pretty sure if we whip ‘em out my dick’ll be bigger than
Bisby’s.”

“Probably,” Bisby retorted.

***

Mathew could hear the metal of his mech
protesting against the weight of the beating it was taking. He
fought and fought, but the other dead mech joined in and he was
easily overpowered.

Many thoughts ran through his head as the
protesting of metal became the ripping of metal. He was glad he
recorded a good bye message to Rachel, but doubted if she would
ever hear it. Shit, he didn’t even know if she was still alive. Or
if anyone at the base was.

When his mech’s left arm was torn form it’s
frame, he began to pray.

***

Rebecca was right, she did have forty pounds
on June, but she didn’t have the training June had and even with
all of the abuse she had endured over the past couple days, June
knew it wasn’t going to be a contest.

“I’ll leave!” June yelled, easily dodging
Rebecca’s clumsy swipes. “Just set me out into the wasteland. I
don’t need food or water.”

“Dear, dear Rachel,” the Boss answered from
the side of the pit. “You don’t get it. It’s not about one less in
number. It’s also about one more for the larder.”

He chuckled. “It’s simple math.”

***

Capreze set the perimeter poles several
yards out from the transport and mechs, his carbine slung over his
shoulder. He watched the pilots jack their cables into the
transport’s power junction, joking back and forth.

He laughed to himself, thinking back to when
Rachel was born and how he would never have bet she’d end up a mech
head like her old man. He shut that thought loop down, quickly,
though, leaving that for his late night sub-conscious to deal
with.

Capreze set the last pole and turned to look
out into the wasteland.

“Perimeter set, Jethro. Fire it up.”

***

The hydraulics on Mathew’s mech’s left leg
exploded as a deader stomped down hard.

Mathew undid the clasp on his side arm’s
holster and sighed. He pulled the pistol out and held it up to his
face.

“I’m sorry, baby,” he said aloud. “I wish I
could be with you right now. I guess we’re all meant to go out in
the same way, though, alone.”

He pulled back the slide, forcing a shell
into the chamber. Thumbing the safety, he put the gun to his
head.

A thousand shots echoed about him and
Mathew, confused, looked at his pistol.

***

June ducked another of Rebecca’s swings and
sighed. “I really am sorry.”

“Shut up and fight, you spoiled brat,”
Rebecca growled, her hair matted with sweat already even though she
hadn’t landed one punch.

“I’ll make it quick,” June promised.

She waited for another of Rebecca’s wild
swipes and as the woman over extended herself, June stepped to the
side, reached out and took a hold of Rebecca’s head in both of her
hands and twisted.