15 Years Later: Wasteland (23 page)

“I am coming for you, Jay. I am coming for you!” he screamed.

Jay remained still and just smiled. He turned off and ran a length along the wall of Calico to get as close as he could. Two trucks were parked up with Braves still throwing ropes up to the top. A few had gotten onto the wall and were fighting there, and more were on the way. He skirted the wall with the fire truck and aimed for the nearest one. He clipped the bed of the truck, and it flipped over. Two Braves were crushed beneath it while others were tossed out.

The next one he hit even harder and shunted it towards the stone foundations of the town, crushing it onto the wall before turning off and narrowly clipping it himself. He smiled as he saw his brother on the wall waving his sword in support. The townspeople were chanting his name as they excitedly watched him wreak havoc amongst their attackers. Then he heard a loud pop and looked in the mirrors. There were trucks either side of him with harpoon guns firing at his wheels.

The wheel snapped to one side as one of the rear wheels was blown out, and the truck started to fish tail. He snapped it back into line, but he was losing control and knew he couldn’t last much longer the way he was going.

I have to do the most damage I can, and also disable the fire truck all in one. But how I will get out alive, I have no idea.

He turned the wheel and looked around for the most substantial target he could find when he sported a semi car transporter. It was armoured up and carrying dozens of Braves. It had an extended ramp over the cab and was the perfect assault vehicle. He took aim for the coupling and floored it. He felt the back end slide out once again, and he had to fight the wheel all the way.

An engine sound roared off to his flank. One of the trucks with harpoon guns tore up beside him, but it wasn’t aiming for the wheels. It was coming for him. Three bolts all lashed together in sequence. He ducked down and shifted as much bodyweight as he could away from the door. The first bolt flew right through the window above him while the other two struck the door. One went under the seat, and the other embedded in the door. It had just pierced his leg by the smallest margin. It stung, but not enough to worry him. He couldn’t believe his luck, and yet just when he thought he was okay, the lines on the harpoon went taut, and the truck began to pull the front end of the fire truck off to the left side. The tip of the harpoon in his leg was ripped out and locked onto the door as the vehicle was pulled out of line.

He fought back on the wheel, but he had so little grip or control with the tyres out. He looked down to where the harpoon had gone through the door and noticed a flare gun in the door card. He drew it out and just prayed that it still worked. He took aim at the open window of the truck and began to squeeze the trigger. He had just one shot, and he knew it. The flare burst out of the gun, soared through the open window, and ignited in the cabin.

Zed couldn’t believe it. The truck veered back towards him as the gunner on the back leapt off for dear life. The vehicle smashed into the side of the fire truck until it ran in line with it. He looked out of the window and tugged on the wheel one last time. He smiled as he watched many of the Braves leaping from the top of the trailer. It didn’t matter how far the drop was, because he was coming at them with eight tons of steel.

Zed closed his eyes, but it wasn’t the memory of his old family that came to him this time. It was of Sasha. He ducked down and braced. Seconds later, there was an almighty crash as he hit just where he had intended, and he blacked out on impact.

Zed coughed and spluttered. He opened his eyes. There was very little light around him. He was still in the cab of the fire truck, but it was on its side, and he was compressed against the wheel and the driver’s seat. Not in a seated position. He had clearly been tossed about the cab before finally coming to a halt. There were many more aches and pains, but it was hard to tell what was what anymore. He reached down to check he still had his sword and was pleased to find it on his side. That was a relief at least. He looked around some more. Where the windshield had blown out was just more debris, and the driver’s door was flat against the ground.

He began to climb up towards the passenger side over the body of the Brave he had killed and out through the open window of the door. As he pulled himself out of the top, he paused to see if the coast were clear. The semi lay on its side, and smoke was rising from the hood. The trailer had been cut clean off the vehicle and was on its side a little further over in the sand. Bodies were scattered all around. Some that had been thrown, and others crushed under the weight of the vehicles.

The driver of the semi was alive and crawling out like he was. Zed tried to duck down to avoid being seen, but it was too late. Instead, he pulled himself up and rolled over the edge so that he fell off the top, landing on the ground below. It was a longer drop than he had expected, and his legs buckled as he went into a roll and landed head first in the sand.

He got up to find a hand crossbow pointed at his face. He righted himself. Two Braves were standing over him. One was the driver he had just seen escaping, the other one he had seen before, the Mohawk, still sporting the scar beside his haircut.

“Jay wants you alive,” said the other with the crossbow.

Zed could see the conflict in the Mohawk’s eyes. He suddenly rushed at the other, who noticed too late. The Brave tried to turn his weapon around, but the Mohawk was on him. He picked him up and tossed him back against the truck, impaling him on a piece of debris sticking out from the vehicle. He took the crossbow and looked back at Zed, who still wasn’t sure what was going on.

“Come on!” the Mohawk shouted at him.

He grabbed Zed’s arm and helped him up as they rushed on. An ex-military sand rail buggy raced up beside them. The Mohawk didn’t hesitate. He just threw Zed into the passenger seat and leapt onto the back.

“Go!” he yelled.

One of the Braves from the truck came rushing at them as they pulled away, and he aimed the crossbow. It hit him in the stomach as they raced away. The driver led them between three other vehicles as he tore off towards the town. Zed didn’t even know what to say. He recognised all three aboard the vehicle. They were all the prisoners he had set free.

They ducked and weaved between vehicles. As they passed one of the trucks, a salvo of javelins was launched at them from the Braves on the back. Most missed as the high speed vehicle tore past them, but one struck the Mohawk. He growled from the pain but pulled it out as Zed turned back to check on him. He nodded as if to say he was okay. He was as tough as he was stubborn.

Jay noticed that all aboard wore blue. The Mohawk had on a faded blue vest, the driver had painted the shoulder pads of his hockey armour, and the other passenger painted his torso blue. It was something he didn’t see on any other Braves. They had marked themselves out for a reason, and he was starting to see that it had nothing to do with Jaytown.

“You mean to join us?” Zed asked.

“We heard that you were the Boss. The real Boss, and we owe you,” said the Mohawk.

That wasn’t the reply he expected, but he was glad of it nonetheless. They raced up towards the edge of the town and ran the length of it as he had before. An airport stairs truck had been brought up against them like a siege tower, and a number of Braves were running up the steps for their first attack. A roof and walls had been fabricated all the way to the top from scraps of wood, and anything else they could find. It was more than enough cover against the crossbows and thrown weapons that much of the town were now using. The first two had already reached the top.

They pulled up beside it and leapt off to engage them. The Mohawk was the first at them, despite his injury. He carried what looked like a dumbbell bar that had lead wrapped around the far end, bolted and taped on to create a primitive maul.

It was certainly effective, as when he struck the first Brave on the head, he dropped down dead.

“Come on!” he yelled.

He rushed to the front of the truck and beat the driver before slipping it into neutral and then rushing back to the steps. He didn’t need to say a word, as Zed rushed up the stairway with the others close behind. Not a single Brave had noticed them coming. Zed drew out his sword and hacked the first across his back. He didn’t even pause as he ran past. The man fell down dead, and he cut into the next.

In seconds, he was at the top and burst out onto the wall. Five townspeople lay dead there, and as many Braves, too. Two were still fighting. Sasha was at the front on her knees with one of them trying to force a blade down onto her neck. She had locked his hands and was desperately reaching for something by her feet. Zed rushed to her aid, but he needn’t have. She picked up what looked like a butcher’s meat cleaver and hacked at the side of her attacker’s left knee.

The Brave screamed as he dropped his weapon and collapsed down onto the other bodies, but Sasha showed no mercy. She went straight for his head. He held up his hands to defend himself, but they were beaten down, and another strike soon followed that embedded in his head. She ripped it out and turned to look for a new attacker but froze as she saw Zed. She looked past him to the Mohawk and his Blues. She raised the blade to attack them, but Zed ran and grabbed her arm.

“It’s okay. They’re with me,” he insisted.

“Clear the way!” Johnnie shouted.

They turned around to see him approaching with a Molotov cocktail in each hand, both lit and ready to go. They all drew back as he launched the first one down the spout of the stairway entrance as the first Brave neared the top. It smashed inside, and the flames soared through the shaft. He leaned over the side of the wall and launched other straight down onto the cabin of the truck.

Zed rushed to the edge and put force against the top of the stairway entrance.

“Come on, push!” he shouted.

The Mohawk and his people joined in, as well as Sasha and Johnnie. They heaved the vehicle back and pushed so that it was at least a few feet away from the wall before it rolled to a halt and went up in flames.

“These boys fight for us,” he said to Johnnie, pointing to the Mohawk and the others.

“Yeah? Well, we’ll take what we can get, Zed.”

Something passed overhead, and they looked up. A crane was extending over their heads. Three Braves were grabbing onto a hook hanging from it and another three on the crane’s arm.

“Ah, shit,” said Zed, “Do they never give up?”

Zed went to move when he heard a large engine fire up nearby. He looked over to see the exhausts of the dump truck bellow out black smoke as it roared to life. There was a Brave at the wheel.

“No! Stop him!”

He rushed along the wall as quickly as he could, but the engine roared as it drew back and the rear end turned out. The front gates that had been attached to it for anchorage were ripped from their mounts. The gearbox crunched as the Brave wrenched it, and it started moving forwards. He got to the walls beside the broken gates just as it pulled off down the ramp.

The gates scraped down the ramp as they were pulled by the truck, and the massive breach in their defences was opened, just as it had been before. He couldn’t believe that no one had been sensible enough to ensure the truck couldn’t start, but it was too late to worry about it now. Half a dozen of Jay’s trucks raced forward for the breach, the Braves aboard screaming in an excited frenzy. The first was on the ramp in seconds.

The crane had already dropped a number, and there was now fighting all the way through the town. Johnnie was still up on the walls desperately trying to keep others from climbing up and over. He hacked down at one with his sword. A Brave smacked him across the head with a machete, but his riot helmet took the blow. He stumbled aside before coming back with a cut of his own. They were on the brink of defeat now.

People were fighting for their lives everywhere. Zed looked out over the edge. Jay was still commanding from his truck, with a car and a truck either side of him as protection, and at least a dozen Braves. He watched one of the groups below push the El Camino into the breach to stop them getting any further. The first truck rammed into it and stopped as Braves leapt off.

“Get to the breach!” he yelled for anyone who could.

The Mohawk and his friends jumped into combat without hesitation, but Zed knew he had bigger business to worry about. He looked back to Jay.

Confident, arrogant, and cocky, he is a man who is watching others do his work. Watching while they fight and die for him!

Zed rushed back over to Johnnie who had fought the last one off that was trying to get over the wall. He was breathing heavily, and the blood was still flowing from his shoulder wound.

“You okay, brother?” Johnnie asked.

That brought a smile to his face.

Once again we stand together.

“You see that asshole out there?”

Johnnie nodded. “I see him,” he snarled, looking at the grotesque leader hiding behind Wyatt. Johnnie shook his head in disgust.

“He’s what this is all about. He’s the asshole that is causing all this.”

“You thinking what I’m thinking?”

“You still got that rifle handy?”

“Yeah, but we still can’t fire at him, not without risking my son and Frankie.”

“No, but at least we can even the odds.”

He turned and pointed back into the town. It was chaos, every man for himself.

“We can’t win this. We don’t have the numbers, the ammunition. They are all over us. But Jay, he has just a few guys watching his ass. The arrogant shit doesn’t believe for a minute that we pose a threat to him.”

“All right, then, so let’s make him realise his mistake,” Johnnie said, smiling.

They each picked up their rifles, just eight rounds between them. It was better than none.

“You still as good a shot as you used to be?” Johnnie asked.

“I suppose we’ll find out soon enough.”

“Driver of the truck,” he declared.

He squeezed the trigger, and the bullet passed right through the already cracked windshield, hitting him square in the chest. The woman beside him turned in shock, but didn’t move in time as Johnnie fired and hit her in the left shoulder.

“Not bad,” added Zed.

They took aim at the next two on the back, but as Johnnie fired and killed one, they heard an almighty cry and someone rushed towards them along the battlements. Zed turned just in time to lift his rifle in defence, as a huge two-handed sword cut down towards him. The rifle stopped the blow, but it was enough to knock him down to the floor.

Johnnie turned and instantly fired the last shot he had left to save his brother. The bullet went right into his attacker’s eye and dropped him in one. He stepped forward, offered out his hand, and hauled Zed up.

“Should have saved that last one.”

“You’re welcome.”

Zed took aim once more with his rifle. He was perfectly lined up on the last one on the truck. He was ducking down in the back of the bed and looking for the source of the fire. He could just see his head. Zed squeezed the trigger, but no round fired. He lowered the rifle; the breach mechanism had taken the blow of the sword. It had saved his life, but was now useless.

“Not our lucky day, is it?”

Zed shook his head.

“I don’t know about you, but I am going down there. I am gonna kill that son of a bitch Jay, or die trying.”

“Let’s do it.”

They climbed onto the walls and down two of the ropes that had been left by the Braves. Zed could see his brother was weak on his one arm and slid down much of it. It was quiet now. Bodies littered the ground, but all the attackers had moved to the breach. They rushed to the sand rail buggy that the Mohawk had left on, Zed in the driver’s seat, and Johnnie hanging on the back.

"You know if my kid doesn't make it through this, Lannie will never let you back in town? She'll finish what she started with that firing squad, and I got a mind to help her do it."

"Yeah, I know," he sighed.

The engine fired to life, and the wheels spun as they raced off towards Jay. Not a single Brave or other vehicle came to stop them. No one had thought for a moment that there was any risk of an attack outside of the base. Jay should have known better after Zed had driven the fire truck out, but his own arrogance would be his undoing.

“Just like old times, huh?” Johnnie yelled.

They covered the ground quickly, and it was only as they made the final fifty feet that Jay and his Braves even noticed them. They were too fixated on the fighting in the town. Zed slammed on the brakes and drew them to a halt. He climbed out to stand beside his brother in front of Jay’s cash truck. Jay seemed a little worried for a moment, but he soon hid that as he began to laugh. He drew out a revolver from inside the platform of the top of the truck and pointed it at them.