Death Wagon 29

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Death Wagon 29

I woke with a start, the rig rocked by the dull thump of a denotation near by. Checking my chronometer I had been asleep less than three hours my eyes burning as they adjusted to the lights in the back of the rig. Slapping my own face I lurched to my feet, ripping back the thin curtain to the cab. “What’s the situation?” I ask even though I know we were being shot at.

Billy snaps a look back, “Looks like we picked up a swarm of orthopter drones.” The machines buzzed by, resembling oversized dragonflies. The twin turrets of Fenris’s rig bellowed in frustration, chasing the fast, agile targets.

Keeping a grip on the wheel he struggles to keep the ambulance steady on the uneven road. Fenris kept pace with his ambulance, the gunners chasing the zipping drones with their mounted weapons without much success. Kat on the other hand, was cleaning house using the herding stream of fire from the other vehicle to cut the unmanned machines to shreds.

Lacey held the data tablet, watching the map slowly progress. “We are three miles from the pass and closing. Stay on straight…” she said with uncertainty. Looking through the windshield, I could see the mountains ahead. The most common route is to go around them and avoid the possibilities of getting lost in the mountain range. However, this was not in the cards, we were going through the mountains.

“Why are they using unmanned?” I ask as another drone went down in a flaming, sparking mess. Billy sneers wickedly, “Kat. A Brawler hover jet popped up about six clicks back. She made a mess of its cockpit like she was waiting for it. Looks like the number crunchers back at Aegis didn’t like losing a ten million credit piece of equipment to a handful of bullets. Now they are hitting us with the cheap stuff and lots of it.”

Watching the blips on the tablet spread out and rocket back towards our position, the drones were not capable of hurting us unless they got lucky. The missiles were anti-personnel, mainly for breaking up riots. What was the point of sending them?

The hamster in my head flops over and spouts something profound. I got nothing, boss. Taking up the mike I get in touch with Fenris. “Beowulf this is Death Wagon. Stay on our tail, do not alter course.”

“Beowulf hears you, Death Wagon. We have dust trail on our six, well outside our range. I count four and they are closing.” The reply crackled, the closer we got to the mountains the poorer the signal would get.

The drones flew by, arcing up and back for another pass, going high and wide, refusing to strafe us head on. Why? The most vulnerable point on the rig would of course be our front. The opted to nip at our heels, hounding us all the way with light rockets that carried very little punch, the distraction was becoming obvious.

Reaching over, I tap the screen on the tablet Lacey held. Dragging my finger over the image to get a view of Sat-Nav’s take on the road that lead around the mountains, I sucked on my teeth.

A trio of vehicles flickered into view, as the satellite signal grew grainy. One of the blips was enormous, nearly taking up the whole width of the road. A tank, it had to be. It was sitting right where we wanted to enter the mountains and we were being herded right towards it.

“Billy, change of plans. In a quarter click I want you to take the first access road into the range.”

This causes Billy to give me a protesting look, “But we are almost to the designated turn anyways!”

With a glowering snap, I bark. “Take the turn!” Billy yanks the wheel, sending the rig into a loosely controlled skid, putting us on an even rougher road. The mountains enveloped us, the loose stone walls closing in on both sides. Death Wagon jerks as we hit a sizable rock and the wheel rolls over it jostling the entire rig. “Slow down, or we are going to take damage on the underside.” I say, wincing the ambulance strikes another jagged stone.

Fenris’s rig is right behind us finally accounting for itself by downing a drone. The remaining pair of small orthopters followed us in. Their controllers realized the mistake, struggling to angle the drones to a higher altitude. The walls trapped them in the narrow corridor with no place to go but into the streams of steel thundering from Kat’s machine gun turret.

Gracefully Kat swung the guns around, sawing the first drone in half obliterating the machine. The second drone she took her time with, a shot punching a hole through a propeller. Piece by piece the drone lost parts, panels blow out, smoke flood the bullet made tears as finally the drone loses control and plows into the wall of the narrow pass.

Temporary relief floods through me. We would be alright for a few minutes. I smack Billy on the shoulder letting him know I would take over on the driving. Lacey is shuffled from the navigator seat without a fuss, grateful to pass the pad to Billy. Torq having nothing to do had delved into his nervous tick of checking his side arm.

A warning message flared on the console, the air quality had dipped. Flicking a switch I turn off the warning. “Kat button up the turret, looks like we have a poly storm brewing.” Billy pipes the news to Fenris, and receives an acknowledgement from the larger rig.

Like a hand of god the sky darkened in minutes, deadly clouds seeping along the floor of the narrow pass, obscuring visibility. Dimming the lights in the rig, we journeyed forward in nervous silence. Wind swirled the rig, pebbles from the walls of the pass clattering down the roof of the ambulance. Billy twisted the tablet, shaking his head. “This place is a maze, Sat-Nav is out of reach we have nothing to go on but what that Runner gave you. If these Runner maps are accurate we are going to dead end, about six clicks up the way. We are going to get stuck with only way out being the way we came in.” Nearly tossing the pad down he slammed the back of his head against the rear of the seat in frustration. “We’re done.”

I slow the rig to a stop, taking a look at the maps. Lacey takes a perch between us, marveling at the thick dust laden storm, growing melancholy. “That stuff is dangerous to breathe?” She inquires to no one in particular. Billy half nods, “Down right deadly, sweetheart. Bad way to go.”

Fenris pulls right up to the bumper of my rig, waiting expectantly. Billy takes up the mike before shifting to look at me, “You want me to give Fenris the bad news?”

Giving the tablet a last glance I felt that depressed air wash over me, “Go ahead. I doubt he would see it as such, him and his Viking death wish.” Rolling my gaze up, I can see Kat and Torq sitting on the bench, holding hands. Torq was whispering something to her and she responded with a growing flush in her cheeks. A feel that sad smile twisting over my lips. They would never have a chance to really get to know each other, I surmised to myself. Billy turns on the comm. And instantly jerks the headset away from his ears.

Annoyed he frowns and plays with the dial, grumbling. “Freakin interference! He is right on top of us and I still have to call him. Credit Christ! That hurt!” Wriggling a finger in his ear, he shifted his jaw left to right to alleviate the pain. Reaching forward to turn the dial once again, Lacey placed her hand over his own. “Stop a second. What is that?” voice ringing with sudden curiosity. Billy slyly winks at Lacey, “Well when we get a moment I will have to show you.”

Lacey rolls her eyes in distaste, “No. The noise, you over sexed maniac.” Casting a glance towards me “Is he always like this?” she asks in disbelief.

Billy cuts me off before I can speak, “You have no idea. Anyways, it is just probably some echo distortion, probably off the walls of the pass. Ghost wails, they call them. Here have a listen.”

Narrowing her gaze Lacey glares at Billy her face growing red. Snatching the offered headset, Lacey holds it near her ear. She squints, listening, drumming her fingers to unheard beat. “It is too organized to be distortion. It’s code and it is repeating.”

Nonplused Billy takes the set again, “Code my ass.” Lowering the volume Billy none the less listens. Suddenly he sits forward, eyes darting right then to the left in time with the whine I can barely hear. Taking up the pad, he clicks a timer on it jabbing numbers into a sequence. “Three seconds up, dead air, two seconds up, four seconds dead air. The cave woman is on to something. I think after this some warm loving is order. These are coordinates…”

Lacey is on him in a flash, a poorly thrown fist knocking him in the side of the head. “I’ve had it!” Lacey screams. Billy pushes back, trying to keep Lacey at bay as the cab of the ambulance explodes into chaos.

The rig rocks with the struggling, Kat and Torq grapple Lacey as I try to keep Billy pinned to the seat. Lacey is screaming bloody murder, her eyes ablaze with anger. “Everything is fucking joke to you! You want a piece of this Irish bitch come get some!”

Billy wipes his nose dabbing at the blood that was flowing there, heaving his back up to get out of the seat. I grind my forearm into his chest to hold him back as he retorts with heat. “You stuck up frigid, hydro-cow! You have been nothing but trouble since we found you! All of this is your fault!”

Lacey twists like and eel, shooting forward again as Kat and Torq rally to regain their grip upon her. “I didn’t ask for any of this! I never wanted any of this to happen! You pig headed simpleton!”

I could only hold Billy back, words were lost to me. I was half tempted to let them have at each other and step out until this was all over. Billy squeaks with a shrill, tears forming in his eyes. “Who the fuck cares? I lost nearly all my friends, I lost my career; I am going down in history as a terrorist! Still we are trying to help you! I am scared out of my fucking mind! You archaic throwback!”

Lacey trembles in the collective grapple of Kat and Torq, her enraged expression cracks. “You think you are scared? Try being on a station when the life support fails, and the only chance you have is in the hands of some sleazy scientist that just wants you to blow him. You go to stasis not knowing if you will ever wake up…”

Hyperventilating Lacey croaks on, “And when you do wake up, the world is hell. Everyone you know is dead and someone is telling you that you are the last hope the world has. I had a family, a son, a loving husband I never got to say goodbye to either of them!”

Billy deflates visibly, the tension leaking from his body as Lacey’s words take the fight out of him. Moments drift by in silence, as the two stare at each other. Finally Billy casts his eyes downward; his now despondent words carry surprising weight. “I’m sorry. I gotta laugh or I am going to cry…”

“And if I can do neither, look out.” Lacey said completing the saying, the crack in her anger widening to almost a nostalgic pose. Overriding her pride Lacey sniffs, “I’m sorry too. This is not fair for anyone.” I shift my head letting Kat and Torq know it was alright to let her go. “We about done here?” I ask hopefully. Lacey and Billy having taken the edge off their fear nod.

Time to get the crew back on track, I pick up the pad and offer it to Billy, “You said something about coordinates.” I said, playing off the scuffle as no big deal, and thankfully they went with it for the time being.

Billy peered at the tablet, wiping a thumb under his nose before scrunching it up in an attempt to breathe through it. “Yeah. They don’t make any sense though. If I put it in right, it is telling me to go twenty seven meters into the wall of the box canyon ahead.”

Taking the wheel again I shrug exhausted. “What do we got to lose? Let’s check it out.”