Lynn stared up at the dark sky, her eyes tracing the clouds to look for a sun that might never return to view. She was leaned back against a column of sandstone out in the desert far beyond the reaches of the city where she could conduct her business without interference from people with a personal bone to pick. The only thing she had to worry about in the wastes were the occasional malnourished and undisciplined raiders and borderline feral mutants. She could handle both if either were to come her way, and so she wasn't worried about being alone. The darkness cast over the desert favored her natural night vision, and her keen feline hearing could discern shifts in the sand, gravel, and dust. One shift was meaningless. Two shifts were a coincidence. But three was a pattern. If she heard three or more shifts coming from the same direction, she knew something was nearby that'd require her attention. The two times since she had taken her place by the rock column where Lynn had noticed movement turned out to be nothing more than scavenger creatures trying to eke out a life in the shifting dunes of the wastes.
So she continued to stare up at the sky, ever alert to her surroundings, but mostly just mindful of the fate of this world. She wasn't from this timeline. Indeed, she had been in it before, but Lynn had developed something of a knack for falling through time. It was almost never by choice, and she had no idea where to even begin to search to find a way back. She just... got used to it. Every time she'd pass through the weavings of fate, she just picked up and carried on until she could inevitably slip by into some different period. The first thing she'd always do when she found herself in some new place in time, was to build contacts. This one yielded no change in her plans, but it was much harder. With Lost Angels the only remaining bastion of civilization, it meant that making contacts was going to be risky. The city was her new place of work, and she couldn't be dealing with the people she could potentially be hired to go up against. She needed outside sources, people who weren't city-dwellers, but were able to support her.
Sethro was one such man. He was an arms dealer out in the wastes who made his profits by supplying the many different raider tribes out in the wastes. The man was indeed a war profiteer, often finding the battlefields of two tribes he had supplied and scavenging his weapons off of the dead just to sell it back to the survivors! Lynn had earned his loyalty by taking some work from him and snuffing out the arms dealing competition in the region. She had handed him a monopoly in power, and it guaranteed him a degree of safety. In return, she'd get discounts on his weapons and ammo. Sethro had in turn become essential for Lynn as well. If she didn't have him, her ability to work in the city as a gun-for-hire would be finite. Meeting Sethro was precisely what she was doing way out in the desert. She needed a top-up of ammo and some new weaponry to expand her capabilities in the city, and Sethro was more than happy to meet her at the coordinates and time he had given Lynn.
She was listening for more than just shifts and movement in the sand. Her ears were poised to listen for the distant rumble of a diesel engine. Her back against the wall would help her feel for vibrations in the earth as the meaty engine would approach. But there was nothing. Aside from the occasional gust of cool wind and animals digging around nearby, there was nothing. Lynn sighed and looked at her watch. He was thirty minutes late, and tardiness was not what Lynn had come to know Sethro for. What was the hold-up? The longer she stayed in one place, the riskier it became to wait. Of course, Lynn had brought some firepower in the form of a marksman rifle for the wide-open spaces the desert provided, a handgun for backup, a combat knife, and two signature wrist claws hidden within black forearm bracers that blended nicely with her black long sleeve shirt. But if anyone did have eyes on her, staying there and not leaving gave them time to call back-up, or line up the perfect shot from a distance.
The wait was starting to eat her patience. She pushed herself from the column and took her rifle which was leaned against the column next to her. Lynn was about to leave when her ears picked something up. A shift in the sand, then another, and finally another. There was no pattern, no regular interval to denote regular steps. But one shift was meaningless... Two... a coincidence... And three or more? The sounds she heard was closing in on ten. She knelt lower to the ground and listened, picking up on a groan and a wheeze. Somebody wasn't walking toward her. They were shambling and dragging their feet through the sand. They were exhausted, dehydrated, and in pain.
Lynn raised her rifle to the crest of the dune where she was sure the sounds were coming from. She wasn't going to rush up and help, not until she saw with her own two eyes that this wasn't an act to close distance on her. Lynn looked through her rifle's scope and spotted the dark silhouette of a big man cresting the dune. She slipped her finger over the trigger and waited, using her thumb to flick the safety off. More of the man came over the hill. He was large and broad shouldered. A mountain of muscle. She recognized the shape. Lynn raised a brow but kept her weapon trained until she could discern with her night vision the man's identity. She lifted her eyes from the scope and lowered her rifle, quickly flipping it back to safe and removing her finger from the trigger. It was Big Higgins, Sethro's personal bodyguard and driver. He was bleeding from several different places, and one of his hands was missing.
Lynn stood and ran toward him, catching him as he stumbled down the dune. She rolled him onto his back. The man coughed and wheezed again. "It's me, Higgs. It's M." She said calmly and quietly as she reached for her canteen pouch fitted to the back of her belt. Lynn pulled the canteen out, opened it, and poured water into the man's mouth. It didn't take long for him to use his one remaining hand to clutch the canteen and drink furiously. She had to wrestle it away from him so he didn't take the whole supply of precious water. The man coughed. He looked like he had been through hell.
"M... I... I found you..." He said, relief in his ragged voice.
She nodded, "What happened, Higgs? Where's Sethro?"
Big Higgins, "Taken... The Rustbloods, they- Ahhh!" he was cut off as pain shot through his leg. Lynn had wasted no time in using her knife to dig a bullet out from the tough muscles of his thigh.
Lynn reached over and planted a hand over his mouth. "Quietly. Noise attracts danger." She said.
Higgins groaned and spittled in her hand, but he eventually mastered himself and took a breath, letting Lynn work despite the intense pain. Lynn threw the bloody bullet out to the desert and got to work bandaging it with torn pieces of Higgin's shirt. It wasn't clean. But it was the best he was going to get for now. She glanced back at his eyes, they were glazed over. "Rustbloods... Raiders then?"
Higgins nodded again and panted. "They found a new dealer, someone with some extreme firepower on the cheap. Bastards took a page out of our book to take us off the board..."
Lynn nodded, "And I take it they succeeded." She said. It wasn't a question.
Big Higgins clenched his jaw, "Yeah..."
"So Sethro... He's dead, then?" Lynn asked as she got to work on the next injury. This one a gut shot that had gone septic. He was a dead man walking for sure, but she at least put the effort in to make Higgins think he was able to saved.
Higgins shook his head, "No... They took him. It doesn't make sense- why not just off him and save the food and water?"
Lynn thought about that. The answer was obvious. "This new dealer wants the location of Sethro's cache... Make me wonder why they didn't take you too since you're his driver..."
Higgins brought his arm up and looked at his missing stump where his hand was once attached. "They got all they needed from me... They just need Sethro's pass code... It's all in a vault-" he was cut off.
"Tied to your biometrics and his password... They already know where it is then..." Lynn deduced.
Higgins nodded. Lynn clenched her jaw and sat back on her heels. She looked over the black sopping wound in his gut. "Higgs..." she said lowly, "I'm sorry, but-"
"I'm dead already. I know..." He said, his voice weak. "M... I'm not asking you this out of loyalty for Sethro... I'm asking you for my own vengeance's sake..."
Lynn looked back up to his eyes. There was a ferociousness in them she had never seen from the usual gentle giant. Higgins continued, "The Rustbloods..." Higgins started as he reached into a pocket of his cargo pants to pull out a notebook. He held it for Lynn to take. "Kill the fuckers... Kill them all!"
Lynn took the notebook and read a page. It was a list of coordinates. Her meeting points with Sethro were all on it, but more importantly, the cache location, and the locations of all of the local raider tribes' outposts. The Rustbloods outpost was circled in Higgins' blood. "Promise me, M..."
Lynn looked away from her notes to him and nodded. Higgins growled as his body began shaking. "Say it."
Lynn's eyes narrowed, but she nodded again and said, "I promise, Higgs. The Rustbloods will be nothing more than food for the vultures... You have my word."
Higgins seemed satisfied by that. He groaned again. The man was in extreme pain, and his death would not come fast. Lynn reached for her pistol and showed it to him. He eyed the piece and nodded knowingly to her. She closed her eyes, took a breath, and stood up while slipping her pistol's suppressor from its pouch on the holster. She screwed it on and aimed it at Higgins forehead, right between the eyes. Higgins stared back at her, "Make 'em pay, M... Thank you..."
"Good knowin' you, Higgs..." Lynn said, and then she pulled the trigger. The suppressor cracking off a shot make Higgins' death silent to all but the keenest ears. Another life lost in the apocalypse.
Lynn lowered her pistol and let out a long sigh, her eyes turning back up to the darkened sky. She wasn't searching for any sun now. Now she was preparing herself for what had to come next. Lynn closed her eyes and nodded, "Okay..." she said as she knelt down and began patting down Higgins' body for anything useful. There wasn't much except for Higgins' personal weapon. A silver plated and engraved .357 magnum revolver. The grip was wood, and carved in it were the latin words 'Fidus in Culpa'. Lynn used her thumb to brush sand from the handle as she read it out loud to herself. "Loyal to a fault..." Lynn looked back to Higgins' body, "This isn't just for vengeance... It's for Sethro too, right?"
Of course Higgins wasn't going to reply. But the question was ultimately rhetorical anyways. She wondered what the arms dealer had done for Big Higgins to be so faithful. Perhaps she'd never know. Lynn slipped the revolved in the waistband of her pants, underneath her shirt, and read the coordinates for the Rustbloods outpost one more time. It was a day's trek further into the desert. A day's trek further from the city and its relative safety. Still, despite all the added risk, Lynn turned to make her way there. For if it were Lynn laying in that sand instead of Higgins, she too would want her fury placated. Karma.
Twenty-two hours later...
Lynn leopard crawled her way up the side of a large dune, her ears poised and listening in to the activity on the other side. She was just barely East of the coordinates of the Rustblood Raider outpost. There was no way Lynn was going to go in blind. She needed to scout it first before going in. She reached the crest of the dune, using the eternal darkness to her advantage. She was practically invisible with only half her head peering over the top. The outpost was nestled up against a rocky outcropping. Three sides were fenced off with barbed wire, and the back of the post was against the stony cliff. A rickshaw gantry-way made from sheet metals and scraps slithered up the rock face to the top, leading to a guard tower with spot lights shining down on the main compound. There was a small radio tower erected at the top of the cliff too, no doubt to keep in communication with Rustbloods that were out prowling the dunes. If the vehicle tracks in the gravelly sand were anything to go by, there were at least a handful of Rustbloods not currently home. Good news for her. The radio tower was held up by four retention cables, one of which was attached to a beam jutting out from the warehouse's rickshaw rooftop.
Down in the compound were three buildings. A large warehouse which appeared to have undergone several different slap-job repairs with wood and scrap dominated the center of the compound. Then there was a garage bay door which led into the rock face where the vehicle tracks had come from. No doubt they stored all of their vehicles and weapons in there to keep them from the dust storms. The hangar door was large. Large enough to fit some pretty big vehicles through it. She would need to get eyes inside that hangar to truly know what she was up against. The third building was smaller, more like it was three modular shacks attached and welded together with more scrap metals. She could see movement in one of the windows, then more. Perhaps it was the barracks then? Strewn about the compound were barrels filled with fire to light the places that the spotlights didn't, and to spread some of the warmth around without the sun to do that for them. Several large cables came out from the warehouse's windows and snaked their way to the to the other structures, as well as up the rock face to the towers. They had electricity, and judging by the size of the cables, not just from a gas-powered generator... How curious.
Lynn then spotted Sethro's truck with a fuel siphon hooked up to a pump and some fuel jerries. There were a bunch of wooden crates stacked up behind the truck. She brought her rifle up to use the scope and look closer, seeing the letter M spray painted on the sides of some of the crates. Her shipment. Lynn knew what was inside those crates, and she knew that they could potentially be helpful. But the longer she waited, the harder it'd be to access the gear. She needed to move quick before she lost sight of it inside one of the buildings. The reports of gunfire made Lynn's ears perk. She panned her scope toward the source of the sound and spotted two Rustbloods firing off some rounds from some of Sethro's weapons. They looked like they were having a good time with it.
A rumble of thunder in the distance made Lynn look back over her shoulder. It was dark, but with her vision, she could still easily discern the gigantic wall of sand of dust looming. A sandstorm... And it was a big one. Lynn glanced back at the outpost, taking one last mental snapshot of it before sliding back down the sand dune. She would approach from the cliff.
It took several minutes of cautious movement and carefully planned pathfinding to circumnavigate the outpost without being easily spotted or in a disadvantageous position. But nevertheless, she found herself a obscure way up the cliffside and behind the towers. There was a Rustblood sitting in a small scrap hut with a hunting rifle to look out for the base's rear approach. If Lynn were running the show, she'd have put no less than two sentries out so one could report an intrusion if the other went down. But the Rustbloods didn't have Lynn's discipline or training. They simply grew up in this messed up timeline. It was what made Lynn such a predator in these wastes with her lifetime of experience and peerless training. Before she approached, Lynn looked around and listened for any other sentry. She could hear one in the guard tower speaking over a hand held radio. "Tower checkin' in. Same ol' shit up here," he said.
Lynn looked back down at her watch and took note of the time. The hour had just passed. At least they were smart enough to do reports. But that also told Lynn she had, at most, an hour before the next call-in. She'd be done before then. But once the guard in the tower was dead, there'd be no report and suspicion would most certainly rise. Perhaps they'd send somebody to go and make sure he wasn't asleep. But then they'd just find a body that Lynn just didn't have the time to dispose of, not with the sandstorm closing in.
She looked back to the hut. First was the rear guard. She drew her knife and crept closer, ears raised to listen for a radio report. She could hear others chiming in over their net as the hourly reports came in. It'd only be a matter of time before he was due. She squatted below the parapet of the guard house and waited for the right moment. Sure enough, she heard the guard yawn and then speak after a radio's PTT chime, "Backhouse here... Got nothin' 'cept. Some night vision would help... Maybe we can get Klescher to deliver us some?"
Klescher. Was that the new dealer in town? Lynn refrained from striking. She wanted to see if a return would come over the radio. There was a few seconds of silence, but one did eventually come. "I'll see what he can do fer us."
The guard gave a quiet cheer and giddy laugh before speaking his mind out loud. "Fuck yeah! Lovin' this new gun runner!"
With no further radio comms apparently coming from the guard house, Lynn would make a noise by tapping her knife on the sheet metal siding of the hut to draw the guard in. "Fuckin' mice..." the raider mumbled as he got up stomp on it. The moment Lynn saw him peer over the parapet, she lunged upward, sinking her knife into the soft part of his chin and driving the blade up into brain. The guard let out a reflexive gasp of surprise, but nothing more as she pressed her hand over his mouth and stared him dead in the eyes. His body spasmed a bit, but it went limp soon after. She pulled the body over the parapet and laid it down quietly where the tower couldn't see.
More thunder rumbled in the distance as she wasted no time in moving for the tower guard. She didn't take the ladder leading up to the top. She'd be too vulnerable if the guard needed to come down at the worst possible time. So she scaled up the tower's structure instead, using her impressive acrobatics and upper body strength to make easy work of the climb. The base of the tower house was reinforced with beams which allowed Lynn footholds while she hung on the outside. She could hear the bootsteps of the guard on the wooden pallet flooring of the tower, waiting for the moment when he would be just on the other side of the waist high wall Lynn was hanging from. She let go with one hand to ready her knife in a reverse grip. Once she was sure he was at a good distance, Lynn sprung up and grabbed the man with her free hand while sinking the blade in his shoulder at a downwards angle, the tip piercing into his heart. She pulled her weight back, and took the man over the edge of the tower with her, letting go and quickly grabbing back onto the tower while leaving the body to freefall to the rocky ground below. If he had survived the knife, the fall had most certainly killed him.
Lynn pulled herself over the edge and into the tower proper before unslinging her rifle and resting it on the edge of it. A dusty yellow flash of lightning lit the base up for a brief moment as the winds rose, followed by a quick crack of thunder. She could feel the tower groan and rock beneath her feet. More thunder sung out further along the front of the storm. She eyed down at the two raiders who were still shooting off rounds, the occasional bangs of their guns being fired would be the perfect cover along with the thunder. Lynn switched targets, preferring to go for the one siphoning fuel out of Sethro's truck. It appeared her was working on something else now, possibly pulling other fluids from the truck for use in a different vehicle. Lynn waited for another flash of lightning. When it came, her reflexes allowed her to fire in almost perfect timing with the thundercrack. She squeezed the trigger, the report of the gun masked by the louder clap of nature and given an alibi by the undisciplined shooting raiders. The round punched into the back of the raider's head, painting the side of Sethro's truck red as the body fell to the ground.
With him dead, Lynn then brought her rifle over to the two shooters. Their backstop was hard stone, something which could easily cause a ricochet. She took note of who was shooting next and aimed at the one who wasn't. She waited for him to fire off a few rounds to gain an understanding of his pattern. So far they had been shooting single shots, but they were taking turns one magazine at a time. Lynn let him squeeze off a few rounds, listening to interval in which he'd shoot. Bang! One two... Bang! One two... Bang! One two... BANG! Lynn's round fired in sync with his forth shot, putting the round in the man's leg. He let out a loud cry of pain as he fell to the ground, immediately blaming the other stupid raider.
An argument quickly ensued with two other raiders running over to see what all the commotion was about. The shot raider was brandishing his gun at the other raider now as passions began to run high. Lynn brought her point of aim over to the shot raider's shoulder next and waited for the next thunderclap like before. When it came, she fired and watched the man's shoulder spew blood out the back. He howled and let loose on the other raider, blaming him once again for shooting him! The other raider, stupefied and now in survival mode, flipped his rifle to full auto and dumped back into him. With the full auto screaming, Lynn put a shot into the healthy raider, killing him, but not before a few of those rounds had sunk into the injured one first. The two bystanding raiders had just witnessed the two raiders offing each other, but instead of being dumbfounded and concerned, they simply laughed at the exciting show before turning and leaving their corpses in the sand. Lynn shook her head and whispered to herself, "Fucking barbarians..."
Lynn's ear perked when she heard the tower's radio chime in. "What the fuck is going on out there?!"
Laughter then filtered through the radio, "Jax and Trig just gunned each other down! One of Trig's rounds ricocheted back and hit Jax and he just lost it on 'im! Hahaha!"
There was a repressed chuckle as the first voice came back on, "Serves those idiots right! Ain't got no time for morons in this crew!"
Lynn scanned the compound for any other easy targets to pick off before going in, but she figured three was probably already lucky. It was only a matter of time before somebody would spot the body by Sethro's truck, and she had no clue when shift change was in the tower or rear guardhouse. In any event, things would get much harder if they went on alert. Lynn went to the ladder and gripped it loosely to slide down it. She dropped down to the ground and went over to the radio tower to cut the power line trailing from the warehouse and feeding the mast. With the shoddy nature of the outpost and the eternal temperament of all comms equipment, she was sure the outage could be chalked up to something coming undone in this weather, at least in the short term.
She moved over to the retention cable connecting the radio mast with the warehouse below. Lynn grabbed it and pulled her legs up, hooking them around the cable and starting her careful descent down it. It took a great deal of strength to keep herself from sliding down the cable and making a bunch of noise. Every movement was slow and required her to lift her hands and legs off of the cable and back on further down. Lynn heard movement underneath her, making her cling to the cable with one hand while draping the other down to twist her torso and see below her. Two more raiders were hurrying past, "What the hell is taking Clem so long with that truck?! We gotta get it inside before the storm hits us!"
Shit! They were going to find the body! Lynn quickly pulled her suppressed pistol from its holster and aimed while hanging from that swinging cable. She furrowed her brows and fired two shots, one landing in the base of one of the raider's spines, and the second missing. He dropped to the ground, holding the wound and yelling in pain. "Fuck..." Lynn muttered as she tried to aim more. She was not in a good position for accurate shooting. At least they were stationary now...
She took a breath, outstretched her arm, and fired off three more shots, two missing but the third connecting with the other raider's neck. He fell to the ground, clutching his torn jugular as he suffocated and bled out. The other raider, the one who's spine had been shot, pulled himself over to him. Lynn fired off the rest of her magazine, peppering his immediate area with bullets. She didn't count how many had connected, but she did see that he was dead too. They wouldn't find the body... But the new problem now was the two corpses lying in the middle of the compound right under the light of the tower's spotlights. She wanted to kill those lights, but it would have drawn far too much attention to the tower if she had. She was very quickly running out of time now. All it'd take was one glance outside to see the two bodies for things to get interesting. She needed speed now, not security.
Lynn holstered her pistol and wrapped her arms around the cable, letting herself slide down the remaining length. She dropped her legs from the cable before reaching the beam at the end, using them to springboard and stop a hard impact with it. Once she was safely over the roof of the warehouse, Lynn let go and quietly dropped onto it. Her ear perked to the sound of shouting. The bodies were spotted. She cursed under her breath, hoping she'd get at least another couple of minutes before somebody would deign to look outside.
There was more shouting now as a raider ran to an old crank alarm. The alarm screamed out over the gusting winds, making more raiders burst out from the buildings with a variety of different weapons in hand from pipes and machetes to pistols and rifles. Lynn peered over the edge of the rooftop to the outer catwalk below, seeing another raider with an old AK-12 rifle. She clenched her right fist and extended the wrist claw from her bracer before dropping down on top of him. Lynn's feet came down on his shoulders, causing his legs to buckle under the surprise weight while the razor sharp carbon-steel wrist blades sink into the nape of his neck and down into his chest. She clattered backward, her back hitting the warehouse wall as she arrested her momentum. Lynn grabbed the man's AK-12 and looked back to the handful of raiders in the compound. Three were looking right at her, and they shouted and pointed at their intruder! Lynn snapped her aim up on the nearest raider, one with a rifle, and put two rounds into his chest before quickly drawing her aim to the next man over to double tap him in quick succession. Lynn didn't wait to confirm if those rounds had killed. She changed targets, going for a man with a machete who was trying to throw himself into cover. She fired three rounds, one catching his leg, another his arm, and the final round in his head.
Return fire came from two raiders, one with a handgun, and the other with a hunting rifle. The handrailing next to Lynn sparked as a round glanced off of it, making her shift and drop lower to reduce her silhouette. She aimed back at the rifleman first, putting four shots into him before training her sight onto the man with the handgun. She fired once and clipped his shoulder, causing him to spin and drop his weapon. Lynn then put two more rounds into the man to finish him off. She heard the sound of a creaking door slam open further along the catwalk, making her pivot left and triple-tap the first raider through the door. He fell and rolled over the handrail, falling back to ground level as the second man came through with a shotgun. Lynn hit him once as well, causing his first shot to sail wide. She closed in, jamming the muzzle of the AK-12 into his chest and following up with a single shot in his heart. She moved to the door, rounding it just in time to be in the line of fire of a fire axe! She had her reflexes to thank as she dropped below the arch of the axe's swing, the blade chopping into the wooden doorframe and showering her in wood ships. Lynn bull-rushed the axe-wielding raider, shoving her shoulder into him and throwing him off balance.
She back stepped and raised her rifle to fire, but no round came. Lynn quickly tiled the weapon and studied the position of the bolt, seeing a misfeed. The sand from the coming storm was going to make guns a nightmare... She stepped in, swinging the butt of the rifle at the raider's jaw. He sidestepped and threw himself back at Lynn, his larger size easily taking her off her feet. Lynn was slammed against the wall. She growled and extended both wrist claws, sinking them both into either side of his ribs. The man yowled in pain as Lynn tucked her legs to her chest between them and pushed him off of her. She slumped down the wall, but impetuously threw herself back at the dying raider to punch one of her wrist claws into his neck.
Lynn brought a foot up and kicked him off of her blade before flicking the blood off both of them. She could hear more yelling as Rustbloods responded to firefight from elsewhere in the compound. But it seemed as though she had bought herself at least a few seconds. "M! Holy shit, M!" a voice yelled out from the other side of the warehouse.
Lynn looked over, spotting Sethro tied to a chair looking battered and bruised. "Hah! Please tell me you came to get me!" Sethro said excitedly.
Lynn tightened her lips. That wasn't exactly the case, but... She was nothing if not an opportunist. "Something like that!" She called back.
"Then come get me loose and let's get the fuck out outta dodge!" Sethro said as he wrestled with his bindings.
Lynn nodded and looked for a way down. "Hang tight!" She said as she moved toward a stair way, making sure to reload her pistol on the way now that she had a second.
She climbed down the stairs and ran to Sethro and managed to free one leg before three more raiders to barge their way into the warehouse. Lynn snap fired her pistol into the first man she saw, dropping him instantly. But the other two were upon her, one with a knife and the other with a chain. She prioritized the knife wielder first. He went for a stab. Lynn sidestepped and tried firing her pistol into the side of his head, but the other raider's chain whipped down and hit Lynn by the forearm. Her bracer stopped the chain's damage, but it was enough to make her shoot wide and drop her pistol in the process. The knife raider pivoted and slashed outward, Lynn back stepped. Another whip from the chain to the back of Lynn's left knee dropped her to one knee. The knife was coming for her again! She shifted slightly, taking the stab to her shoulder with a hiss of pain from her. But she was close now. With one arm, she clutched the knifer and sunk a wrist blade into his gut. She heard the chain rattle as the remaining raider geared up for another whip. Lynn held onto the dying knife raider and twisted her upper body, placing him between her and the incoming chain. It whipped at the raider's back. Lynn reached for her pistol on the ground and snapped it up to put three rounds into the chain raider's chest. He dropped onto his back.
Lynn threw the dead knifer off of her and hissed in pain as the knife remained in her shoulder. "Fuck!" She said angrily as she pulled it from the meat of her shoulder. It wasn't going to be a lethal or totally debilitating injury. If anything, the pain would keep her more awake and alert through the mounting exhaustion. But blood loss and loss of advanced motion in her left arm would complicate things. "Shit, M! You good?" Sethro asked from his chair.
Lynn growled as she used that bloody knife to cut him loose. "I'm pissed off," she said.
"I thought that was your default state?" He asked with a cheeky grin.
"I'm even more pissed off," Lynn corrected.
"Ah! I see! Well good for these Rustblood idiots then, I suppose that means they just expedited their own demise!" Sethro said with a raucous laughter.
Lynn rolled her eyes. "Glad to see you're in good spirits, Sethro..." She said before reaching back and lifting her shirt to pull out the .357 revolver.
Sethro saw it and his shit-eating grin quickly died. He recognized it immediately. "Is he-" he started, but Lynn cut him off.
"I'm sorry..." Is all she said back.
It was all she needed to say. Sethro knew the rest. "Ah..." He lowered his head.
Lynn kept the revolver held out in front of him. "Take it, Sethro."
He looked back up, her eyes going over the intricate engraved filigree running along the barrel of the impressive revolver. "That big idiot..." Sethro said as he reached out and took the gun.
"He had just enough strength to get to me. Sent me to wipe these Rustbloods off the map..." She paused and added, "And to get you out."
Sethro let out a single chuckle, "Loyal to a fault, that one..." He said, "Klescher is going to pay big time for this."
Lynn shrugged, "Not my fight. But I get where you're coming from." Sethro glared back up at Lynn, "I'll give you unlimited access to my vault. I'll set the biometrics to you and give you the pass code. No more blood on my behalf. No more diamonds. Help me take down Klescher, and you'll have the firepower to supply an army."
Lynn looked back at him, thinking long and hard on that. Now that was an offer she couldn't say no to. She smirked at him, "Good news, Sethro. My schedule just opened up. I'm gonna be in the desert for a while now."
Sethro grinned back at her, "I could kiss you right no-"
"Please don't."
"Gah! Swing and a miss!" he chuckled.
Lynn looked around, her ears still poised to listen for more threats. Things were still silent. "Your truck is off the table. Which means we gotta get a new ride out of here. Think we'll find anything good in that garage?"
Sethro laughed, "Oh we will indeed!"
Lynn glanced back at him with a raised brow, "Sethro? What'd you sell them?"
Sethro waved his hand dismissively, "Ohhh nothing too crazy! A few humvees, some dirt bikes. Nothing like what Klescher got 'em!"
"Please explain..." She said as she pinched the bridge of her nose.
"Well... Klescher used to be a general back in the day, and-"
"Ah fuck..."
"He's been putting some heavy armor in the local tribes' hands." Sethro finished.
"Tanks... You're shitting me right?" Lynn said, almost in disbelief.
"Wish I was! Why do you think the Rustbloods were done with me? Not much I can provide to match the firepower Klescher's got in his back pocket." Sethro explained.
Lynn splayed both arms to either side of her, "What the hell is he trying to do out here?! How long has Klescher been in the game for?"
Sethro shook his head, "Can't say I know what Klescher's up to. He started dealing on my turf a month ago. Been a lot of intense skirmishes in the northern wastes lately. Artillery and all that good stuff."
"And he's moving shit toward Lost Angels'..." Lynn said, more to herself as she thought out loud.
"Seems that way!" Sethro agreed.
There was a lot to unpack there, but Lynn couldn't waste any more time while they were still in Rustblood territory. "We need to talk about this elsewhere. Come on."
Lynn started moving, Sethro limping with haste behind her. The winds were howling now. Thunder and lightning cracked and boomed overhead. And the great wall of the sandstorm turned half the sky pitch black, even for Lynn's night vision. As they came outside, some gunfire cracked out and hit the ground in front of her. She threw herself back into the building and peered out to spot three raiders on the catwalk snaking up the cliffside firing down on them. She unslung her marksman rifle and looked to Sethro, "These guys already can't aim for shit, and the high winds are making it even harder."
"Oh good so we can just waltz out, right?" Sethro asked.
Lynn pointed to the hangar door in the cliff face. "Run as fast as you can to the hangar and get under their line of fire. Draw the heat and I'll cover you and follow once they're taken care of."
"Christ, M, you're nuts!" Sethro said.
"The longer we wait, the worst this storm gets and the less chances we have at actually getting out of this! Fucking move it!" She said, practically grabbing Sethro by the collar of his shirt and throwing him out the door.
The second volley of gun fire motivated Sethro to play Lynn's game as he ran as quickly as he could with his injured leg. Plumes of dust kicked up from the ground around Sethro. Lynn brought her rifle up and around the corner of the door, aiming to compensate for the extreme cross wind. She fired her first shot, seeing the round miss by a meter. She corrected and fired again, hitting the raider square in the chest. Lynn then drew her aim right, hitting the next raider with a clean headshot. Seeing his fellow raiders go down, he changed his aim back to Lynn and fired a full auto burst at her. Lynn went back behind cover, the rounds smacking the side of the warehouse and ground where she had been. The raider screamed a warcry as he held the trigger down on the door. Lynn heard a deeper, heavier bang as the hail of gunfire stopped.
She peaked out and saw Sethro aiming up with Big Higgins' .357. The raider that was suppressing Lynn was mid-fall down the cliff when she peered out, the front of his face missing from the magnum round connecting with the bottom of his chin. Lynn lifted herself from cover and sprinted across the open compound. As she moved, she heard the roar of an engine from the other side of the hangar door. A hail of heavy rounds ripped through the hangar, forcing Lynn to throw herself to the side and take cover behind the engine block of Sethro's truck. The roar grew louder as the hangar door bloomed, folded, then came apart to the weight of a tank! Lynn yelled from her cover, "Fuck! Fuck me! Fuck you Klescher!" Lynn yelled in spite of Klescher's impressive supply. She really wanted to off the guy now.
A hatch came open on top of the tank's turret, and a grizzled raider stood out from it with a wide grin and a cigar. "That's it, baby! We got tanks now! Ain't nobody stopping us in these parts! Woohoo!"
Lynn figured that he was the Rustblood chieftain. The one she had heard on the radio. Lynn peered out from behind the truck and aimed at the man, firing a shot off. Her shot was taken by the wind, causing to to miss, but it was close enough to force the chieftain back into the turret. "That fuckin' cat bitch! 'Ey loader! Put an HE in the gun!"
"Shit! Shit shit shit!" Lynn yelled as she got to her feet and ran around to the back where the weapons crates were. She saw the crates all labelled with M and yanked the lid off of one. "Didn't wanna use you so soon but no time like the present!"
She looked over to Sethro, who was taking cover behind some scrap. "SETHRO! GET THAT FUCKER'S ATTENTION!"
Sethro rolled her eyes, "Oh now you want me running through a fuckin' tank's field of fire?! What next?! No man's land?!"
Lynn reached into the crate and pulled out Carl Gustav recoilless rifle. Sethro's eyes went wide! How could he forget the firepower Lynn had ordered!? He nodded and took off from his cover. Lynn didn't have time to load the weapon when that tank was threatening to atomize her. She reached into the container and pulled out one one of the four HEAT rounds from it. She hauled the launcher onto her shoulder and ran with the round in her other hand as the tank turret trained on Sethro's truck. Lynn clenched her jaw, exhaled, and pinned her feline ears back against her head as the tank's cannon let loose an explosive round. The truck went up in a fireball, debris and flame being carried sideways in the wind. The blast threw Lynn off of her feet, causing her to drop the heavy recoilless rifle and the single HEAT round she had for it. She scrambled back to her feet, her ears ringing, as she took the Carl G in one arm and the round in her other hand. The blast and close range was filling the tank's sights with a bunch of noise, enough to let Lynn slip out of sight.
She slammed her back against the cover of the raider's barracks building and took a moment to gather her breath and get some hearing back in her ears. She could hear the tank's tracks begin to grind as it started to move and hunt her down. She didn't have long. Lynn set the muzzle of the Carl G into the dirt and flipped open the ventral tube on the back of the launcher before shoving the round into it. Lynn closed the tube and locked it before looking up to see the front of the tank's barrel looming over the corner. She got up and quickly moved around the barracks to get to the tank's rear. Having lost sight of Lynn entirely, the chief was forced to rise up and out of the commander's hatch again. "Where the fuck did that bitch go?!"
A heavy shot rung out from Big Higgins' magnum, the round connecting with the side of the chieftain's arm. He recoiled in his hatch and shouted profanities. "Fuck shit bitch! Mother fuck-"
"Haha! Suck it, Rustblood! Can't even beat us with a fuckin' tank! Pathetic!" Sethro taunted.
The chief growled. "Screw the cat! We're turning that chintsy little shit into paste!" he said as he retreated to the safety of the armored turret.
The turret started turning around from Lynn's position. She moved around to the rear of the tank and took a knee, aiming down the sights of the recoilless rifle on her shoulder. Even at this range, she couldn't afford to miss. The tank's coaxial machine gun opened fire at Sethro. She didn't have time to see if they had gotten him though, she was took focused on shoving this explosive armor piercing round up the tank's ass! Lynn pulled the trigger, hearing only a click. She blinked and realized she had a misfire. "Fuck!"
She lowered weapon down with its barrel facing the tank to look it over quickly, spotting that the ventral tube was properly locked in place. She rolled her eyes and slammed it closed, forcing some sand out from between the lugs as she did. She shouldered it again and let out a huff as the tank's cannon let loose another explosive round, this time taking out a huge portion of the warehouse's wall. Lynn sighted herself in again and squeezed the trigger. The wind was taken from her lungs as the overpressure of the round created a vacuum in front of her. But the round slammed into the back of the tank's hull with a bright orange ring of super heated metal. Fire blew out from the back deck of the tank and a scream could be heard inside the vehicle. The loader threw open his hatch, fire blasting out from underneath him. He threw himself out of the tank, landing on his head and going unconscious. The fire would take him. Lynn threw the Carl G aside and unslung her rifle, aiming it at the commander's hatch as it too flew up. He threw himself out with a fire extinguisher, shooting it back into the turret of the tank while his gunner and driver were both trapped inside and immolating.
Realizing he just left the safety of his armor, the chieftain looked up, seeing down the barrel of Lynn's rifle. Lynn didn't give him the time to plea for him life. She put a single shot between his eyes, causing him to fling back and fall off of the side of the tank as well. She stood up and ran over to the ruined warehouse. "Sethro!" she called out, "Sethro are you still alive?!"
A ran raised up from under some debris. Lynn spotted it and ran over, finding Sethro half buried in rubble. Wood and metal debris was embedded in his leg. On the bright side, it was the leg he was already limping on! Lynn hauled the debris off of him and pulled him from the rubble. She saw the glint of Big Higgins' revolver in the mess and pulled it out, slapping it back into Sethro's hand before bringing one of his arms over her shoulder and hefting him to his feet. They both groaned. Their bodies were aching and in need of a moment's rest. Sethro panted as Lynn carried him into the hangar. "Got any good places to lay low?" Lynn said between her pants.
Sethro shrugged, "Big Higgs knew all the spots. I just did all the talking..."
Lynn brought Sethro to a Humvee and opened the passenger side door to get him in there. Then she moved around and climbed into the driver's seat. She started the vehicle and rested back in her seat for just a moment to clear her head. Her ears were still ringing and she had a wicked headache. Eventually, Lynn would reach into her pocket and pull out Higgs' notebook, reading over the coordinates until she found one of the safehouse's coordinates. She shifted the vehicle into drive and pulled it out of the hangar, dust and debris smacking into the bulletproof glass of the Humvee's windshield. They both peered at the burning hull of the tank as they rolled past it.
Sethro gritted his teeth, "Gonna be more where that came from when he go after Klescher..."
Lynn didn't say anything. They both simply nodded in silence. The Humvee rolled out of the ruined compound and followed the well driven path out until they were in the open desert and well under the cover of the storm.
Sethro looked over to Lynn, she was driving with one hand on the wheel, and the other was holding Lynn's head with her elbow propped on the window sill. "Your vampire friends back in the city wouldn't happen be to down for a war out in the wastes at all would they?"
Lynn looked back over to him for a moment before shaking her head and looked ahead again. "Not a shot. We had a falling out..." She said.
Sethro clicked her tongue, "Fuck... So... Who DO we got for this?"
Lynn thought about that and shrugged, "Looks like it's just us, not unless you got some people who owe you some big debts."
Sethro sighed, "Not a shot..."
Lynn took her turn, "Fuuuuck..."
The two nodded silently together for a second time.