Chapter 4
1028 Words
Ally hunched down in the seat and felt the stinging bite of metal slicing through the tough canvas of her fitted pants, slashing her shin.
Eoin yelled in pain. Ally looked up to see a piece of wood sticking stake-like through his shoulder. She didn't hesitate, leaning forward and yanked it out, making him yell again.
Already she could feel the skin across her shin bone knitting back together.
'Hang on!' Eoin yelled.
In the midst of twisting, Ally braced herself, thighs gripping the narrow base of the seat as she lifted the lid and rummaged through her pack. Various missiles whizzed past the sides and overhead as Eoin swung the trike from side to side, making as much use of the narrow track as he could.
Other than the explosive sounds of armed trajectory, the forest was silent.
Finding it, Ally pulled the gun from the bag. An LENR weapon, it utilized a low energy nuclear reaction to shoot short laser blasts. At the current distance of around five hundred meters and closing, Ally could easily pick off targets. It fitted over the user's hand for a tight hold around the wrist. Made of reclaimed metals, the most vital part was the thick half sphere of glass, within which a silver ball floated in water. That led to the snub nosed double barrel, neat and simple. To look at the weapon didn't appear much. But the fire power soon changed that observation.
Bracing herself against the seat, Ally lifted the gun. Within the mechanism came an ominous rattle. She swore.
'What?' Eoin asked, voice strained as he swung the trike again, a mortar whistling alongside them close enough for Ally to feel the heat.
'Crystal's almost gone. I've got three shots max.'
'Then make'em good ones!' Eoin snapped. 'And hang on!'
The trike made a sharp turn around a fallen tree. Ally gritted her teeth and slipped the gun over her wrist. A quick twist fastened it in place and she set her thumb in the power slot. With an instant of focus she triggered the layered electro-plaques in her palms, sending a fifty thousand volt shock through the palladium coated ball in the centre of the weapon.
Beneath her palm the gun vibrated with a hum; the silver coloured sphere within the hard water spun faster and faster as the energy built within. Bracing her arm over the back of the seat, Ally stared at the buggies racing after them.
The humans in the closest buggy bared their teeth at her, showcasing glints of metal from the grills they wore. The human beside the driver had a bionic arm, the metal casing spread across his chest. Ally could see the edges of it weeping blood and pus. A recent replacement.
'Bionics,' she called back to Eoin and aimed the weapon on that human. Humans never took well to adaptions, their DNA hardwired to reject such things. The only thing that might save an adaption was blood. Promethean blood.
Ally pulled the trigger, a blast of red catching the human mid-chest, exploding flesh, blood, and metal. The other humans in the vehicle screamed in anger, the first sound she'd heard them make.
The gun vibrated stronger now, signalling the last life in the crystal. Ally kept her focus on the buggy as the trike veered left and right, bouncing over rocks, roots, and tree branches. Body moving easily with the chaotic motions, Ally spied the humans loading their weapon launcher again.
Last shot, she thought, and lifting the gun, fired at the weapon. The gun made a choked splutter as the crystal within shattered.
A hail of sparks and an explosion of sound rang out, the humans jerking away from the mangled remains of their launcher, blood running down their faces and hands. They glared at her, hatred and fury in their eyes but with her hunter instincts running full strength it didn't shake her.
Then the driver, hunched over the wheel to avoid any further shots, twisted to shout something at someone behind. The buggy suddenly slowed. Ally's heart gave a lurch of hope. Before she could tell Eoin, the back buggy veered to the left then lurched forward while the front buggy veered right and braked.
Ally sucked a breath in as she stared at those in the second buggy, all grinning vindictively at her. Her stomach made a churn at the bizarre silence. Normally raiders shouted and threatened, trying to spook their targets. These ones hadn't yelled once.
Ally hunched over the seat, hanging onto the back as she watched the humans who conversed amongst themselves. She couldn't shake the feeling…Something was wrong.
'What's happening, Ally?'
Eoin's shout made her turn slightly.
'I don't know! They're getting something… It looks like a box? A little handheld box?'
Ally stared, heart in her mouth, at the way the human with the box held it high over his head, a triumphant smile on his scarred face.
'A box?! Here, take the controls, I need to see.'
Ally turned and seized the handlebars as Eoin began to move to the back seat then froze beside Ally. In a second he'd twisted back, wrenching a panel off the floor beneath where Ally was stretched out over, hanging onto the handles, a foot near the back seat and one near the front.
'Eoin!' she yelped in protest, wobbling.
'f**k. f**k!'
'What?!'
'They've got an override switch! It's a trap!'
Ally stared down at Eoin rummaging amongst the wiring in the trike then risked a glance over her shoulder at the humans. The one holding the box raised his other hand and slammed it against it.
In an instant the trike lost power, coasting with what remained of its momentum.
'Eoin!'
He was snatching their packs from under the seat. He shoved Ally's at her. She grabbed it with her free hand, guiding the trike into a thicket of trees with heavy undergrowth.
Behind them the raiders hollered in aggressive excitement to each other.
Not risking a glance back, Ally seized Eoin's hand and they leapt from the trike, hitting the soft dirt as they sprinted away.
- Writer
