Chapter 29

The atmosphere within Sceleratus had a bout of peacefulness, but they were filled with stiffness. I entered one of the buildings on the south side where twenty men were hanging around.

They had pistols around their waist and seemed to be kicking back. The moment they saw me, all of their jawlines stiffened.

I acknowledged them with a nod, but they didn’t return the gesture. As I walked by, the majority of them tried to dispel me from my path, but I weaved through them unbothered by the pissing contest they wanted to engage in.

Walack on the other hand was just an observer. He didn’t say anything, nor did he stop them. Neutrality at best. It was fine, as long as none of them touched me.

This behaviour amongst young men was commonplace within Bridge City. It happened amongst the newly formed gangs who were trying to carve out their territory.

The same could be said about Akatani, but unlike most, he was smart and got quite far, till he killed my favourite courier, Shedrick.

I let my mind wander about Shedrick as I canvassed the building. The thoughts of how his life could’ve been if I didn’t get him involved with me.

I liked the kid, he was smart, resourceful and downright likeable. When he didn’t know something, he’d asked and made sure his questions were concise. Ensuring he’d get the answer he needed to make a better decision on how to move forward. Fuck he should be alive! I thought sourly.

“Maybe I am bad luck,” I said softly.

After I’d finished searching through the building and not finding shit. Walack took me to the Motor Pool which was on the far east side of the base. Thankfully, it was close to the Petroleum Oil and Lubricant, which made sense based on the design.

The Motor Pool had eight trucks with seven trailers, all in pristine condition. The few half jeeps and scrapped buggies sat in the back, which was supposed to be out of people's sight, but clearly, the steel sheets that were used to block them were being used elsewhere.

Walack walked into the Motor Pool, hands on their hip and rolled his neck. A mechanic hut sat on the far end of the Motor Pool with one of the shack doors wide open.

The scent of oil, transmission fluid and god knows what else flooded into my nose, along with the reverberating sound of Walack’s voice. “BRENA!” He shouted.

“WHAT!”

“THE SHIT YOU GAVE ME IS RATTLING TOO MUCH, I WANT SOMETHING LESS NOISY.”

“WE’RE IN THE MIDDLE OF A BATTLE AND YOU’RE WORRYING ABOUT A RATTLING VEHICLE?” The Mechanic Hut’s door shot open and a woman around six feet tall spilt out of the hut with a wrench in her hand. She was blonde, with pale skin.

I could tell her face had seen better days, but she was muscled and borderline stocky. Her lips were thick which blended well with her nose. Her eyes were dark brown. If I were to look at her a tad longer I would consider her pretty, for a girl who grew up in the Waste. “Who the fuck is that Wal?”

“A Guest?”

“You brought a fucking Doasian here?”

“I’m not a Doasian” I interjected, raising my left hand and showing my cybernetic arm. Brena's eyes widened, then ran towards me dropping the wrench on her third step.

I stepped back startled, but her legs were as long as a horse’s, which made her reach me by the fifth step. She grabbed my cybernetic arm and watched as her eyes began to sparkle with excitement. “You’re a Cib!” She exclaimed touching my arm as if it were sacred.

“Cib?” I asked, confused by the term.

“You know, Ciberman!”

“Oh, I see Ciberman. Interesting, I’ve never heard the term before.”

“Right, can I?”

“Sure,” I said with a laugh.

Brena took my cybernetic hand and began moving it as if it were some toy. She ignored my discomfort and then nodded as if she’d been treated to a treat.

“Brena, the jeep…” Walack said firmly.

She unclipped a bunch of keys from her waist tossing them at Walack who barely caught them by running forward. He’d make a poor slipsman I thought, thinking of all the cricket games I missed since this excursion into the waste.

“Which one?”

“9B!” Brena snapped annoyed.

“You do know I’m here right?” I said, feeling my discomfort from the woman’s curiosity finally resonating within me. She just smiled and nodded and I kept myself silenced.

Walack ran off to the side from out of my view and a loud growl bellowed behind me. He brought the jeep out of the Motor Pool, pulling right up next to me. “You’ve got to be shitting me, you want my ride in this piece of shit?”

“We don’t have fuck all Wal, use it or scoff off!”

“THIS SHIT ONLY HAS A DRIVER’S SEAT. YOU HAVE BUCKETS STRUNG ONTO CHASSIS WITH FUCKING WIRES” He howled in disgust.

“Look, we ain’t time for shit. I’m just trying to get shit so we can at least escape this place if we have to.”

“You’re not going to escape anywhere with this,” I interjected.

“I know, but what choice do we have?” Brena said softly.

I forced myself from nodding as I saw the reservation in her eyes. She wanted to live, and with the way how things were doing, it seemed as though that was not going to be for too long.

“Thank You, Brena. We’ve taken up enough of your time as is. Walack, Take me to the Communications Centre,” I said.

“You’re Welcome.” She said, stomping her way into the Mechanic Hut leaving me and Walack to this bullshit jeep. Well, more bullshit for me, than for him.

I climbed into the jeep begrudgingly and held onto the chassis railings, as there was no way in hell I was going to sit on a bucket.

Walack looked up at me shaking his head, then slammed the accelerator, which jerked me back, but not enough for me to lose my grip.

We sped through the base bypassing Guard Shacks, Medical Clinics, Canteens and various Warehouses, sadly though, the majority of them were derelict which meant they weren’t stocked in the way I’d hope, to at least provide a solid defence for these Settlers.

It made me realise that Sceleratus was a time bomb ready to explode. The sad part of it all was we still had to be wary of the reinforcements Lieutenant Ranton signalled.

…and that didn’t fill me with no confidence.

The last time I was in the Carib Waste, hundreds of people died because of a psychotic Chairman who felt slighted because his daughter chose to protect them over company profits.

The problem though, Elhisia had met her match in her father. He had planned everything, except his lineagecube leaving his side.

Now, natives to the Carib Waste would die because some psychopath was experimenting on Doasian kids. That was just sick, I thought, the Doasians are right, kill em all…but the natives to the waste were innocent. They don’t deserve to die, not like Elhisia’s people.

I ground my teeth in frustration thinking of how I couldn’t help them back then, as it would seem, I couldn’t the natives either. “We live in a shitty world,” I said aloud.

“What was that?” Walack said, barely audible due to the roaring wind. His head, looking at me puzzled, then continued to ignore me.

The jeep skidded around the corner, and I tilted to my feeling as my body was about to snap in two. Walack tapped the breaks counter-steering effectively, then released the wheels allowing it to re-align on its own.

Once he was satisfied, he sank his foot into the accelerator and the jeep levelled slowly bringing me upright once more. We zipped past another Motor Pool and bypassed a broken sign which read as R c e a e C n e. Recreational Centre I said to myself.

“We’re here,” Walack said.

The jeep rounded another corner and a building fifty meters tall with six satellite dishes sitting on the roof and three medium-sized antennas which stood around the building in a semicircle appeared into view.

I zoomed in on the antennas, checking their skeletal frames for decay and found it in the form of a hundred rusted spots. Out of the three antennas, two looked operable, based on the restoration job done by whoever decided to make Sceleratus the home for its Research and Development.

It could also house the genetic experimentation, I mused sourly. I had no proof of the mental accusation I exercised, but if one were to truly sit and think. Why in the Imbibe would someone kidnap Doasian children if not to experiment on? Despicable!

The more I thought about it, the more my blood boiled. Calm yourself Cypher…keep your head in the game. Hannah is home…but not the Doasian children, I thought sourly.

The jeep rolled to a stop, and Walack freed himself from its rusted embrace. I followed suit, feeling my feet sinking into the soil from my weight and looked up at the towering Communication Centre.