Chapter 10
The sun was starting to set again; another day gone in this whirlwind. It did not register how things were flying by us—discoveries and revelations happening at a manic rate. It was like there was no more room for hesitation. Anarchy was no longer just a word to me; it had taken on real meaning.
"They had a god damn bazooka in there!" I said, pointing to the row house across the street from Ralphy's bar. "They were getting ready to blow the place to kingdom come."
Martina and Andy listened and stared at the row house for a few minutes.
"Thing'll be too heavy to carry," Andy said finally.
We walked down the road and Martina said: "Let's go down the alleyway--get outa sight."
"Ya gotta admire those crazy bastards for their drive," Andy said, still looking back at the row house which contained the bazooka.
"Here's good," I said. We went down an alleyway that had walls on either side of us--protection--out of sight.
"I'm still pumped," Andy said, "you know what we gotta do?"
"Yeah, I know," Martina said. "I'm getting tired already of hearing his name."
"Big Simon," I said.
"Yeah, Big Simon," Martina said. "We've got targets on our back and I don't feel like hiding. That's what we came here for in the first place--right?! Clean out the terrorists."
"Ya gotta be kidding me Lever," Andy said, laughing. "You gonna talk about our mission. We got plopped in the middle of a savage world with a crappy ship and no backup. Did you do anything to your dad recently Jonz? Piss him off?"
"Don't know what you want me to tell you Andy. You know him too. Maybe I did."
"Whatever Jonz--just joking. I guess Lever's right. We have to do something. Where's Lloyd?!"
"Damn," I said, "he's still in the street." Doug was wandering in the center of the street, looking lost. Andy went over and grabbed him by the arm and brought him over to us.
"What is wrong with you Lloyd?!" Andy said. There was no response.
"We've got to go after Big Simon," Martina said. "Maybe we were abandoned, but I've got to make some sense out of this mission."
"There you go, calling it a mission again," Andy said.
"What do you want to call it?!” Martina yelled.
There was silence, but despite our frustrations, we all wanted a piece of this Big Simon character.
"Up the mountain, that rat Ralphy said, didn't he?" I said.
"Yeah," Martina said, "that's what he said."
We passed through the alleyway and up the next road. We started heading up.
Along the road up the mountain, the area was more and more populated.
"Lots of people here," Andy said, "but they seemed even more scared than down near the port. Look at 'em all." Andy waved his hands at the faces that only appeared from around corners and disappeared when they knew we were looking at them.
"Do you think they were told about us?" I asked.
"I dunno," Andy said, "or maybe it's always like this near Big Simon."
Downtown—I suppose it would've been called decades earlier, before the devastation. I remember one area where the rubble was piled stories high; hills of cement with people congregating on top, able to survey the city. There must have been huge buildings in this area, now all collapsed to the ground and their remnants had severely altered the landscape. Here, what could be called streets was merely where people had cleared paths in the rubble. There were many of the leg-propelled vehicles around here.
"Hey!" I yelled to a kid passing on one of the leg-propelled vehicles, "What do ya call those things?!"
The boy stopped, startled, "you mean my bike?"
"Yeah, that's it--just wondering kid."
There were a lot of trees and wildlife towards the top of the mountain, little segments could even be described as serene, starkly contrasting the rest of the city. You could see a few majestic houses towards the top of the mountain, tough survivors in a dangerous land.
“Let’s go up here,” Martina said, as she pointed to a narrow road which appeared to be a direct path up the hill. It was frustrating, looking at the top of the mountain where we wanted to go, but having to weave our way around the paths and streets of this sickly metropolis.
We were walking up this road, the setting sun orange and blinding as it went down.
Then, right in front of us—we heard the roar of an engine.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“It sounds like that vehicle we heard earlier,” Andy said. “Look, there it is!”
Coming down the narrow street was a giant vehicle with huge tires that bounced up and down as it barrelled down the street, passing easily over whatever obstacles lay in its way. Things were happening very fast, and all I remember was the grill of the vehicle, the roar of the engine; and how it was heading straight towards us.
I looked around desperately.
The buildings on each side of the street were crumbled. I didn’t see any escape routes. To turn and run was not an option; this thing was heading for us faster than any of us could run. I remember Doug’s face, the same blank look he had been stuck with throughout this ordeal, and then Andy’s voice:
“Hooooo-llllly crap!”
“Fire!” Martina yelled, and Andy, Martina, and I aimed and fired into the grill of the truck.
I thought there was no chance, could see this being the end, our bodies rolled over by this immense hunk of violent steel—but we wanted to go out fighting. I could hear us all screaming in unison, Martina’s face locked in a fighting scowl, as we unloaded our guns towards the vehicle. As it came upon us, there was a bright fiery explosion. Yellow and orange clouds of fire billowed out from where the vehicle used to be. I felt the force pick me up and throw me like an insignificant speck. I rose up in the air, flying backwards with the greatest of ease. It was a release of everything—the tension, the anger, the confusion, the pain.
Then—blackness.