Deadman - Book 2 Chapter 17: Spearited Debate

Book 2 Chapter 17: Spearited Debate

We left Fette shortly after that. There was little reason to stick around the entire time through to Elise’s execution. Deux rode a short distance ahead of me, his head tilted downward to shade his eyes, though certain hills our bloodmanes rode over made him wince as we moved. His was loaded with the radio equipment he’d looted, and mine with the weapons and ammo I’d decided to take from the Widow’s camp. I’d probably put it in Nico’s house with a note for her to take it to Murphy’s for a cut.

Thanks to his drug induced hangover, Deux wasn’t in much of a mood for conversation, which I was grateful for. I just let my mind wander while I kept my senses open for any threats. I knew that Deux was doing the same thing in his own way. He had a tendency to seem aloof, but when it came to surviving the wastes, he was nearly as effective as Nico and I.

While we moved I sent a short message to Leah.

Completed my job. Heading to Pott’s then we’ll rendezvous from there

It was about two mile before I received a response.

Understood, confirm when you’re in Pott’s

I sighed and gently patted the side of my bloodmanes head, receiving a gentle hiss from it in return. I’d always liked the bloodmanes, but they were reserved for the work done by undertakers. I wondered if I could justify taking one for myself to the Honored Dead, but quickly dismissed the thought. Even if I could, I doubted it would get along well with Gus, and I had Betty to rely on in most circumstances anyway. Still, I gave the beast another pat as we moved.

We were taking a different route to Pott’s then the one I typically took from Jasper. We were able to cut through deadzones with the bloodmanes who shared our immunity to rads, and so were making good time as we moved.

Around midday, when the sun was high over our heads and our shadows had dwindled to nothing, I heard a noise on the path ahead of us, and Deux made a simple hand motion toward me, but didn’t slow down. We were in a thick, swampy forest, and had been forced to slow our pace in order for the Bloodmanes to take their time and find their footing.

Deux stretched nonchalantly and rested his hand on his holster. I didn’t bother with the subtlety, and simply drew my pistol, and held it at the ready. We passed into a small clearing, and I began to smell more people around us. Their scent was musky, but also tinged in a kind of spice. I’d smelled similar people before, we’d stumbled into a group of Kaijin.

“Anyone you know?” I asked Deux as we continued forward.

He nodded. “Yeah. Not friendly. I’ve tried talking to them, and nearly got impaled for the effort.”

“Why did we take this route then?”

“It was either this one, or the one with the giant roaches, and I don’t always encounter Kaijin on this one, though I do always get attacked on the other one.”

“Fair. Any reason we’re waiting for them to start this?”

Deux swayed his head back and forth for a moment before rapidly drawing his pistol from his waist and firing off a shot, causing someone to yelp from the bushes nearby. Then he began firing at several more targets.

As he finished unloading his revolver, I drew my 9mm and began firing at few targets of my own. As I did, one of them ran toward me with a spear. He was wearing what looked like a skirt made out of strips of tattered clothes around his neck and waist that bounced up and down as he moved, he was muscular, and his eyes full of a kind of blind rage. I activated my Freeze ability before he reached me, but he didn’t slow down at all, and was aiming for my bloodmane.

I leapt from its back and tackled him. I grabbed the shaft of his spear with my free hand, and put my pistol to his head, firing it once. As the grip slackened on the spear, two more Kaijin, in similar clothes ran toward me with spears of their own. I tried using my abilities again, but they didn’t work on these two either. These were Kaijin that weren’t in the R.A.S. I’d have to put them down the old fashioned way.

I put both of the charging Kaijin down with my pistol, emptying it. Three more emerged from the brush as I did, and I lifted the spear, and threw it with all my strength at them. It impaled one through the chest, and another through the shoulder, pinning them to a tree. The third of them didn’t slow down for a beat even after his allies were skewered. I drew my sword and parried as he attempted to stab me. He jabbed the butt of the spear into my gut, knocking me back. He then whirled it around to slash me with its tip, but I blocked it with my forearm. The blow would’ve shattered most people’s bones, but I experienced only mild discomfort, which was quickly alleviated by the satisfaction I felt as I brought my sword down on his head.

Two more appeared behind me, on the other side of my bloodmane, seemingly targeting it. I tried to move to defend it, but I didn’t need to. The beast whirled around, and enveloped one of their heads completely in his mouth. There was a sickening crunch, and the body fell down headless. The bloodmane then reared up, and while the second attacker was distracted, I moved up, and ran him through with my sword.

I looked over to see Deux, weaving between spears, dodging, letting off a shot, then repeating the process. There were two dead near him, and five more dead a short distance away. He popped off one more round, dropping another pursuer, then his gun jammed. Thinking they had an opportunity, the Kaijin dove toward him and he neatly hopped over him, drew his knife, and stabbed him in the back.

By the end of it all, there were almost twenty dead Kaijin. If they’d had guns it could’ve gone very differently, but with spears against two well traveled deadmen and their bloodmanes, they didn’t have much of a chance. I didn’t feel very satisfied by the fight though, the bad thing about fighting people without guns is that the loot isn’t anywhere near as good. I had no interest in a spear made of an old road sign, or a skirt composed of fabric scraps.

Deux had a bit more luck, taking a black denim vest off one of the corpses, chuckling a bit as he poked a finger through a fresh bullet hole in it. He looked over to me, “Got some pre-war patches and pins from old bands. This is perfect for them.”

“Covering yourself with shiny, obvious things while roaming the wastes?”

He chuckled. “Some of us spend time in Pott’s not worrying about getting sniped or having our throats slit every once in a while.” He started the sentence as a joke, but as he finished it there was a surprising edge to his voice.

I shrugged. “Sounds dull.”

He shrugged back, seeming to regain a bit of his good humor. “Not all of us enjoy the absolutely riveting pleasure of reading. Who would’ve expected a nerd to survive the apocalypse?”

“Well between me, Nico, the colony of people pretending to be knights in the Black Woods, and our founders who named their city ‘Pott’s Field’, call their leaders ‘the honored dead’, and send out ‘Undertakers’, I would say that it’s mostly nerds that have survived. By your definition.”

“The apocalypse gets worse and worse every day. I guess I’ll just need to be cool enough to bring up the average for everyone else. It’s a heavy cross to bear.”

“My sympathies.”

“Thank you. That means the world to me.”

With his jokes exhausted, Deux and I spent some time checking over the bloodmanes and letting them have a quick meal of Kaijin food before we saddled back up and started back along our way. We made a few more hours before we decided to stop in a rotted out old barn that had somehow survived the bombs. Deux made a little small talk at me, before enjoying one last redeye laced cigarette, and somehow falling asleep. I didn’t need as much sleep as he did, so I spent some time with the bloodmanes, before tilting my hat down, and dozing off for the night as well.