ABC - Penance

Labour Camp One – Original site.

I like trees in general. They are green and shady and provide essential oxygen for all the living creatures on this earth. Trees are lifesavers and I thanked the good Lord for making them.

One tree in particular would remain in my good books until the day I die. It had taken root hard against the wall of the old cell block, letting the towering wall shelter it from the wind so it could grow tall and strong, leafy green branches filling the space around it.

My falling body bounced and ricocheted like a pinball from branch to branch, the armour weave and Ceramite plates stopping the impacts from killing me. I landed in a pile at the base of the tree, leaves and broken twigs falling around me like green rain.

Somewhere in the tree I lost my Machine Pistol, the weapon now hooked around a branch like a redneck Christmas decoration. Through the foilage, still shaking from my sudden descent, I could see Wade peering down at me, a big grin bisecting his face.

“Target is down!” he declared and I heard him laugh at my misfortune. Fuck you too Wade, I thought to myself.

I had landed upside down with my head in the green grass that surrounded the tree roots, cushioning my skull. With a groan I got my legs unhooked from the tree bole and rolled to my side, urging myself to get moving. Bobbi’s crew would be circling me again, trying to catch me in a crossfire.

With the tree trunk at my back, I surveyed my options. Wade was on the roof still, calling out my location to his companions and holding his fire. Nigel’s drone was hovering to my left about twenty meters away, relaying its own data to my pursuers. For all I knew the little shit himself was sitting in a van someplace, watching me on a screen.

Right seemed the only option, which would take me towards the front gates and the road through the minefield. That had to be where Bobbi was herding me but I could not see any better choice. I drew my pistol in one hand and started to run, keeping close to the building wall to block Wade’s line of sight.

“She’s moving North!” I heard him call out helpfully. He seemed to be taking an excessive delight in my pursuit and I wondered if he was angry about Bobbi’s interest in me. He was obviously horny for her yet maybe she didn’t feel the same?

A young girlish figure stepped from around a corner, blocking my escape. It was Catherine, her red hair gleaming brilliantly in the sun. Her outfit was much the same as I remembered from Mabel’s place, with a lightweight Armour vest over her torso and a Shock Rod held in a loop from her waist.

“Hey, Luisa” she called to me, like we were meeting up for coffee and some brunch. I skidded to a stop, right arm holding my pistol in a straight line aiming for her head.

“Hey, Catherine” I replied. “I’ve got no quarrel with you, so please stand aside”

The young woman’s eyes seemed to sparkle and she held her arms out to the side, palms upwards to the sky.

“Sorry Luisa, but this is my job” she intoned in a weird voice. “No hard feelings though”

Flames blossomed from her hands, balls of roiling fire that threw red shadows across her face. I was ten meters from her and I could feel the surging heat, yet Catherine seemed unaffected. She was a Pyrokinetic and at least a Grade Two.

I lowered my aim to her chest and pulled the trigger, knowing it was a fifty-fifty bet that the Armour Piercing round would be stopped by the vest. To be honest, I hoped it just knocked her on her cute little ass. Otherwise it would rip a hole through her heart.

The ball hovering over her left palm shot forwards, forming an instantaneous wall of dancing flame. My bullet hit the barrier and vanished in a puff of molten Ceramite.

Well fuck me, the girl had to be Grade Three I revised in my head.

Catherine grinned at me like a wild woman, the red glow from her hands matching the almost demonic glow in her eyes.

“Cool!” she yelled, possibly ironically. “Let’s party, girl!”

The right and left hands now shot balls of fire at me, racing across the intervening gap in less than a second. I hurled myself sideways, moving away into the open ground to give me room to dodge. One ball sailed past me but the other slammed into my chest. Heat bloomed around me, scorching my Ceramite armour and curling my nostril hairs.

I was still standing so I tried a different tactic. Catherine had summoned two more balls of flame over her hands, getting ready to launch them. I fired first, forcing her to use one ball to incinerate my bullet.

Feet pounding on the grass, I circled to her right, making her spin to follow me. I fired again, this time three rounds in quick succession. Her second ball blossomed into another impenetrable wall of fire, hiding me from her view momentarily.

The wall of flame dissipated, Catherine already conjuring forth more fire to her fingertips. Yet she was too slow, unused to fighting a bitch as crazy as my inner Judy. I charged into her, seeing her eyes widen in sudden terror as my left hand plunged the Shock Rod against her exposed neck.

The girl screamed once and collapsed, her body jerking in time to the pulses of the rod. I held it there for a few more seconds until the fire died from her hands and her eyes rolled back.

“Sorry” was all I could say. Being hit by a Shock Rod was nasty but it was better than putting a bullet through her skull.

I heard a crash and ripping sound from behind me, like someone was tearing a tree in half. Looking back, I was mostly right. Wade had jumped from the roof, using his own Enhanced arm to break his fall against the splintering tree branches.

He hit the ground with an earth-shaking thud like some kind of macho Superman, then slowly stood to regard me with baleful eyes.

“You hurt my little Cathy!” he growled like an angry bear, then started to run at me. He had his rifle slung over his back, bouncing as he came. I don’t think Wade wanted to shoot me anymore, I think he planned on tearing me apart with his bare hands. Well, one bare hand and one metal mother-fucker to be precise.

I should have run, I knew that on an intellectual level. On the other hand, Judy told me that he would catch me easily and mess me up good if I tried to escape. Better to go down fighting.

My legs spread, I lifted my right hand into line with my right eye and started firing. Single shots of AP, aimed at his centre of mass. Wade was armoured, much more heavily than Catherine and I wasn’t sure if my rounds would slow him down. He came at me like a charging bull, my gunfire having no more effect I could see than if I was firing spitballs.

At least two rounds spanged loudly off his metal arm, held in front of him like a shield, then he was on top of me. I used his momentum against him, side-stepping his headlong rush and tapping him with my Shock Rod as he roared past.

The rod barely discharged, unable to maintain a long enough contact to give him more than a friendly tickle. Wade slid on the grass then stopped, breathing hard.

“I am gonna fuck you up really bad” he warned me and I honestly believed him. I would have shot him then except my pistol clicked empty when I pointed it at his grinning mug.

“I don’t suppose you’d let me reload first, old buddy?” I asked him politely. He replied by spitting out a gobbet of juicy phlegm, stained red with his blood. I must have scored a hit somewhere after all, which cheered me up a bit. Nice to know my shooting wasn’t all bad.

He stepped into me and swung his right arm, the artificial muscles bulging as it rotated towards my head at impressive speed. This was a game I was well versed in, ducking my head under his powerful blow and lashing out with the Shock Rod. I didn’t bother to trigger a shock, pushing my Kinetic Enhancer into the rod instead.

There was a solid thud as my Ability rocked his ribs, the gel under his armour weave saving him from crushed lungs. Wade had the most beautiful look of surprise on his face as he was flung backwards, thumping onto his back amongst the grass and weeds.

I confess I was contemplating using up a few charges from my Shock Rod on his nuts, but that meant getting way too close to a very pissed off guy. I chose to run instead, hoping to reach the gates without encountering Bobbi or Nigel.

As I ran at my current best speed, somewhere between a jog and a leisurely stroll, I saw another gaping hole in the inner fence. It looked to have been cut by a torch and beyond that I saw a matching gap in the outer fence. This may have been the route that Ghost had come in by. My feet carried me past and I came to the edge of the last building. Laying flat against the worn concrete, I peeked around the corner. A monster sized black SUV was parked in the inner gateway, dusty and dented with a number plate that read ‘BOBBI’. No prizes for guessing whom that belonged to.

The woman in question appeared from behind the vehicle and laid her massive rifle against the bonnet to brace it. It was a 50-Cal sniping rifle, augmented with a Smart Scope and pointing right at me.

“Hey, babe!” she said cheerily and pulled the trigger.

I hurled myself away from the corner as the big round blew a chunk of concrete wall into dust. She must have run like a gazelle to reach the gates ahead of me, blocking my way out of here. There was no choice but to find another route out of the camp. I cast my eyes around and saw Wade getting onto his feet once more, bloody murder in his expression.

“You are so fucking dead!” he bellowed and began to run at me, leaving me with only one choice left. I headed for the hole in the fence, seeing the scrub and small trees beyond that hid the minefield.

I had promised myself I wasn’t going to go into that minefield ever again. It was Okay though, I told myself as I ran towards another big mistake. I wasn’t walking through the mines because this time I was running.

=====

I ducked through the hole in the mesh fence about five meters ahead of Wade, my arms pumping like pistons to drive myself even faster. The big Freelancer didn’t even pause at the gap, just barging through like a runaway Auto-Truck.

“Stop chasing me!” I yelled over my shoulder. “This is a bloody minefield!”

“Bullshit!” he roared in reply, heavy boots crashing down on the ground as he ran. “They deactivated it all years ago!”

I was ducking and weaving as I ran, trying to put whatever cover I could between us. He still had his Assault Rifle slung on his back, so I guessed he wanted to mess me up with his own two hands. With desperate resolve I pulled my attention away from the crazy guy and focussed on where I was putting my feet.

My left boot grazed a dark plastic disc, the mine past me even as I registered the fact. Another showed itself ahead of me, the trigger plate poking up from beside a lush patch of weeds, bright yellow flowers hiding the deadly device below.

I must have faltered, slowing down without thinking when I spotted the mines. Deactivated or not, I wasn’t going to put my foot on one if I could avoid it. Which is how the big hunk of angry testosterone fuelled muscles caught me.

“Gotcha!” he yelled in triumph, his massive arms locking around my shoulders and crashing us both to the ground. I swear my life flashed before my eyes as we landed right next to the mine I had been trying to detour around.

I struggled as best I could, yet the Freelancer was far stronger than me. He released his grip for only an instant, flipping me onto my back then pinning my arms with his own. Wade’s huge body was on top of mine, his manhood pushing into my thigh as he forced me down.

“Come on, Luisa” he smiled into my face. “You know you want a piece of me”

“Look Wade, I know you are all fired up right now” I tried to calm him down. “But you really don’t want to bang me in a minefield, do you?”

“Danger sex is the best, you know that” he assured me, his breath hot and heavy in my face. “Anyway, I keep telling you, the mines aren’t live anymore”

“Okay, Wade, you know best” I replied. I let myself go loose for a moment and the dumb shit smiled in victory. Then I tensed and heaved him sideways with everything I could muster.

He rolled off me, surprise written across his face. Then his left arm landed on the mine’s trigger plate and we both heard it click.

“What was that?” he muttered and lifted his arm to check. I was already scrabbling away from him and made it a couple of meters when the mine blew his arm off.

It was his meat arm and the mine ripped it into bloody chunks that sprayed in all directions. His armour saved his torso, flipping him away from the blast. Wade’s body shielded me too, only my ears ringing from the boom.

Wade was screaming now, clutching at the bloody stump where his arm had been. If he hadn’t been such as asshole I might have taken the time to try and stem the blood loss.

“You bitch!” he screamed hoarsely, agony filling his eyes with utter hatred for me. “Look at what you did to me!”

“Go fuck yourself, Wade” I replied and got to my feet, checking carefully where my boots were stepping. “Watch where you step, those mines aren’t as dead as you think”

I left him there, hurling insults at me all the way to the outer fence. His crew could deal with him, if they were still able to. My mission here had been a bust, in that I hadn’t seen any sign of Ghost.

Keeping deep in the surrounding trees, I began the trek to where I had hidden my bike. My thoughts kept returning to what had been going on in the old Camp. It was research of some kind, using inmates from Camp One as test subjects. The Head Warden had to be involved in this and I wondered how many of the Warden Corps and others were implicated.

Head filled with dark thoughts, I made my way through the lush undergrowth. Abandoned by people, the valley had been taken over by the beauty of nature once more. Yet despite the beauty, humans had managed to bring their filth and depravity here again.

I shook my head, clearing my mind, and focussed on the task at hand. Get back to my bike and return to Unity. Once there I would try and pick up the trail of my missing partner.

Easy peasy, right?