RULE #11

A riffle and at least two handguns, one main and one backup. Loaded with a bullet in the chamber, a knife and a blade. Less than that and you are begging to die. So, go make sure you have everything!

~ The Scavenger’s Handbook

The smells, the sights, the people, the bloody food! Everything was in shambles and at the same functional and working as intended. Although, what was intended wasn’t what Alexis would think when looking at most things. The entirety of this so-called Safe Zone was one huge violation of common sense. Whoever had decided to call the area around the ruined stadium safe, clearly must’ve had some very different idea of what the word meant. That said, the young woman had to agree that compared to what waited outside it, Véi Dron would be her destination. At least here, Alexis didn’t have to worry about being eaten while taking a piss, sleeping, eating or just breathing. Or she hoped that she wouldn’t be.

In all honesty, the locals weren’t inspiring much confidence. She had seen more radiation burns, acid burns, toxic damage and sign of radiation poisoning, than in all the learning videos she had watched during her entire first aid course. And that was only on the two men who had approached her in the last ten minutes alone. Combined with all the other diseases she could identify and all the other multitude of scars, and missing limbs, this was infection central. Broken bones and the likes, Alexis didn’t even bother to count. Somehow compared to everything else, those appeared as trivial ailments. Which brought her thought back to Heather. The girl had lost both her legs just below the knees and the fact that she had survived for so long was a miracle. However, the junior tech was very much doubtful that the tourist – as people called them here – would receive anything resembling proper medical care in this dirty place.

Actually, now that she had some time to think about it, Alexis had no idea where she was. The only thing she could recall with some semblance of certainty was the large sign that read “Now entring Ve’i Dron Save Zone” painted with large white letters on one of the hanging street signs above the road, and she remembered that because of the atrocious spelling. If she was honest, Alexis couldn’t remember how they had reached this place, to begin with. The last two, or it might have been three, days were spent running at a mad pace. Only sleeping when exhaustion claimed her and her escorts. And the day after that, she was stumbling like a sleepwalker with her tortured muscles protesting each step. Damn it, she had been so tired, that she had downed the offered glass of water without checking if it was safe to drink. For all Alexis knew, she might have ingested a lethal amount of toxins.

Before she could examine that possibility, another thought made its way into her mind. She was all alone in this unknown place, surrounded by savages and worse. The teens who were both her guards and captors had all gone into the back rooms without telling her anything, leaving Alexis to fend for herself. Which was a problem of epic proportions since she was pretty much destitute. There was no chance that she would find a nice cosy research job on the surface and that was the only thing she was good at. She could become a maintenance technician and fix most of the junk, putting it into something resembling a working state. That said, there was a slight hiccup in that plan. Most of the crap she was seeing was long overdue being scrapped. She hadn’t the faintest idea how any of the electronic devices and screens worked in the first place.

There wasn’t much time for Alexis to ponder on this, as there was a sudden commotion at the entrance of the building, she was in. A pair of large tough-looking brutes made their way through the dozen people who were waiting patiently at the door, followed closely by a tall skinny woman in a transparent raincoat sporting one too many blood splatters on it.

“Cake, I’ll need two pairs of tightening clamps. As clean as possible. A sharpened five-inch circular saw disk and do you remember that broken prosthesis I gave you to play with? Can you prepare two of them in the next couple of days? I’ll give you the exact length and all that after I’m done.” The woman ordered as soon as the door closed behind her. ‘

It took Alexis a moment to realise that all that was directed at her. A moment later, the woman in the raincoat was in front of her examining her with cold tired eyes. Her gaunt face shifted into a frown as she spoke in a more subdued voice.

“You’re not Cake.” The woman looked her over one more and her frown deepened. “You’re not hurt.”

“No. I mean, I’m fine, ma’am,” Alexis stuttered feeling very uncomfortable from being scrutinised by this strange person. “My, uhm, my name is Alexis Pierrot and I’m a…”

“I don’t care,” the woman dropped a heavy cloth bag on the nearest table and crossed her arms over her chest. “You’re not my patient. Are you?” She then turned to the pair of brutes who were taking their time crossing the spacious bar floor, or what is a gladiatorial arena Alexis wandered? “She’s not my patient. I swear, if you idiots made me rush my client’s tooth removal for this, you better start sleeping with one eye open!”

“For fuck’s sake, Missy! Do you think we’re that stupid?” The pair asked in unison keeping some distance between them and the agitated woman.

“Yes.” The response came out without hesitation and for a moment Alexis thought that the brutes would become violent. Instead, they shrunk and took a step back.

“It’s one of them tourists,” the one on the right spoke as he fidgeted. “Mangled leg, not much bleeding and all that. Leeroy rushed them inside in the backrooms and told us to fetch you.”

“Yeh!” The second one chimed in. “Siad he was going to close the bar and let only you in. So, instead of yelling at us, you should hurry inside.”

“No.” Missy’s flat denial surprised Alexis. If she was what passed for a doctor around here, she ought to be rushing through the door behind the bar plot.

“What do you mean by no? Leeroy said to hurry.” The pair suddenly became bolder. Instead of dignifying them with an answer the woman pointed at the ‘do not enter’ sign nailed above the opened door.

“Jenkins’s been told to stay in his room,” the one on the right shrugged, but the uncertainty of his voice told a different story.

“Well then, Croquette, why don’t you go in first,” Missy smiled revealing a set of surprisingly white teeth.

Alexis chuckled involuntarily at the brute’s name. It was probably because of the exhaustion dulling her mind, but this entire situation was turning into a badly scripted comedy. Of course, her ill-timed action earned her nasty glares from the two brutes with the one on the left stepping menacing in front of her and jabbing his thick finger in her chest.

“You keep your mouth shut girly, or we’re going have a problem.” The threat was enough to jump-start the Junior Technician’s survival instincts and she remembered the note the savage with the gas mask had given her after he had ruined her life. Clumsily she reached into her bra and pulled out the folded piece of paper, holding it between her index and middle fingers.

“What?” The man looked at her with confusion. At least, Alexis hoped it was confusion. It was hard to tell because of all the scars, burn marks and crude tattoos which covered his square face. “You think some dirty piece of paper’s going to save you?”

He made to take the note away, however, Missy was faster. Without ceremony, the woman unfolded it and scanned the few lines written on it. As she did so, her cherry lips formed an amused smile.

“You better back off, Rust.” Missy chuckled as she sat at the edge of the table and folded the note before offering it back to Alexis. “This little lass here is Leeroy’s…”

“In that case, we’ll teach her the rules upstairs,” both men laughed and the looks they directed towards the Junior Technician made her very worried about her safety.

“...is Leeroy’s problem until Grey returns.” Missy finished, the corner of her mouth twitching in irritation.

However, the effect her words had on the two brutes was quite profound. It was as if someone had poured cold water on Croquette and Rust. The way they jumped away from her was no different than the woman in the raincoat declaring Alexis to be radioactive. However, she was quite certain that note wasn’t a shield she could hide behind all the time. Sure, it had worked on the two men here, but all evidence pointed out that they were severely lacking in brain capacity. Not to mention that Missy was someone with enough sway to be the perfect witness. Thinking logically, Alexis had to assume that being the closest thing to a doctor, the woman was reasonably untouchable. Which only left her to figure out who was more dangerous in the eyes of the locals – Grey or Leeroy? Nonetheless, Alexis had to be more careful in the future if she was to survive out here.

“What the fuck are you fucking fucks doing here!” A small emaciated child, no more than ten years old stormed through the open door leading to the back rooms. “I told you assholes to get Missy twenty minutes ago!”

“We did, Leeroy,” Rust pointed at the woman in question who was standing at the ready bag held firmly in her hands.

Alexis was sure that her jaw had dislocated itself with how fast it had dropped. She had expected Leeroy to be some monster of a man, instead, he was a child. There were so many questions that flooded her mind that she had no idea where to begin. But that would have to wait as a loud shriek emerged from the boy as he kicked the bar.

“Idiots! I’m surrounded by idiots!” The tantrum lasted only a handful of seconds before the kid stopped and adjusted his oversized shirt. He then directed his attention to Missy and gave the woman an apologetic look.

“Sorry about that, doc. Third door on the left. Jenkin’s been instructed to let you through.”

“Condition of the patient?”

“Right leg’s been bitten off by Park Widejaws. The softies have cauterised the wound, but she ain’t looking good. Shame really, ‘cause she was kind of nice.” Leeroy shook his head, while Missy walked past him. “Told them it would be better for all if they just,” at that the boy dragged his finger across his neck, “but they didn’t want to hear any of it.”

“I’ll see what I can do.” The woman in the raincoat nodded understandingly.

“Oh! And doc, another one of them is missing her wrist. Shrimp-hound. She looks feverish.” Leeroy yelled after Missy once she had disappeared through the doorway.

“Shit. Axion’s going to be all over my ass if those tourists die in here,” the kid mumbled while he walked behind the bar. Retrieving two stained glasses from behind the counter, he placed them with some force on the top and barked at Croquette and Rust. “Inform the gawkers that the Bar’s closed. If they have any complaints, they can address them to Jenkins.”

Once the brutes left, Leeroy turned towards Alexis, who was doing her best to remain invisible. Pouring some brownish liquid into the glasses, he pointed at her and then at the bar stool nearest to him.

“You plant your ass here and start explaining.” He downed the first glass in a single gulp, coughed, winced and inhaled sharply imitating what the adults around him must’ve been doing when gulping their drinks since each gesture was slightly overexaggerated. “I’m losing a ton of business and I need to know who’s going foot the bill. And before you start, let me tell you that Mr G’s word ain’t going to be enough this time.”

Being ordered by a child was the last thing Alexis would’ve imagined. Still, she complied without protest. She was happy to explain everything and hoped that this conversation would answer most of the questions she had herself.

Retelling the events that had occurred took longer than Alexis thought it would. Not that there was much for her to offer, but the child constantly bombarded her with questions. By the end of it, she had pretty much given a detailed account of her entire life and what living in the safety of the bunker used to be. Once she had finished, Alexis was starving, a little tipsy and melancholic.

“Right, right. I think I get it,” Leeroy nodded as he poured another hefty dose of the brown liquid into the glass. “What can I say, love? You’re screwed and not in the fun way.” He then leaned forward and pushed the drink toward her.

“One more thing that I don’t get, though. Why do you look so much like Cake? I mean without the eyes and all the crazy. You’re what? Her older sister? Cousin?” the boy’s eyes went wide as he watched her shake her head, before dropping the last word in utter shock. “Mother?”

“What?!” It was Alexis’ turn to jump from her seat in surprise. “No. No. No, no, no! I’m only twenty-three! There’s no way I can have a teenage daughter!” Before she could think better of it, she took a large sip from the burning liquid.

The alcohol went smoother down her throat and she could feel a nice warmth spread through her body. Getting drunk was probably the worst thing Alexis could do, but there was no better option. Plus, this was her first time actually drinking and she was finding it to be a rather nice experience. It actually made her wonder why there were so many warning signs not to drink the available alcohol in her former home. Probably because there wasn’t enough for everyone and the Directorate wanted it all for themselves. The privileges of those at the top, she smiled to herself. A comforting theory if nothing else. Speaking of theories, Alexis had one regarding the kid’s question.

“About that,” she drowned the contents in her glass, feeling embraced by the ridiculous idea that had formed in her head. “I told you that the population of the bunker is strictly controlled and all that. Well, there’s an issue with that. Sooner or later, everyone will be related to everyone. No genetic diversity, hence inbreeding ensues. Which is, to put it lightly, a slow death for the entire populace.”

“Yeh, sure. I understand some of those words,” Leeroy grinned at her thinking the joke was the best one in the world. Well, Alexis didn’t want to shatter whatever disillusion was going on in his head, so she simply continued.

“To avoid that, and this is only a theory without substantial evidence mind you, the Directorate must be acquiring additional genetical material from outside the facility. In the form of blood samples, tissue or similar. As such, the most likely conclusion is that such genetic samples from one of this Cake’s parents, presumably both, were included when I was conceived. Now, the chances that those same two people would have a child, a female one at that, with a near-identical physical appearance as myself at a later date, are astronomically small. But they aren’t zero.”

“So, like, uhm, coincidence?” Leeroy scratched his cheek trying to process what she had just said and Alexis remembered that she was talking to an actual child. Of course, he would have trouble understanding.

“Yes, you can call it that, I guess.” She shrugged, while the scientist in her protested at the idea of using such simple terms.

“In other words, no sex for you guys,” Leeroy smiled at her with a gleam in his eyes that wasn’t there before. “Man, you have no idea what you’re missing on. But,” the Junior Technician felt the kid place his hand on top of hers and could only watch in disbelief as he finished his thought, “Leeroy could show you what you’ve been missing.”

He was hitting on her, right? Alexis hadn’t imagined it. She found the very idea funny, although a part of her was slightly flattered, despite that she squished that foolish notion in an instant. After all, Leeroy was just a kid, a child.

“Aren’t you a little young to be saying things like this, kid? You’re what? Ten?” As the words left her mouth, Alexis realised that she wasn’t thinking straight.

She didn’t need to look at the boy’s red face to know that she had made a mistake in her judgment. Partially, it was because nothing around her made any sense, but mostly it was her own fault. Of course, he wasn’t ten. No one would allow a literal child to run a bar, drink or for that matter, listen to anything he had to say. So, Leeroy’s outburst didn’t come as such a surprise, but it did sting her nonetheless.

“What the fuck! I’m fucking fifteen, you moron! Just cause you look like Cake, you think I’ll let this slide?!” The boy reached out and picked up the glass from in front of her pushing it back behind the countertop. “I’m fucking Leeroy, bitch! I owe this place! And you better think of a way how to pay for all the drinks, because I’m not running a charity here!”

“I told you people – I’m closed for the…” the boy’s scarlet face turned pale, as he turned to face whoever had decided to enter the bar. “What can I do for you?”

The sudden change was enough for Alexis to turn her head around and look at the newcomers. She had to blink a few times to make sure she wasn’t seeing things. But the four heavily armed men in full white combat suits were definitely not a hallucination. Heavy polymer plates covered them from head to toe and faceless helmets on their heads had a very impressive array of sensors, which if Alexis wasn’t mistaken allowed them to see in several different light spectrums. The electromagnetic rifles in their hands were equally impressive and without a doubt very deadly. She had seen a similar weapon back at the research facility, but that one lacked the backpack-like battery attachment which was strapped to the four men. However, after experiencing the ruins first-hand, Alexis could say with some confidence that such armaments were rather impractical on the surface. Not that they couldn’t turn any organic foe into a homogenous paste with a single shot, rather it was a matter of weight. She had seen how much her captors, who were significantly lighter, had struggled with traversing the ruins during their mad dash to safety. As such Alexis wasn’t under the illusion that this four would fare any better. And with that, another thought came to her mind. These people were a show of force. Their mere presence was enough to intimidate the locals into submission and sure as hell, it was working.

“You are to surrender your food stocks to us.” The leader of the group boomed taking a step forward.

“I think there’s been some kind of mistake, Mr Enforcer,” Leeroy remained behind his bar, his mouth forming a frown and the muscles in his left cheek began to twitch. “That’s not the deal we have with Axion. If you continue with this nonsense, I’ll have to report you and your faces will be plastered all over the wanted screen. Every Scav from here to Hell is going to be gunning for the reward on your heads. Comprendre?”

“Axion has altered the deal. Prey we don’t alter it further. You leeches have sucked on our supplies for long enough. It’s time to pay back.” Without an order, all four men pointed their rifles at Leeroy whose face had twisted into an expression of primal rage. “You will comply peacefully.”

“What’s going on? The alarms suddenly turned on…” Alexis’ escorts came running through the door leading to the back, coming to a sudden halt as they saw the four men.

Three of the Enforcers turned as one towards them, the magnetic plates in the barrels of their rifles glowing bright red as they charged.

“Obsidian does not exist. Die.”

The world around Alexis slowed to crawl as she understood what was going to happen next. Her captors, the same people who were responsible for ruining her life, scattered, but one of them was too slow. The woman, Esther, if Alexis wasn’t mistaken, was dead before what remained of her body hit the ground. Half her chest and her head had been turned into a cloud of boiling blood and burned meat particles as the melting tungsten bolts made contact.

“Jenkins!” Leeroy screamed at the top of his lungs, as he pulled Alexis over the countertop in a surprising show of strength. “Code Isabelle!”

With that, everything sped up. As she dropped behind the thick bar, the Junior Technician felt a bolt shriek over her shoulder, leaving a burn mark along her right biceps before reducing the alcohol shelve into splinters. A second later the entire wall exploded outward as a heavily modified Centurion Urban Tank burst through it. Alexis covered her ears and screamed as the sound of its multiple weapon systems opened fire. The sound of machine guns, jets of flames, lasers and magnetically accelerated tungsten combined in one continuous roar like the voice of an angry god. And as such, it left scars in Alexis’ mind which would never heal. As sudden as it had begun, the violence ended, marked by a severed arm dropping on the young woman’s lap. She felt sick to her stomach and not a little repulsed by the thought that she was happy to be alive. It wasn’t so much guilt rather than that she was willing to worship the severed limb as a religious relic if it meant that she would never experience something like this again.

“Good work, Jenkins,” Leeroy spoke in a strained voice when he stood up to look at the carnage, his face split by a twisted smile. “Secure the home area. Code Aftershock.”

Shakily, Alexis pulled herself up and threw up at the sight of the mangled bodies. It was like some wild beast had used the heavy armoured Enforcers as chewing toys, before taking them apart like a frustrated child. With the sound of damaged hydraulics and leaving a cloud of sparks from the joints on his right front leg, the Centurion walked towards the door leading outside of the building. When it passed through, the sound of more violence and screaming could be heard, but thankfully, the thick iron doors cut the horrible noise when they closed after the walking tank. As the Junior Technician observed the three-meters tall machine, she spotted two of her captors on the ground, wounded but miraculously alive – Elisa and Mike, Alexis reminded herself. The girl was easy to identify because of her missing wrist, and there was no mistaking the stuttering boy now that his helmet was shattered by a piece of polymer armour which stuck out of his left eye.

Both were looking at her with wild eyes and open mouths. No, Alexis corrected herself. They were looking at the screen above her head. Fearful of what she might see, the young woman turned around ever so slowly and looked up. On the bright white surface was written a single message.

RESIDENTS OF VÉI DRON. SEEK SHELTER. AN ATTACK FROM AXION IS IN PROGRESS.

WARDEN TECH POLICE DRONES HAVE BEEN DISPATCHED TO ENSURE YOUR SAFETY.

THE HUMAN IDENTIFIED AS ALEXIS PIERROT HAS BEEN DESIGNATED AS MY REPRESENTATIVE.

A COMMUNICATIONS UNIT WILL BE DISPATCHED ONCE HOSTILITIES HAVE STOPPED.

THE REBUILDING OF CIVILISATIONS BEGINS NOW.

CAESAR

One look at the half a dozen functioning screens and monitors confirmed that the same message was displayed on each one. From being destitute to becoming one of the most important people in Véi Dron, Alexis’ fortune had changed dramatically at the flip of a coin. Unsure of what to say, or how to react, she turned to look at Leeroy in the hope that the boy would tell her that she was having a nasty dream.

“Look at that,” the kid whistled. “Drinks are on the house. What I said about you paying, I was just messing with. Actually, I think that me and you should be good friends.”