dead west

Thump!  Thump!  Thump!  “He’s in here!” shouted a Dweller.

Bays poked his head out of the broken window of the rusted wreck of a car, pushing aside the shrubbery with one hand.  His other hand he hid in the shadows of the car.  Blood dribbled down his arm, past his elbow, and onto the gun.  There were only 3 shots left in the rifle.  Not even enough to cover his escape.  And where would he escape to?  Into hiding in the jungle?  These Dwellers would be practiced at hunting things in the jungle, just like the wild animals.  Still, he did not drop his gun yet.  He gripped it nervously, in a slippery palm covered in blood mixed with sweat.  The Dwellers were looking in his direction, some cautiously peeking over the rooftops of other cars, while some had retreated to the underbrush of the forest, blending into the shadows of leaves thanks to their camouflage body paint.  Bays said nothing.  For a long time, the Dwellers remained silent too, scattered all around him and watching.  Even the Dweller who had discovered his hiding spot, who stood next to the hood of the car he was hiding in, said nothing.  He just stood here with his hands on his hips, watching Bays.  This one was wearing next to nothing: an animal pelt wrapped around his waste like a skirt, some sandals made of leaves, a machete hooked into a leather belt hung loosely around his hips, and a crown made of exotic bird feathers upon his head.  Bays could not tell if the spattered mud on this Dweller’s body was a tribal decoration or not.

Twenty yards down the road, a tractor trailer was parked.  It was hooked up to a duel-platform bed.  Bays recognized it as an older version of a car carrier.  Now it sat rusted and forgotten, with moss hanging in drapes from the web-work of metal.  A very fat Dweller came walking along the metal track, pushing the hanging moss out of his way as he came.  He wore a grass-skirt and a muddied suit-coat top over his broad and bare chest.  His face-paint was all red, and he wore a wrinkled crown that looked like it was made out of tin-foil.  Two Dwellers followed behind, possibly bodyguards or servants to Mr. Important.  The group stopped at the end of the metal track.

“Where’s Ralph?” said Bays.  “I want to talk to that jerk!”

“Come out of that car,” commanded Mr. Important.

“Maybe you can talk to your tribe like that,” said Bays.  “But after that stunt you pulled, you’re going to haveto treat me with a little respect if you want me to work for you ever again.”  Bays had no intention of running errands for this tribe ever again, but he thought the best way to get out of this alive was to make them believe he would still work for them and their monstrous friend who had broken his bike.

“We won’t be needing your services again,” said Mr. Important.  Bays was now holding the rifle with both hands, low in the car so they wouldn’t see it, and preparing himself to hear Mr. Important send a death warrent to his cronies.  “All we need from you is the package, and then you can go home.”

“The package?” said Bays.  “The package!  You took that when you had your muscle wreck my bike!  Weren’t you there for that?  How the hell did you expect me to get home without my bike?”  Mr. Important looked questioningly to his wingmen.  “Where the hell is Ralph?” said Bays.

“The package was taken?”

“You weren’t there for that?  You weren’t there for that,” Bays felt dread sinking in.  “What the hell was that thing?”

“The Black Demon,” said Mr. Important, pushing away his guards and stepping down from the bed of the trailer.  He waddled quickly over to the side of the car.  Afraid of triggering violence, Bays dropped the gun into the belly of the car, where it rested on a bed of wet yellow leaves.  Mr. Important crouched next to the car.  “The Black Demon took the package?  You saw it?”

“Yes.”

“I’m so sorry,” said Mr. Important.

“For…”

“We should be leaving soon.  The beast is relentless.  We’ve been pursued by it for days now.  We thought we had lost it last night, but it is smarter than we thought.  Looks like we’re in this together now, boy.”

“You knew that thing was out here, and you brought me out here right into its path?”

“We did not come to meet you.  We thought the Black Demon would follow us to the river, far away from the highway.  Our hope was that you would drop the package and leave in safety, so that we could retreieve it later.  But it must have known you were there somehow.”  Bays remembered getting a restless nap under his idling hover-bike.  The bike exuded warmth; also a pale blue glow and constant hum.  Had that been enough to draw the attention of that beast?  “If you saw it, then it will be close behind you.  We gotta go.”

Bays thought about the rescue craft.  He wanted to stay inside the car and wait for it to arrive; not let these strange tribal people interfere with his plans to escape the jungle.  But, he could be eaten by a giant “Black Demon” while waiting for it to arrive.  He would take his chances with the Dwellers.

The rescue craft would be equipped with mini-vulcan guns, able to do terrific damage to the beast, and most likely also to the Dwellers.  The Dwellers and the Great City States were natural enemies.  On one delivery (a delivery that had gone much smoother than this one) Ralph had told Bays of a neighboring tribe that had been attacked and gunned down by an Enforcer-Craft patrolling the jungle late one night.  The Dwellers would not be happy to see another craft come bumbling towards them.  He would need their trust, the kind of fragile and temporary trust that could be easy shattered by bringing a gun to the table.  When Mr. Important held out his hand to Bays, Bays took it in his own blood covered hand and crawled out of the car, leaving the rifle inside.

“What were you doing sitting in all that poison?” asked Mr. Important.

“Poison?” Bays looked down at his itchy arm, noticing a few itchy freckles had appeared.  No matter.  As soon as the Dwellers weren’t watching him, he would call once again for help on his wrist communicator, play victim, and be air-lifted back into civilization, and back into safety.

5-19-08 xwestx TO BE CONTINUED