The Mechanic [BL]

[86]

Chapter 86 - The Ordinary World (9)

Zhang Xun's wrists were tied together and he was sitting on the speeding motorbike, his hands clutching the back of the bandit's shirt in front of him, feeling like he would be thrown off at any moment. James and Diego, surrounded by the mob, didn't choose to try and fight them off and like Zhang Xun, they were bound with rope and sat on the back of the bikes.

Originally the mob considered ditching Enoch, but the red-haired man took him with them, considering that Enoch might attract other hostile forces.

The red-haired man, Todd, was one of the bandit leaders based in Rhino Horn Town, but not the most senior. Calling themselves the Nameless Ones and led by a mysterious woman, the bandits in Rhino Horn Town were a Texas force that had begun to emerge in recent years. As the natural environment in Texas deteriorated dramatically after the Third World War, many of those who couldn't adapt to the new world Eden had created gradually settled in this sparsely populated land, with no single leader and only numerous settlements and groups fighting each other.

Yet the strangest thing was that, despite the many bandit groups, Eden's religion was still the strongest in Texas, as if the people naturally wanted to find some kind of balance. The extremists, who worshipped Eden as a god, had their own organisation and weapons, and often engaged in large-scale armed fights with local mobs.

It was hard to breathe with the dust in their faces and before long the four of them were all dusty and had eaten a mouthful of sand. Zhang Xun never imagined that he, a geek who spent his days building robots in his lab, would come all the way from Lost Paradise to the Mexican border and be drawn into the world of Mad Max ....... What was even more incredible was that he was surprisingly calm.

These mobs of people who robbed trucks for a living were likely to tear them apart at the drop of a hat, and he hadn't even pissed himself yet. Was it because he had been through so much in the past year that he had become...... used to it?

The group had travelled some distance when several more similar vehicles suddenly appeared in the distance, along with a jeep that came hurtling along with a long tail of sand and dust. Both sides braked in a hurry, but those who had just arrived were in a mess and one female biker, without even a helmet and with blood on her forehead, jumped out and rushed straight to Todd, "Todd! Todd! Those Edenites came again while you were away! They've wounded the boss and she's stuck in the town!"

Todd spat on the ground and cursed a very creative swear word before turning to everyone and yelling, "Load up your ammo and follow me to dump it all into them and their crappy fucking robots!"

Everyone around them let out wild, beastly cries, waving their guns, chains, machetes and other weapons in their hands as they rushed with all their might towards the scattered houses spreading across the slope in the distance.

Zhang Xun now began to panic a little.

What was going on?

He looked in disbelief at James, who also frowned deeply and shook his head at him, signalling him not to act rashly. Not only was Diego not anxious, but he was leaning forward a bit like he was watching a good show. Only Enoch sat upright behind a female bandit, as if completely unconcerned with what was going on around him.

It was only as they began to approach Rhino Horn Town that they really got to see what a real bandit firefight was all about.

Several huge but primitive war robots were moving slowly through the town, shooting a constant stream of deadly rays around them, setting all the nearby houses on fire. There were also countless drones buzzing in the air, firing bullets at the ground. The people on the ground fled in disarray, but many were still hit by the drones, their brains bursting out and splattering three paces across the ground. Some raised their guns and tried to return fire, but the drones were too fast to hit.