Cyberpunk 2077: V

Chapter 49: Six Feet Under

"Northside is seein' some action, V—near you. Maelstromers are haulin' ass outta there. Think maybe the guys you just zeroed were a part of it. Can't make sense of what's goin' on, but may be a psycho case. Go see what's goin' on, now!"

Beep! Regina cut the line.

V slammed on the gas and shot back out onto the street, surprised to see that the ping Regina sent her was close. Really close. Only five minutes away. She swooped through the maze of warehouses and packed-together buildings that made up this part of Northside, noting that the route was taking her toward the old railyards. As she tore through a light, she turned another corner, drove down a long, broken lane that looked like it had been abandoned for some time, then turned right again.

V was moving fast, but she still had the reaction time to swerve up over the curb and onto the sidewalk to avoid an older tan car screaming down the middle of the street toward her. Even over the roar of the engine and the squeal of brakes, she could hear screaming. Then, in her rearview, she saw the car smash into a bunch of haphazardly placed concrete partitions and crumple. The screaming stopped.

Oh shit... V thought to herself, flicking her eyes forward to assess the area.

Down at the far end of the street, half covered in shadow, was an abandoned railyard surrounded by old warehouses and steaming oil pipes. More concrete partitions were strewn about the entrance of the yard, and parked at haphazard angles around the opening between them were various Maelstrom rides.

The rides weren't in tip-top shape. One of them had its nose crumpled against a barrier, smoke and bits of flame rising from the engine. Another was somehow wedged in between a couple of the barriers, its windows shattered and roof caved in.

V could have sworn she saw splashes of red on the ground surrounding the vehicles. Splashes of dark red. A red that was NOT leaking hydraulic fluid...

She turned off her car and got out slowly, eyes scanning the area for any other vehicles or gangers coming at her. Other than the crackle of flames and the far-off sounds of the industrial park, it was silent. Eerily silent.

Turning and walking quickly down the street towards the tan car that almost smashed into her a few moments before, V drew her revolver. The car's hood was crumpled and sizzling, the hiss of burning oil filling the air with smoke. V cautiously crept up to the vehicle, her senses pricked for any movement or sound. Coming parallel with the driver side window, she peaked inside. There was a Maelstrom ganger in there. He was folded over the steering wheel, airbags puffed up like steaming marshmallows all around him. The amount of blood splattered all over the interior didn't come from the airbag deployment though. 

Opening the car door slowly, V reached out a tentative hand and pushed the ganger back into his seat.

His face was gone.

V stumbled back with a choked gasp. It looked like the gonk's spider plate had been torn from his skull, nothing but an angry raw wound where his eyes should have been.  His mouth hung open in a slack jawed scream, showing broken and missing teeth.  V couldn't even hazard a guess as to how he drove the car in the first place like that. Probably explained the crash. A scan and finger on what was left of his neck told V he was dead. She took picture of the car and the ganger as evidence for Regina, then turned with a growing sense of dread towards the other burning vehicles towards the end of the alley road. As she slowly crept forward, V took stock of the area.

Partitions blocked off entry into the railyard, flanked by mountains of rotten, old bags of trash. The flames carried the scent of burning blood and oil into the air, which meant that the drivers of the cars hadn't gotten out in time. Beyond the two at the entrance were a couple more burning and destroyed rides, their smoke rising to join the steam from the oil pipe vents high above. There was a distinct emptiness to the area—an abandoned aura. This must have been an old railyard where defunct cars and old equipment had been tossed. There were several such areas around the city, with the Mayor's office ignoring the fact that millions of dollars' worth of equipment just sat around rotting or being picked apart.