Carter Grey: Peace-keepers (WIP)

Chapter 1 (sample, WIP)

"Don't look now, but we got mutants, two O'Clock," Roman said, nodding to the three lizard-men staggering down the main road, bloody and exhausted. Carter Grey scanned the streets from the veranda and saw the three figures staggering into town, one supported by the other two, all of them in tattered, bloody clothes but the middle one worst off by far.

"That wound looks nasty," Carter said, seeing how their [colour?] blood trickled down one's scaly green chest from what was no doubt a serious injury under those bandages. No one in Bareton moved to bar their passage through town. No one moved to help them, either. Carter put down his empty whiskey glass and, having only had the one so far, stood and walked back indoors despite the damage to his leg. He could still walk, for a bit, before the wound would send pain bursting through his system.

"Off so soon?" Stacia asked, drying a glass behind the bar.

"Lizards, three of them," Carter said. "They're in bad shape. Someone's gotta help them."

"I'll hold down the fort," she said, making a point of turning her head to scan the mostly empty tap room, save for a trio of ancient veterans playing cards, a couple of beers mixed in with the cards, chips and cigarettes.

"Appreciate it," Carter said.

"I know I should ask them to butt out..."

"And they're Roman's favourite customers. They earned it, anyway. I'll be back in an hour."

Stacia handed him his knife and jacket, and Carter stepped outside into the fading light and the cracked bitumen that passed for a road in Bareton.

He found the three lizards outside the barber's, the one in the worst shape lying, semi-conscious, against the wall of the shop, the other two trying to treat its wounds and give it some of their water. Carter could only see one's back, but the other looked up at Carter's approach, yellow eyes desperate. Carter didn't know that much about their physiology, but he could tell the one facing him was male, the injured female, and the one with its back to Carter he couldn't really tell, but the size meant probably.

The male with its face to Carter looked up at his approach, and the other one stood, and turned to Carter Grey.

Its face had a large burn over about thirty percent of its face on the left, and a scar crossing one reptilian eye. Carter paused, not sure how to proceed. But he knew a deadly chest wound when he saw one.

"You'll want to get her to the medic," he said. "I'll show you the way." They talked in their own language for a moment, before agreeing and Carter helped them move their comrade and carry her to the doctor's surgery. The

The surgeon stepped out of the surgery, blood on his jacket, and pulled his mask down.

"It doesn't look good," he said, gravely. "I wouldn't expect her to make it through the night."

One of the male lizards hung his head in despair, while the other stood and punched the wall, the scaly fist smacking hard into the wooden boards and leaving a few drops of blood behind. This lizard stormed out, and Carter didn't have to be a bartender to know what was going through the lizard's mind as he disappeared out the front door of the surgery.

"You better go after him," the surgeon said. Carter was already heading out the door into the building buzz of the evening. The lizard stopped in the middle of the road, the townsfolk diverting around him and his anger like a river around a rock. The lizard didn't turn at to look at Carter as he came up beside him.

"What are you going to do?"

The lizard was silent for a long time before answering in a voice you didn't have to have reptilian vocal chords to send chills up a spine. "I'm going to kill the man who killed my entire village."

"You'll need info," Carter said. "Weapons. Supplies."

"And a lead on a man with three thumbs," the lizard said. "The name's Mr Green. And I'm going to get my revenge - even if it kills me."