The Wanderers [Old Version]

Chapter 8: Solus

Bryn's POV

We had been traveling in the hovercraft a few days now and I was getting claustrophobic.

We flew over city and city, town after town. I wasn't really sure where I wanted to go, just as long as it was far enough away from my father.

Captain Gavin would occasionally ask me if I knew where I wanted to go, I would always just tell him to keep going.

After the second day, Captain Gavin landed in the ruins of an Old World city called Buffalo. "We're low on power, Princess."
"How do we get more?"
"I have a tracker on a few of the other hovercrafts in the fleet. Two of them were in this area. But I lost detection of them this morning. They might still be here."
"Does my father have a tracker on your craft?
"I believe so, yes."
"So what if he tracks us down!?"
"Ohh. I will turn it off right away."
"No that won't work, he'll still be able to find us. Leave it somewhere."
"That could work. I could remove it and tie it to a birds wing. They won't know the difference."
"Good. Do that then."
"Princess, if I may say, I don't feel right about doing this. I am helping a princess escape from her kingdom. I have to look out after my men, Alexi and Ben. If we are caught, all three of us will be killed and you will likely be imprisoned."

Alexi was a taller, thin man with a white stripe across his long black hair. He had a very serious expression, his cold blue eyes looked through me.

Ben was shorter, but very muscular. He had short blond hair and a long nose. His pale blue eyes looked around nervously as little bugs and rats scampered around the ground beneath us.

"I know. But we won't get caught. I've read lots of Old World books over the years, I know how to fight and survive."
"No offense, princess. But books are nothing compared to experience. We are trained fighters and we still fear for our lives out here."
"Well we'll just have to get more experienced. Be prepared for whatever is out here."
"Princess we know what is out here. It is hard to adjust."
"Then we'll just have to adjust."

I sat in the hovercraft as the three men set out looking for fuel. Several small birds landed in front of me and chirped at me.

Strange little birds, I had never seen this type before. I whistled at little tune at them as they hopped around, picking up small bugs and worms.

They whistled back. Little mockingbirds. I had once read an Old World book about them, but never saw them for myself.

A single gunshot broke the silence. Then several more followed shortly after.

The little mockingbirds around me flew away quickly.

I heard Captain Gavin's voice, "Princess! Start the hovercraft! Push the square blue button!"

I did as he said. The cockpit was more complicated then I had expected. Dozens and dozens of switches and buttons flashed all over.

A single bullet hit the glass of the cockpit, only a few inches from my face, and shattered it.

Captain Gavin and Ben jumped into the hovercraft. Ben stood in the doorway shooting at a group of men in scraped together pieces of armor.

Captain Gavin raised the hovercraft a few feet off the ground. Ben continued firing. I ran to the cockpit, "Where's Alexi!?"
"He's dead! He got shot in the head! He was the first one dead!"
"Who are these guys!?"
"Fiends! They rule the wastes out here, control the entire wasteland! Hundreds of these druggies all over the damn place! Shit! Ben take out the guy with the rockets! Ben! Ben!?"

I turned around the see Ben leaning against the wall, his eyes and mouth bleeding, a glowing green hole on his chest. He had been shot by plasma.

"He's dead!"
"Dammit! Alright, shut the door! And hang onto something!"

I shut the door, a bullet barley missing my leg. I sat down on the bench and buckled in.

The craft shook and vibrated. Captain Gavin mashed buttons and pulled switches on the dashboard. I felt the craft stop and spin. "Alright assholes, scram!"

The guns on the side of the craft lit up red and started firing lasers at the fiends below us.

A few of them dissolved from the pure power of the lasers, the rest were smart and ran.

Captain Gavin called me, "Alright, princess. Good news or bad news?"
"Uhh..bad news."
"Ben and Alexi are dead. I dropped my only gun out there. And the gas tank under the craft is damaged and leaking. There's no way for us to repair it either, not without a welding tool."
"And the good news?"
"The craft is still flying."

The Beneficiary's POV

I walked the wastes alone for the most part. Occasionally I would meet a cat or a few birds that would follow me, but never once did I run into another human.

I liked the huge ocean, so I would usually stay near it while traveling. I walked the trail so many times my footprints were forever in the sand.

On days it wasn't foggy, or raining, I would see the Old World statue of the big green lady standing in the ocean. Most of her was crumbling, but I could still tell she was a woman while she stood.

I liked being alone though. It let me think. About my mother, my sister, my father who died when I was young.

The man behind the glass, the man who made me kill my sister. This was my last assignment. My final task. Then I was free. My reward? All the gold I could ever spend, my mothers safety, and being able to learn who the man was.

As soon as I met him, I would kill him. It wouldn't bring Sasha back, but it would help ease the pain.

I still wasn't completely sure why I was completing my task. Why? Why did the man want me to do this? I couldn't understand why, he told me I wouldn't.

It was raining slightly today. The cool mist from the Big Water was blowing in my face. Small little crabs would scurry away as I trudged through their homes.

It was probably spring by now, I never kept track of the weather much.

I had raised myself out here, in the wastes. I was illiterate, I had the vocabulary of a toddler, I couldn't count past ten. But I was content with who I was.

I had survival skills and that's all I really needed.

Since I couldn't read I used memory and landmarks to know where I was going.

I knew when I got to the big rock with a crack in the side that I had to go right to reach the city I was looking for.

I always carried a laser rifle strapped to my back, a plasma pistol in my backpack and an Old World magnum in my hand. I only used them when my task was to kill.

I always carried a few fixes of drugs and a bottle of alcohol in my backpack. I wasn't a druggie, but I made deals with the fiends that if I gave them some drugs, they would let me pass without trouble.

My shoes were getting worn out from the long travels over the years. My jeans had holes in them. My shirt had no sleeves, so during the winter when it was cold I would try to find a jacket in Old World cities.

I had been walking for a few weeks already, stopping as soon as it was dark. For someone who did as much as me, I hated the dark. I wasn't afraid of it, just hated it.

I had just passed a small neighborhood when I heard the sound of a hovercraft. I looked up in the sky to see a hovercraft dangerously close to the rooftops, the back was smoking and burning.

I heard voices. A man and a woman. The hovercraft scraped the roof of a home and slammed into the wall of a house nearby. Flames and ash shot into the sky.

I noticed a woman crawling out of the wreckage, I would have helped her, but two people ran towards her. A boy about my height and a short girl.

I crouched down behind a fence to avoid being seen. I waited for them to leave, and followed them.