GunBarrel Gauntlet: The Last Bronze II

29. Yesterdays News.

After extracting the tooth from the lion's jaw, Weary was given a room below in one of the concrete buildings that occupied the lower stronghold. Within an hour of his rest a visitor came calling, the lawn mower engine of his wheelchair gurgling noisily until the legless man switched off the power.

"I'm sorry to disturb you so soon after your arrival, but I felt that it was necessary to speak with you, sooner being more prudent than later. I'm known around the refinery as 'Yesterday's News', a moniker that has stuck with me long after the joke that pinned it on me."

Replying with his own name to conclude the introduction , Weary invited the man on wheels to rest beside him so they could talk privately.

"Your friends are still alive, the driver and the others that were sent out for the Haitch-two-oh exchange. I've just overheard the report from one of the survivors, a brute known as 'Pigface'. He's come back from what looks like a hell of a fight, and he's a big boy with a reputation for violence."

"All of them, alive? I wouldn't dare dream it after seeing what you lot are capable of, what you did in the Junkyards."

"It's true, but probably not for much longer; Hercules will go hunting for them and the water tanker they stole from under Pigface's snout."

"You don't strike me as someone who belongs in all of this, surrounded by people like Boudisha or Hercules. How'd a sane man like yourself end up as a resident in this asylum?"

"It's complicated, of course" Yesterday sighed. "And before I admit anything further about my past, I would ask you about your own; Why were you and the others hiding in the Junkyards?"

"That's complicated also." Weary laughed. "They were your friends, weren't they."

"Some of my closest, even after we were divided by cruel circumstance."

"We tried, believe me. We tried to make a deal, take us the guilty party and let the Junkyards be, but Hercules went back on his word and stormed the place with every gun they had. Tin Lizard, Uncle, they and the others set alight to make amends for the betrayal Hercules was ranting on about. I'm sorry," his eye met the glistening wells of the other "but there were no survivors... wait, there could be one or two, the balloon was off the ground before they reached the wall."

"I... I thought as much." The legless man sunk into the support of his mechanized chair.

"I'm sorry. If we'd have known that meeting Uncle and the others would have meant their execution, we would have steered well away. We were looking for spare parts and a place to stay after we were chased out of Dogtown. To be entirely truthful, we were looking for a place, El Dorado."

"El Dorado..." Yesterday enunciated the title, the answer and cause of their deepest troubles.

"What will they do, when they learn that the Junkyards were wiped out by Hercules?"

"Nothing, their strategy has always been to go to ground and let the surface dwellers die of thirst. What's your strategy going to be, Weary Dawson now that our friends are dead and they have you confined inside their factory?"

"I dunno, there are a lot of people waiting for our return..."

"Weary! Listen to me, I need your help. We can escape from here, I've been planning it for years and waiting for a man like yourself to fulfill those duties I cannot." His stumps kicked to demonstrate the missing appendages.

"It's tough out there old man, more so if you got no legs. You sure you wouldn't be safer here with your power and gas?"

"There is nothing safe here, not even for us, the Knowledge Bank. We are just as much a slave as the rest of the labourers. They want our minds, our recall of the past, and they'll break our bodies to make us comply and give them the history they need to keep ruling! Defy them Weary, and you might just wake up without an arm, or a foot.

"After they took Gaswells and nearly slaughtered us, I made a vow with Uncle and Doc Idaho that if they should ever be murdered by Zeus or his tribe and break the pact of water for fuel, that I would blow Gaswells sky high, ka-boom! Take it all out from underneath them. Let them suffer again like the rest of us have."

"Like I said, it's tough out there. You ain't got a better deal that what you're standing on."

"If you were to ever change your mind, see this place for the horror that it truly is, would you signal me in some way?"

"Alright, sure, if the time comes... I'll be looking for you."

"Good, Thankyou. You might have won Boudisha's influence temporarily by healing that savage man-eating pet, but she is not the only leader of the tribes. Zeus, in his golden mask, gargantuan Hercules rolling over the fallen weak on a car crushing throne of unstoppable horsepower. Terminal psychopaths, all of them!"