Black Market Merchant

“That was so cool! I can’t believe someone could kill a Twisted like that with their personal strength alone.” Tammy gawked as she watched Lisa turn to come jogging back up the hill. She then turned off and collapsed her plasma shield-staff. “But I wanted to kill it...”

Lisa had already deactivated her Stage Two before turning to face the everyone on the cliff top and she was now looking a bit worn out. The cause of her being tired was soon revealed. The afternoon wind was starting to pick up and the dust swirled away some to reveal a shocking sight, there on the open scrubland where Lisa was sent flying by the Plain Strider’s kick was a ring of dead Twisted. At least a hundred Twisted were laying dead in a circle, all toting numerous knife wounds, dismemberment, and decapitations. However, no one had any time to comment on what might have gone on down there in the dust for now halfway up the path behind Lisa was next wave of Twisted!

“Run!” Lisa yelled as she passed by the Party Badger. She had an uncharacteristically somber expression as she spoke. “We can’t stop what’s coming behind me here!”

There was another deep, heavy rumble from the baby Hoard Mother and at that same moment another gust of wind rolled back the dust cloud, this time for good. The baby Hoard Mother was already rounding the curve of the slope’s wall to come up the path. Guarding close alongside the hoards leader were twelve Plain Striders, countess hundreds of smaller Twisted, and the late arriving Land Octopus’s had joined the fray. Following behind this tight cluster of monsters out on the open scrubland was the rest of the hoard numbering in the thousands!

The entire cliff side, save for those faraway still shooting in Orin’s group, was stunned into dead silence. This overwhelming sight was enough to crush anyone’s soul. Beating back the hoard seemed like a pipe dream, even living to see another sunrise was seemingly out of the question. The townspeople were going to die, no and’s, if’s, or but’s.

The only one that seemed to think otherwise was Lisa. “Come on! Let’s get moving! We can still make it across the dam and hold them off there. We are to spread out and disorganized to do any real fighting.”

Lisa went up to Jake and grabbed his arm to pull him away from cliffs top entrance. “We can still make it in time. Start running!”

Jake dropped his gun and turned to run. His face was pale, and eyes glazed over with fright. Lisa pulled back on his arm and scooped up the discarded rifle. She then shoved it back into his hand.

Lisa yelled at him, both to wake him up and to be heard clearly by everyone else, “Don’t drop you gun, idiot! We still need it to fight with. Just take what you have in your hands and run!”

That is when all hell broke loose. Everyone started running as fast as they could to the dam in the west. Men and women screamed in terror as they all clamored to escape. Pushing, pulling, shoving, trampling, tripping; there was not one person among them that did not use or receive these actions as they fled away in mass.

Nathan and Gillian were no exception. There was a limit to civility, and they had reached that limit. Nearing starvation, worn out and tired, pushed to the brink of annihilation, and impending death with no real sight of survival, not many could keep a clear head bearing all these hardships.

John turned against the crowds flow to go back to Hanna’s Mech. “I changed my mind, Hanna, start driving this Mech back to the dam. It will be faster than running and keep us safe!”

Hanna was still frozen in Johns arms. The sight of the Twisted and Aunt Lisa’s fearful words and look had rocked her to the core. Hanna never expected her hero to look that way. She didn’t even notice that John had climbed into the Mech until he placed her into the seat.

“Hurry up Hanna! I don’t know how to move this thing.” John called urgently.

“O-o-ok!” Hanna stammered as she fumbled with the controls.

As the electric engine and exhaust fans hummed to life Hanna looked through the slit of the Mechs window at Lisa and thought to herself. “Aunt Lisa, please be safe and come back to me soon!”

…

The only ones that did not immediately flee were Lisa and the Hunters Clan members.

Dixon was the one who spoke up first. “Tammy, hold them off for as long as you can! We need to buy these people any time we can. The bounty can wait.”

“You don’t need to tell me twice.” Tammy replied.

She then opened fire with the last of her four rockets and it struck the side of the slope just ahead of the hoard causing a small avalanche of sand and rock. The blast narrowed the path considerably and created a choak point. Grabbing the Mechanized 76.2mm Rifle from her Mechs back, Tammy flicked the switch to full-auto and opened fire. Twisted were ripped apart and blasted to bits by the bullets, but they kept steadily plowing forwards. There sheer numbers were going to easily be enough to reach the cliff top and overrun the Party Badger.

“Sam, go up front and start clearing off the cliffs up ahead.” Dixon continued. “We can’t allow anyone to get cut off while escaping.”

“Got it.” Sam replied revving his hover bike to speed away.

“56, you and I will…” Dixon started to say but when he looked back at 56, he was not there. Only Orville remained floating peacefully above the trailer. 56 had jumped off the hover bike trailer and was now approaching Lisa on the ground. Seeing him, Dixon shook his head and picked up his own rifle to take aim at the incoming hoard. “What is he doing?”

“Well, well, look who it is. 24! I would have never guessed you would be so far west.” 56 chatted casually as he approached her. He then threw his arms wide and looked around him exaggeratively. “Why have you abandoned your duties? There is nothing for you to do here. Leave with me right now and you won’t be court marshaled.”

“Are you kidding me right now?” Lisa, aka 24, replied putting a hand on her hip. She then used the tip of her sword to point at the baby Hoard Mother. “Do you not see the situation these people are in right now? Besides, who would be court marshaling me, hmm? The United States is no longer around, and we have no obligation to fight under the command of anyone now.”

“Oh, but you do still have an obligation to your fellow soldiers, you know, the ones you abandoned back there at the military base. They are fighting for the freedoms of the currently oppressed under that American Fascist Regime.” 56 snarled. “The Brigadier General will be overseeing what to do with you. We can go now and forget all about this unfortunate case. You have no reason to fight for them.”

Lisa’s grey eyes darkened as she glared at 56. “I am not going back with you, not now. They are on American soil too, so, I do have ties here. I am going to save everyone that I can here and start my own life over in the process. I am done with the Hazard Corps., and anything related to the past. You can go fly off now and not tell whoever that self-proclaimed ‘Brigadier General’ you ever saw me. I am MIA at that military base and want to stay that way.”

56 raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure? I know I can’t force you to go, your undoubtedly stronger than me. Though I’ve already been ordered to report anything important and you, an advanced cyborg Queen soldier, fits that report. Things might not end well for you.”

Lisa rolled her eyes. “Screw off, 56. I got work to do. Advanced Armament: Stage One.” Lisa then turned her back to him and started running back towards the dam.

56 watched her go and sighed to himself as her figure disappear. “She’s as stubborn as ever. Still, I don’t know what she thinks she will do in such a place as this. There are much bigger things going on in the world right now other than one measly town getting wiped-out. Besides, if she knew who the Brigadier General was then she might not have resisted. They knew each other really, really well back then.”

56 looked up at Dixon floating not that far above and jumped all the way up to him too land on the trailer. “Alright Dixon, what do you need me to do?”

Startled by his sudden return and perplexed as to how he got back up here, Dixon just pointed at the Twisted below. “Snipe the big ones and make sure Tammy’s Mech isn’t overwhelmed by the monsters.”

…

“Lisa! What is going on!? The dam is already full and the people that are still coming Bell is sending them to the north of the dam.” Zane yelled at her as he pushed through the crowd now crossing the dam in droves. “I was coming out to find you but there are too many people coming this way. I tried to talk with some of them but its all ramblings and mixed messages. Are there any Twisted out there?”

Lisa had deactivated her Stage One and was brining up the rear of the fleeing townspeople. “Yes, the Twisted will be coming here any moment. I had killed dozens already before leaving the forest. They already have climbed the cliff and I assume by now the Hunters Clan is retreating this way from the slope. We need to keep moving these people north out of town all together. It’s no longer safe here either. I only regret we won’t have time to warn the rest of the town to escape.”

“H-how is this possible?” Zane asked not believing her words were true. “Monsters have never really attacked this town before. What are we going to do?”

Lisa shrugged. “Everyone that can hold a gun needs to be brought to the powerhouse buildings parking lot. There I will explain what to expect. Everyone else, including those that we saved from the underground factory, needs to run north and not stop.”

“I-Its that bad?” Zane asked looking past Lisa towards the woods. “Why don’t we leave too? We still have time.”

“If we leave, then everything we had done till now would be wasted. The Twisted would probably still chase after us too and we wouldn’t have anywhere safe to hide once they caught us. Even if we did lose them, with no food and water, the desert will kill us next.” Lisa replied somberly. Then looking up at the Mover Mech Hanna had brought back she gave a faint smile. “I do have a plan in mind. Its just going to take a lot of guts to pull off.”