Eden 5

[Mordecai]

Eden 5 is a hard world, barely habitable, orbiting a dim, solitary star and surrounded by three small moons. Before the Great War of the galaxies, it was a sanctuary, the only safe way-station for the great intergalactic ships crossing the vast, empty stretch of space called the Cleft. Once revered for its incredibly rare and valuable gems, Eden 5 was industrialised and wrung dry of most of its worth in a few short years. Now the planet houses mostly refugees—people who fled the poverty, decadence, or oppression of Earth and families too poor to buy their way off the little spit of rock called Eden 5.


The refugees left behind were left to build new lives, amidst simmering turf wars between gangs, crime syndicates, terrorists, and the refugee’s own militia. With all the major companies and government having been withdrawn from Eden 5 years past, the planet hosts little in the way of social order. There is no formal justice system or written law, thus, death was a more common occurrence than getting dinner. All of that changed seven years after Eden 5 had been declared resourcefully dry. A small company called the Medina Confederation investigated deep caverns in the planet and discovered a new source of revenue: a small gem called Calonezite, which was discovered to have restorative and healing powers. Nicknamed the “Gem of Youth,” Calonezite quickly grabbed the attention of everyone within the galaxy as a good old fashion "gold rush" economy exploded.


On Eden 5, two people—a cynical mercenary and an escaped slave with a bounty on her head and a score to settle—find themselves in the race to find the vein of Calonezite rumoured to be held deep within the planet’s endless internal caverns, both looking to buy their ticket off the planet. Unfortunately, the path to finding the Calonezite is paved with militaries, mercenaries, and fanatics who would think nothing of killing them.


@beleagueredSage - Yo man. Here be the thread.

 

[Mordecai]

The hot, midday sun scorched down on her shoulders with such intensity it felt like someone was pressing weight down on her. Sweat had gathered on her tanned forehead, dripping in droplets down her cheeks and off her jaw. Under the sweltering summer sun of Eden 5, even her lightweight, piece-of-shit armour was hot and uncomfortable. She could feel the moisture gather below its hard shell made of black and grey Neutronium. The metal’s polish had long since been scuffed off, so it looked more like pencil lead than proper armour, but it had served its purpose time and time again, saving her life more times than she cared to count since she plucked it off that dead chick on her way to New New York from Manitoba. Of course, stealing someone’s armour meant that it didn’t quite fit Aris Murphy’s petite frame just right, but it worked well enough. She didn’t look like much at first glance: a young woman with mousy brown hair left hanging down her back in a knotty mess, dirt collecting on her face at least a week thick, and scratches and burns to be found all the way up her hands and arms that clearly knew hard work.


Behind that mask of a rough life, there was something quite pretty about Aris. She had a keen eye and features that were pleasant enough, when washed clean anyways. Her eyes narrowed to a slit, trying to block out some of the mid-afternoon sun as she stared out from the edge of the small town of New New York out into the wasteland desert that lay just beyond its borders. New New York was a small, poor town with a population less than one-hundred people. While its name had been coined from the large, extravagant city back on Aris’ home planet, Earth, New New York was anything but. It was mangy, built on a spit of desert that was hostile and dry for seventeen months out of the eighteenth month year. The last month of the year was wet, cool, and pleasant, but now everything was dry, hot, and coated in several inches of sand.


Off in the distance, long plumes of sandy smoke rose off the horizon as she watched a bandit group roll towards New New York on their modified four-wheel all-terrain vehicles. With some agitation, Aris nudged the Repeater strapped to her thigh and turned away back towards the center of town. It was small, a few dome-shaped buildings with tin roofs. Nothing was ever built above one story high though, as building had a tendency to be blown apart by bandit gunfire every few months. There was not a single attractive thing about the place, as it was wrapped in a layer of barbed wire and electric fences to keep the marauders at bay. Most structures were built from materials left behind by the companies that had left Eden 5 years prior. It didn’t help much of course. People still died everyday from bandit attacks, starvation, dehydration, disease, or just bad luck, but the barbed wire gave the people a sense of false security. Undeterred by the defenses, the bandits rolled up in their heavily armoured vehicles and barraged the gates of New New York with a sheet of bullets. The citizens scattered, barring themselves in their homes and waiting for the bandits to come, take what they wanted, and leave.


Raising her repeater, Aris returned a few rounds, narrowly ducking behind a thick steel sheet set-up purposely for protection on such events as bullets whizzed past her. She crouched down low, hunching behind any solid piece of protection she could find as she crept under the bandit’s radar. For a flash of a second, she had thought they were hear to collect her head—seeking out the bounty that had been placed on her—but they seemed more intent on robbing the place than finding fugitives. Lying low but maintaining a certain level of fearlessness about the whole situation, the young woman darted the last few yards from the place of cover to the old abandoned Warehouse. She slammed the door shut behind her, scattering into the dark building and crouching behind an old piece of drilling equipment as bullets slammed against the walls. Shrieks of terror reverberated in the dank space from the world outside as the bandits dismounted their vehicles and stormed the city, looting anything of value they could find and killing anyone who stepped in their way. From the amount of shelling and from what she had seen earlier, she placed an estimate bandit headcount at about twenty. She could only pray that they wouldn’t see the worth in ransacking an old, rundown Corporation warehouse.


Settling her breathing, Aris remained with her fingers curled around the butt of her trusty, bright yellow Repeater, enjoying the subtle resistance of the trigger as she gently twitched her finger over it.

 

[eowarion]

From the best vantage point he could find in the single-floor town, Jesken heard, and saw telltale signs of the bandits, before he ever got eyes on them. He found himself cursing whoever decided that New New York ought to be built and rebuilt as single story, giving up precious advantages of cover and lines of sight. The New New Yorkers had banded together to hire AARG, in what Jesken assumed was an attempt at protecting against these sorts of attacks, though from what he'd seen of the place in the few weeks he'd been here, there wasn't much reason for the attacks, except perhaps boredom on the part of the bandits. The crackle of his radio coming alive pulled him from his moment of thought, and he crouched down on the roof as chatter came through, "We've got incoming hostiles, current count is twenty three. All coming from the east. Looks like they're loaded for war. Expect grenades, det packs and worse, boys." Clearly these odds were stacked against them, Jesken knew that their six ex-military weren't funded well enough by this town to match firepower, though tactics were clearly going to be their advantage.


Cra-kow! He sat up at the sound of the shot, grinning to himself when he realized that had to have been Benny. Taking a moment to adjust his sunglasses, Jesken poked his head around the barricade and squinted as he tried to make out where the action was starting, "Better have been a kill, Benny. You're going to need that head start once I join in." Within moments a response came across the radio, "Cotte, you're joking, right? Two confirmed. They're lining up for me, you'll have nothing lef-" The radio went silent, filled with static at the same moment a large plume of dust, fire and smoke went into the air, and the sound of the explosion quickly followed. Jesken spit on the roof he was perched on, wiping sweat from a tanned and weathered brow. He ran a gloved hand through his hair as he tried to get his mind off the loss of Benny, and onto the job at hand. He turned, his armour's protective plating shifting with his movements, and picked up his rifle. Jesken quickly checked the magazine, the chamber and the scope, taking in a long and slow breath, keeping himself calmed and running through all of his possible escape scenarios, both leaping off the roof, into the streets, or back inside the warehouse he was perched upon. He brought the rifle to bear, using the barricade as a makeshift brace to keep his aim true, a smirk crossed his lips as his sights centered on one unlucky bandit's head.


The fighting was in full swing, and from the screams, radio chatter and his own view of the fight, Jesken was becoming increasingly concerned with how things were playing out. The last radio call made it sound like it was only 'Schwer' and himself at this point, and Schwer was getting low on ammunition. Though they had lost two-thirds of their team, it sounded as though the count was nearly half of the bandits, and this was not very encouraging at this point, as Jesken began to realize once Schwer was out of the picture, they'd know exactly where to go next, and he was fairly certain with their remaining numbers, they were going to overtake him. The payday wasn't looking as good as it had when the job was first given, infact, if he hadn't been killing and pissing off these guys, and them likely being certain he was alive, now might have even been a good time to sneak off, and worry about money another time, "Schwer, if you can get to me, we can still get out alive. You'll have to hustle, but I should be able to keep them off of you, just move!" Jesken put down another bandit that was unfortunate enough to get in his line of sight just as his radio crackled in one last time, "Negative Cotte, I'm surrounded. I've got a couple det packs. I'll take what I can with me. Keep your head down and get out."


In the centre of town, a loud explosion went off, and suddenly one of the buildings was no longer standing, with dust, debris and fire billowing from its location. Jesken winced and peered out around his barricade again, whipping back within as he felt the breeze of a shot whiz past his head. That's it. I need to move, now. Scooping up the last of his kit, Jesken made a mad dash for the hatch he'd left open, he knew there was no way he could jump down to the streets below and get running, but something in that warehouse must be able to serve to get him out of here alive. He slung the rifle over his shoulder and pulled out his carbon black Magnum, as he dropped through the hatch, landing on the platform within the warehouse. He advanced slowly, checking every corner, and keeping his head on a swivel, even turning to watch the hatch, in the off chance any of the bandits were that smart. When he finally reached ground, he walked right past Aris, oblivious to her position as he moved to check on some of the old equipment near her.

 

[Mordecai]

Aris’ eyes had long since adjusted to the murky darkness, and the rattle of movement caught her attention. Bending herself deeper into the shadows, the young woman tightened her lip and depressed her lungs, trying to hush every noise her body was tempted to make. She had an incredible way of convincing her body to stop moving entirely, save for her thumb squeezing down the hammer of her Repeater so the bullet clicked into the chamber. Her eyes finally located the source of the sound: a man whom she estimated to be equal to her in age, give or take, and seemed cautious and well-armed, from what she could see. There was nothing about him that screamed Bandit to her—no wild-eyed desire to loot anything and everything, no crazed gun brandishing, and the simple fact that he was alone and seemed to be checking around to cover his back. As a visitor to New New York and having only been around for less than a week, Aris had yet to learn who was a citizen and who was a danger, so she had treated everyone with equal amounts of concern.


It was by miracle alone that he didn’t notice her during his thorough check-through of the place, though she supposed it had something to do with how well she had sucked herself into the shadows. Leveling her hand, she pointed the sight of the Repeater at the back of the man’s head and cautiously stepped forward. There was no doubt that he was packing considerably more firepower than she was, but she felt comfortable with the upper hand she had on him. With the gun planted firmly in the direction of the man’s head, she made her appearance known with a firm clatter of her boots on the cement floor. “Hey-“ she said in a muted voice in his direction, her eyes narrowing to a slit as she quickly assessed her risk level, giving the man another thorough up and down. He didn’t look very bandit-like or civilian-like she realized once she had a better look at him. In fact, he looked as close to a soldier as one could come on this planet. “What are you doing here?” she asked, her voice still not inflecting any emotion save for starkness.


The bullets continue to smack against the warehouse’s exterior, but they were farther and fewer in between than before. Already, the bandits had more-or-less secured New New York and were busy rummaging through every building they could get into, plucking anything of use they could find—food, medicine, bullets, guns. She didn’t pay mind to any of it, not until she heard the sound of metal scraping on metal nearby. Someone was banging at the door of the warehouse, trying to jiggle to lock free and doing a pretty damn good job of it, too. With each shove of the bandit’s shoulder to the outside of the door, the lock gave a little more and in a few more moments, the entire Warehouse could very well be flooded with hostiles. Switching her gaze between the door and the man, she had to make a quick decision on whom to trust. In this world, people worth trusting often just ended up dead or useless, but she was conveniently wedged between a rock and a hard place.


“Okay, okay. My name is Aris, I’m visiting New New York to pick up some supplies. I’m going to remove my gun from your head because we have a bigger problem trying to bust down the door right now. I really hope I’m not making a mistake here,” she looked pensive for a moment, her hand gripping the butt of the firearm until her knuckles turned white before finally convincing herself to drop the sight from the man. Her hand fell back down to her side, though her finger remained planted over the trigger like a nervous tick.

 

[eowarion]

When the barrel pressed to the back of his head, Jesken stopped dead in his tracks, he was caught completely by surprise, with his proverbial pants down, and he couldn't believe it. Slowly he put his hands up, hoping to keep the situation from reaching a quick end for himself, "Look, whatever you're thinking I did, I didn't. I'm just one of the guys your town hired, against the crazies that are probably coming towards us now," he winced upon hearing a peppering of bullets against the warehouse, "and from the sounds of things, it won't be long." While standing there, waiting for her to make her next move, several beads of sweat had run down from his forward to collect on his nose, which he tried to blow off, avoiding any sudden movements, and trying to ignore that his arms began to feel heavy.


When the banging started, Jesken felt a sense of desperation. Between being at gun-point of some unknown, and the start of banging sounds on one of the entry ways his face twisted into a grimace, fighting the desire to save himself from the woman voice attached to the gun, and the bandits ready to break their way in and end both their lives. He hoped that she would come to her senses and they could deal with the bigger problem before they needed to shoot eachother, or whatever other solution would come up, and shortly there after, he found himself breathing a sigh of relief as she spoke, removing the gun from the back of his head.


"You made the right choice, Aris. If you're not from here, you probably don't know what might actually run around here, so we're going to have to figure the fastest way out," he slid his pistol back into the holster and moved to push several larger and heavy things in the way of the entry the bandits were banging on, hoping to slow them, and buy more time for them, "I'm Jesken Cotte. Member of AARG... last member of AARG." He was cut short by the shouting, and sounds of an engine revving outside of the door, causing a feeling of dread to start in his stomach and move up his spine. "They are coming! We need a better hiding spot or something to push through their defenses! Quickly!"

 

[Mordecai]

“Yea, we’ll see,” Aris muttered below her breath when he commented on her decision-making. Trusting people was not her favourite business, especially when she hadn’t even a second to consider their qualities. Still, he went on to introduce himself, which helped but her mind to some ease. “It’s nice to meet you, Jesken,” she replied, giving him a wary glance, but keeping her Repeater firmly down at her side. A part of her hated the decision she made—to keep him alive—knowing that at any moment he could turn around and introduce a bullet to her head, but her decision was made and that was that. If she could just survive getting out of that damn warehouse, she could dump his ass on the next metaphorical curb and head out to some other spit of a town. There wasn’t much within reasonable walking distance of New New York, but Aris was wiry tough and resolute to a fault. If she had to walk ten days through a desert to get to another town, she’d do it.


Why she had come to New New York in the first place was a little bit of a mystery—even to her. It was a small, mining town that had been digging for valuable Calonezit since it was discovered. A short year ago, this little place had been a bustling, flourishing little township—buzzing with life. Unfortunately, as workers discovered there wasn’t any Calonezit to be found, most packed up and left. Some couldn’t afford to, of course, which were those that were currently being slaughtered on the other side of the warehouse door. Aris cursed her stupidity, but at the time, several weeks ago, New New York seemed like a nice, desolate place to hang low for a while but now she saw the flaws in her thinking.


The banging of the door echoed through her thoughts and caused her to stir, glancing over the man, Jesken, pushed heavy metal boxes in front of the door to seal when in for the time being. The boxes rattled angrily as more leverage was applied to the door, but they held fast. “Alright, alright, alright,” Aris muttered in a rushed huff, nervously tapping the barrel of her firearm against her forehead in thought. “Alright, well, staying in New New York is going to get us killed, “If we can get on to the roof and get down on the otherside without those hoodlums seeing us, I think we can make a mad dash for their vehicles and steal one.” She hated the thought of being stuck with him any longer than she absolutely had to, but desperate times called for desperate measures.


If they could make a mad dash for the vehicles and actually reach them, they might be home free… unfortunately; there was only the small problem of a handful of beefy bandits armed to the teeth with cutting-edge firearms standing in their way. “So,” Aris began in a feigned voice of amusement, “Thoughts, mister AARG?”

 

[eowarion]

Jesken gave up piling boxes against the door and turned his attention back to Aris, looking both desperate and annoyed, "There's roughly a dozen, maybe a few less after that last explosion, that are out there, and from the sounds of things, they may very well have one of their vehicles parked out there waiting to lay waste to us... my thoughts? You're probably right. I still have enough ammo to definitely take a few out," he paused and reached for his belt fumbling over a few things attached to it, "especially with my frag grenade. Can cover us with a bit of smoke, too." He moved away from the boxes and other things he'd piled up, and headed back toward the stairs he'd come down earlier, he wasn't thrilled at the prospect of going back up top, but this woman had a point, and he was looking forward to leaving this place alive. He slowly went up each step, watching the open hatch as he got his rifle off his back and aimed it up toward the hatch. Using well practice hand signals, he motioned for Aris to follow, when he realized she may not know them, and hoped that she would simply get the point.


His training was about to be put to the test as he got to the hatch, he climbed the ladder, stopping just below, his heart racing as he slowly poked his head up to look around. Everything was exactly as he left it, and he wasn't sure if that was good thing just yet, so he ducked back down, "Looks clear up here. Keep your head on a swivel." He lead the way, pulling himself onto the roof, but dragging himself along on his stomach. He moved far enough away from the hatch to allow Aris room to get up as well, still watching around him with paranoid fear for anything out of place. The sounds of shouting, the occasional burst of gunfire, and engines revving seemed to be coming from every direction, reverberating through the area. It was becoming obvious that the majority of the bandits had moved to the entry of the warehouse, but he couldn't tell exactly what they were doing by sound alone. When Aris made it topside, Jesken moved in close to speak in a hushed voice, "Here's the deal. They're definitely over by the entrance. And when I was taking shots at them, they were also on the northwest corner. We're going to have to get over to the main gate of town, I'm sure that we thinned enough of their numbers, that there are going to be unattended vehicles there."


He shouldered the rifle and pulled out his Magnum again, giving a half-hearted grin, "I hope you like running. We're going to be doing a lot of it now."

 

[Mordecai]

“Huh,” Aris huffed an anxious voice as the man continued to respond to her in a civil, if not somewhat worried voice, himself, “I have some ammo,” she finally replied, taking note to nod at the mention of a frag grenade. Her last grenade had been used days ago and she hadn’t the money to buy more nor had she been lucky enough to pick off anything worthwhile from a corpse. Still, a frag grenade would certainly be helpful in such a situation and all she had to do was trust him long enough to not get her caught up in the blast, accidental or not. Allowing him to take the lead and being smart enough to figure out what his hand signals meant, Aris proceeded to follow him up the ladder and on to the roof. Ducking down below the cement barriers, she peeked quickly through their surroundings. A hot, summer breeze lashed out against her face, causing her eyes to squint against the sun and sand being tossed about in the breeze. If she heard his comment, she didn’t show it, for her eyes remained deadest on the world around her, glimmering with a hint of devilishness as she closed her palms over the grip of her Repeater and slid a finger across the trigger once more.


It was only as he brought up a plan of sorts, did she finally bother to glance his direction again. “Right,” she agreed, biting down on her lower lip and making a firm and resilient face. Hearing the crack of gunfire and smelling the aroma of smoke was something not completely foreign to her. Not anymore, anyways. Aris hadn’t always been on Eden 5. She grew up a perfectly educated and promising young woman on Earth, eventually earning her Master’s in Physics. Things had changed, obviously, when her employers had sent her to this small waste of a planet, went bankrupt, and promptly left her and her fifty co-workers stranded on the damn planet with no way to get home and nothing but hope and a bunch of useless, broken down equipment to their name. It was a wonder she had survived this many years without the financial support of a company, but Aris had gotten lucky, she supposed, and had fallen into a crowd that trained her for survival. It just so happened that that crowd would later want her dead and was willing to pay money for her head on a stake.


Life was full of trade-offs.


“Well, let’s do this,” she said, leaning her head over the edge of the building and glancing down at the drop. It wasn’t a long fall, maybe twelve feet from the rooftop to the sand below and not a single bandit in sight. She did, however, spot their roughrider vehicles off in the distance. It was going to be a gamble, seeing as the path from the Warehouse to their parked vehicles was long, flat, and desperately devoid of cover. “I don’t know how to drive,” she admitted in a low voice, “So, once we get there, you better hit the driver’s seat.” Without further ado, Aris picked herself up and leapt over the edge, neatly hitting the sand below and glancing back and forth, waiting for a bandit to come wheeling around the corner with a gun pointed in her face, but it seemed eerily quiet for the moment.


She encouraged him down from the roof with a wave of her hand, and as soon as he had joined her, she took off for the vehicles.

 

[eowarion]

Jesken cursed under his breath the moment Aris dropped the the ground, and again once he landed behind her. Now was not the time for being overly cautious, and if he wanted to survive, he had to have a little faith in this random woman, and his own skill. He was absolutely amazed and confused by her rushing off once he was on the ground, especially as she had said he'd have to drive, and the way was quite possibly going to get them both killed. Rather than ponder on it long, Jesken forced himself to run after her, trying to follow a serpentine pattern, in the off chance any of the bandits were looking in their direction once they'd rounded the building. The weight of the pistol in hand reminded him he could take a few shots as they ran, hoping to thin any of the bandits out to help their chances, but he also knew that his pistol wasn't exactly the silent type, and it could draw more attention, if he started shooting first, so he kept it in hand, finger off the trigger and hustled to try and catch up with Aris.


Though the heat felt heavy and thick around him, Jesken's desire to get through this and survive was more than enough to push through it, concerned only with the vehicles up ahead. When at roughly the half way point, he heard the impact of a shot on the ground near his feet, then a second, before the sounds of the guns caught up to them, which pulled him back to the full reality. He glanced in the direction of the bandits and fired a couple of wild shots in response to theirs, while yelling up to Aris, "Move it! We're spotted!" He shoved the pistol into the holster on his hip and pushed himself harder, trying to get every ounce of speed out of his legs that he could, trying to ignore the sweat running down his face, and the burn in his muscles, screaming at how they were being pushed. And with each step, more bullets began to pepper the area around him, though he was fairly certain from how they were landing, for now these were all shots from the position he saw them in before, and no one was moving for a better shot, yet.

 

[Mordecai]

Aris was never the type of girl for subtlety. The only logical path from point A to point B was to book it, so it wasn’t until long after her feet had hit the sand and she made a mad dash for the vehicles did she realize the downsides to her little plan. Bullets exploded against the sand as she sprinted, causing puffs of sand to burst all around her. Before long, her skin, sweaty from the effort, was coated in a thick film of sand and dirt. “Yea, yea, I realize that now!” she barked back over her shoulder, though managed to maintain the lead on him. She had given up a lot of hardiness in her armour in favour of maneuverability, and the light-weightiness was really proving to be a benefit in their current situation. Aris had always been a fast little creature though—and had always been relatively impressive back in her high school track days. Still, she could be running faster than she ever had before, but she could never outrun a bullet.


“Son of a--~!” Aris yelped in surprise as a bullet whizzed past her face, opening up a rather unsightly gash across her left cheek. Blood blossomed from the wound like the petals of a rose, splattering down across the shoulder of her armour and sticking into the locks of her hair, but she hadn’t the time in the moment to be worried about such a minuet problem. It was miracle alone that the bullet hadn’t done any more damage than what it had and she chalked it up to good luck and good luck alone. They continued to close the distance between them and the vehicles under a blanket of fire. She scrambled up into the closest rover she could find, swinging in to the open two-seating cabin. She felt the smallest pang of disappointment to see the engine had been disengaged and the keys removed, but equipped to deal with the problem, Aris ripped the panel out from the bottom of the dash.


“Get in and get ready to drive. I’ll get this baby started, ” she said to her acquaintance in a gruff voice as she yanked out a tangle of wires. “Sorry to do this to you, baby,” Aris muttered to the vehicle, snapping apart several of the wires to cross them. The engine gave an uncomfortable grumble, resisting turning over. With a few more attempts and a few sparks from the wires, the engine roared to life. Aris doubted she had ever been so happy to hear a sound in her life as she was to hear the purr of the engine.


“Drive!” Aris yelped, glancing up to him as blood dripped off her chin.

 

[eowarion]

Jesken cursed as he jumped into the driving seat, and fired off several shots back at the direction of the bandits, a futile attempt for his Magnum even at this range, but it made him feel better after having been shot at. He holstered his pistol and removed the grenade from his belt, offering it out to Aris with a grin on his face, "I'm thinking we might want to put this to use, maybe stop a couple of them from following in any working vehicles? If we're lucky maybe we'll take out one or two. Keep some off our tail, if they catch up, right?"


He put the pedal to the floor, and yanked the wheel to the left, spinning out, and kicking up a cloud of dust, dirt and rocks, hoping this might help make them a bit harder to hit as they got out of that town. As soon as the back end of the vehicle was facing the bandits, several loud pings could be heard over the roar of the engine, as bullets ripped into the back end of the vehicle, and then he felt the burning sensation of a bullet tearing through his left shoulder. He called out in pain, his left arm falling limp to his side as he tried to keep the vehicle under control, steering it toward the open desert. He didn't have time, or the ability to tend to the injury, so Jesken tried to focus on driving, and not letting on to Aris how bad it was. The engine roared and the window whipped through their hair as they screamed along the desert sands, there was no direction in mind yet. Jesken wasn't the one who brought his crew to New New York, infact he slept most of the trip there, so he had no real idea which direction he should be heading, and the pain in his shoulder likely wasn't helping any sense of direction he may have had.


After they'd been driving a bit he turned toward Aris and gave a half-smirk, "Probably not what you want to hear, but you may want to learn to drive soon, because I'm going to have to patch myself up."


((Sorry! A shitty one but I ran out of steam ))

 

[Mordecai]

Blood dribbled down Aris’ chin and splashed down the chest of her armor in streams, gleaming menacingly in the desert sun. There was no pain yet because the bullet tore so cleanly through her flesh and there was adrenaline pumping through her veins in excess. Though now that they had reached the vehicle, she could feel the knowing prickle of pain beginning to gnaw at her nerve endings. Though not one to ponder the ache, she took the grenade he presented her with a perverse grin. Getting to her feet and resting herself against the cabin cage, Aris dug her knee into the seat as the vehicle whirled into movement. As they pulled away from the row of vehicles, she ripped out the pin and chuckled the small, metal sphere with as much might as she could. Aris was never born to be a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, but the hand grenade landed square in the passenger’s seat of one of the vehicles.


Collapsing back into her seat with a wild laugh, Aris closed her eyes and leaned her head back as the sound of the explosion reverberated behind them. She didn’t see it, but she could feel the rumble shake through her like a shiver. A bit hesitant to look back in fear of seeing the hostiles in pursuit, Aris let her head loll over so she was looking back at the man, Jesken, to inspect him more carefully. She had barely focused on him when the popping of gunfire caused her to subconsciously duck her head. The bullets smacked against the steel of the vehicle with Tink. Tink. Tink. The thick hull of their ride had caught all but one bullet, but the last hit Jesken. He yelped out in understandable pain, causing the vehicle to make a few harsh swerves before he managed to right their path. “Shit, that sucks,” she murmured, watching his blood bubble from the wound and dribble down between them.


Now that they were several kilometers from New New York, her own wound began to sting something fierce. Aris could only assume she’d need stitches and Jeskin would need something a bit more dramatic. “Yea, yea, okay. I mean… how hard can driving be, right?” she laughed nervously, trying to brush off her apprehension. “You know, I have some medical training. I can help you with that, if you want?” she offered, not sure how much ability to patch-up wounds he possessed.


“Should we pull over for a second? I don’t think anyone is following us.”


There wasn't much of anything around them anymore. New New York was nothing but a plume of thick, black smoke on the horizon. Endless desert stretched out in every direction without so much as a tree or tuft of grass to anchor it down. If they continued North, they'd eventually run into slightly more hospitable terrain with a few more townships much like New New York, but they needed medical attention immediately. Rearing back over the seat, she shuffled through the storage compartment in back, seeing what they had. Not much, unsurprisingly. A few bullets rolled in the bottom storage trunk, with a few packs of open bandages, some coins, a shaving razor, and a half-full can of gasoline. "Well," Aris hummed, gathering up the bandages, "Not much," she said. Hell, the bandages probably weren't even sterile anymore, seeing as how they were rolling around in a dusky, old trunk with some change and some bullets.