บท 212: Camping Mood
"Not dead yet, huh, Christy?" he turns as the woman pokes her head over the driver's seat to look at them.
"No thanks to you. I've only been in three deadly situations, and all of them were around you!" she grouses, eyes red with black bags under them. No one said anything but her nighttime sobbing had started getting annoying.
It wasn't like she had any other options apart from sticking with the group. She had no Eddies left and due to her lack of software, her face had been plastered across the news last they had access to the Net. Apparently, people thought she was part of 'Zombie's Crew', which basically doomed her with Arasaka's attention on them.
Thankfully, before they'd lost contact with everyone he'd sent Sasha and Bats enough Eddies to tide them both over until some kind of resolution. He also had Sasha house sitting and watching his cars, no way was he gonna let anyone klepp his place before he got back... He regretted a lot of shit, but not being there for his Nephew's birth was gonna be one of them, alongside essentially abandoning Charlie.
Kiwi had also been left behind, which ended up being a good thing as she and Sasha would act as their eyes and ears in the city. They only needed to locate transmitters to get updates, not that such a thing was easy.
Bandits loved these areas because of the lack of communications, making travellers, Nomads, and merchants easy targets.
"Why don't you try being useful for once and maybe you'd eat more than the bare minimum? You won't survive with us long if you don't pull your weight." he states, causing the former star's expression to fall.
"He ain't wrong." Falco adds, "Right now you're just another mouth to feed, so unless you wanna give into the techies' invitations we don't got any reason to keep you alive."
Ori shrugs his shoulders, "Even if you did get with Pilar, you'd be worth fuck all to the rest of us. Sure, you can sing, but unless you can 'Snow White' this shit I have half a mind to just eat you."
She pales, "Y-you wouldn't..."
He grins toothily at her, "There's a reason they call me Zombie, youknow?"
She eeps and ducks back into the truck, drawing a laugh from Falco, "Haha! Don't be scaring the lass, ain't her fault she's completely outta her depth."
Ori pushes himself off of the truck, "I wasn't joking, I'm not a cannibal but I've got tech to digest most things, including corpses."
Falco lights up a half-smoked cig he'd been whittling down since yesterday, "I don't wanna hear 'bout that. Ya' gonna do it keep it away from me, otherwise do what you gotta. Keep in mind that most folk won't look too kindly on it."
-----------------------
In the evening everyone was gathered around a small campfire, discussing what they were actually going to do... It was apparent that Arasaka had it out for them, especially so when Lucy revealed why they might've been hunting her.
Hearing that she'd essentially been enslaved as a child by the corporation had lit a fire under most of them. David was almost frothing in rage at the very thought of it, but that died as she continued.
"You said they had three capture targets?" she questions.
Ori wets his lips, "Yeah... I can say for sure they're probably hunting you and me. You've all probably guessed but my tech isn't ordinary..."
Pilar snorts and tosses some more cardboard into the fire, "Nah, regrowing a head is small-time."
Ignoring him, he continued. "I found an Arasaka safe in the junkyard and managed to crack it open. Real high-end prototype shit. I looked into it and apparently Arasaka had lost the tech during the holocaust, a scientist had grabbed it and fled during the chaos, probably to sell to the highest bidder."
"What is it." Maine speaks up in a low tone, "The tech, I mean."
"Doesn't matter..." he shakes his head and redirects the subjects, "We should all be able to guess who the third capture target is..."
All eyes fall on David who frowns, "Really, me?"
"Kid, you beat the shit outta Tanaka's son in front of everyone with the Sandevistan. Knowing you, you probably went shirtless to brag about it too!" Pilar states.
"I had my jacket with me." he retorts.
"Oh yeah?"
...
"I might've taken it off, but I had fresh chrome. I didn't wanna bleed all over my mom's jacket..." he admits.
"Nice, showing off some Prototype Sandeivstan to all the cameras in that classroom. Got balls kid." Falco remarks.
"I'm honestly surprised you lasted as long as you did. The sandy came from a Cyberpsycho, and I have it on good authority that most Corps test their new tech on people before sending 'em out to go crazy. Your mom must've been good at her job to get it without them noticing, and then you blow it by revealing you had it." Ori explains.
Maine sighs, "She was one of the best..."
Lucy links her fingers with the solemn-looking David's, "It's no use regretting it now. All it means is that we're in the same boat."
He smiles slightly and they lock lips, despite everyone in the campsite watching with mixed expressions.
"Man, If I get blue-balled any longer I might just fuck a cactus!" Pilar shouts and drops into the sand. "Lucy's taken and I'm not horny enough to try screwing my own sister!"
"The fuck!? I'm also taken if you didn't notice!" the pale-chibi growls.
"Yeah we all fuckin' notice. The desert doesn't exactly dampen it when you scream like a banshee!" he morosely comments. "The only other bitch here wants to get on the 'Zombie' train too! THIS IS HELL!"
"Excuse me!? I want nothing to do with this asshole!" Christy angrily shouts.
Falco just sighs and blows out a ring of smoke before handing the cig to Maine, "Can we get back to how we're returning to civilisation? I for one don't get paid enough to live like some goddamn mountain man. I like my drink, I like my smoke, I like my women too much to become sand-hermit!"
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บท 213: State of Mind
The group all sit around with eyes glowing from the data they were processing, a virtual map of the surroundings open in their Interface. They were a pretty substantial distance from any cities, with the only actual boon being the fact they were within spitting distance of the main road between The North and South California, more importantly, the road people used to get from Las Vegas to Night City.
"So, what? We either head to Fresno or that shining shithole Vegas?" Pilar grudgingly asks.
"We're not going to any city." Lucy states, "Arasaka has a foothold in almost every place we could reach, only the NUSA would be safe since Militech is king."
"Closest safe place is Texas, and we'd be lucky to reach New Mexico like this." Falco remarks.
"You want us to just leave, after what they did to Dorio...?" Maine growls.
"What else do you want us to do? We can't even keep ourselves alive right now, how're we going to fight Arasaka?"
"I'd rather die on my feet than live on my back! Those fucker's flatlined Dorio and you guys want to run!? Flee to Texas and hope whoever's in power there doesn't sell us to those goddamn chongos!?"
"Maine, all we're talking about it reaching safety. After that we can plan to get back at them, right now we barely have a car, let us get back to a city that doesn't want us dead and we'll have some shit to work with." Ori assures.
"Tsch, I see your jaw moving but you're not saying anythin'. All of you sit around playing 'happy-fuckin daycare', not one of you bastards said shit about revenge since we got ran out." he palms his face, shaking his head with a frustrated sigh, "We head to Vegas and go from there, and I'm not askin'."
...
David turns to Lucy, "That doable or are we gonna get wrecked as soon as we come close?"
She wets her lips, eyes flashing, "Arasaka has property there but, they don't have a hold on it like they do in Night City. The Santeau and DMS still rule it, and even they don't have much control over the vast underground networks..."
"Who gives a shit about them, 'slong as they aren't hunting us I could give a rat's ass." Rebecca scoffs.
She shrugs, "Santeau won't be, but DMS has ties with everyone, from Arasaka to Militech. Depending on how much Arasaka wants us, we'd have to look out for them."
Ori glances at Maine, "So Las Vegas... There we can regroup and make some plans, maybe even a second Holocaust, if we could get our hands on a nuke?"
"No," David shakes his head, "If we're gonna hit 'em we do it without flatlining everyone else in the process."
"Yeah, Silverhand had the right idea but all he did was martyr them. The guy needed to cut the head off of the snake, kill that old bastard what's his face, Saburo?"
Rebecca shrugs, "Like that'd do anything but get us on a list permanently. I doubt the old guy does anything anyway, we'd just be putting targets on our backs."
...
"We'll figure it out, hell, I wouldn't be against bombing that space station of theirs." Ori states, "For now, living the life of highway robbers will have to suit us."
--------------------
With a basic plan of action decided, the group got moving the next morning. Going East down the interstate while giving a wide birth to any small towns they see. They were still too close to Night City, and since these places had active receivers up it wouldn't be a surprise to see Arasaka men waiting for them.
Two days later Falco perks up in the driver's seat and slows the car as the road dips down a large hill. "Anyone else seein' this?"
Rebecca hops into the passenger seat from the back, "Looks like a stick-up," she easily remarks, spotting a number of cars surrounding a trailer home with four people lined up next to it, guns pointed at their backs. "We've been needing supplies, and these guys come guilt-free!" she grins.
"Well, everyone get your shit ready. Who knows what these desert assholes are carryin', any of you get capped by some trash-built grenade launcher, you deserve it." Maine states, opening his arm cannon and using a dirty cloth to wipe dust and sand from it.
"W-what about me!?" Christy blurts out.
Maine sniffs at her as if she was covered in burning dog crap, shoving a small pistol into her hands, "You make it or break it, either way we'll be gaining a merc or losing a leech."
"B-but I don't know how to use one of these!"
"I don't give a shit! Get with it, and quickly!" he growls, stepping past her and preemptively opening the door and hanging out the back of the truck. "Lucy, you close enough yet?"
"No, whatever systems they have are too small to work with."
Maine shrugs, "Then, kid, I want the leader alive. See if we can't get the local layout." he says, eyeing David.
"How am I supposed to know who's in charge? Bag the dirtiest, ugliest guy there?"
"Or just cut the hands off all of 'em." Rebecca offers, "You're probably fast enough for it."
David reluctantly nods, gripping the handle of his blade, "What should we do with the hostages?"
"Depends on if they got anything worth stealing." Pilar remarks and snickers at Christy's wide-eyed look, "What? We aren't saints, besides, for all we know those guys are chainsmoking, cannibal, pedos, who kill kittens for fun."
"Stop projecting bro." Rebecca sneers.
"Alright, enough playtime. Those gonks see us already so get ready for a fight."
Ori leans out the back next to Maine with a revolver ready. The twelve or so bandits had already turned towards them, weapons ready but not yet opening fire. One man walks forward and tries to wave them down, as if he wanted to talk...
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