Freelancers: Falcon & Phoenix (18 page)

The Freelancer hangs onto the side of Jerin as well as he can. Phoenix watches as the same truck comes back toward them.
They're gonna crush him
. "Falcon!"

Staring in the window, Falcon sees Phoenix’s outstretched arm pointing behind him. He looks over his shoulder to see the side of the truck growing larger as it nears him. Timing it just right, Falcon pushes off of the fastback just as the truck slams into it. He lands in the bed of the truck with the second Marauder. The wild looking man pulls out a heavy wrench and swings it at Falcon who ducks, grabbing the Marauder’s legs, pulling them out from under him. The wrench falls into the truck bed and Falcon jumps on top of the wild man, pinning him. He drives his fist into his face, cutting his knuckle on a jagged tooth. The unexpected cut distracts Falcon just long enough for the Marauder to grab the wrench and swing it again. The attack is blocked and Falcon throws his head down, butting the attacker and knocking him out.

Falcon stands, watching the other cars still gaining on them. The bulk of the Marauders have turned around to chase Stack. Two more explosions signal Stack is ok. That or he's blown himself up.

"Falcon!" Phoenix slows just enough for the fastback’s window to line up with the bed of the truck.

The truck turns hard, slamming into Jerin and knocking Falcon off his feet into the bed. Quickly recovering, he sees a modified El Camino getting close to the driver's side. The Marauder in the passenger seat points a shotgun at an unaware Phoenix.

The wrench rattles against the metal flooring. Falcon grabs it and puts his foot on the side of the bed rail, leaping to the hood of Jerin. Phoenix watches him, confused as he rebounds to the hood of the nearing car.

The Marauder turns his attention from Phoenix, firing the shotgun and blasting out the El Camino’s windshield. But Falcon has already moved up to the roof. He rolls to the side as another blast tears a large hole in the roof. Returning to the passenger side, Falcon swings the wrench down. The first swing hits the gun. The second swing hits the gun holder, smashing his face in. Falcon drops the wrench and reaches for the shotgun. The driver struggles to get a hold of it as well, taking his eyes off of the road.

“Falcon!” Phoenix yells.

He turns to see a rusted out gas tanker sitting halfway across the highway.

"Falcon, come on!" Phoenix fires at the truck on her right, hitting the driver. She steers Jerin away from the El Camino and opens the driver side door. "Now!"

Falcon looks at the open door and back at the oncoming tanker. He releases the shotgun and slides to the bed of the car.

Phoenix takes her foot off the gas and moves to the passenger seat. The fastback starts falling behind the El Camino.

The Marauder takes a shot through the back window, hitting nothing but glass as Falcon for the driver's seat of Jerin. Barely inside, he steers the vehicle right to avoid the tanker, staying just close enough for the door to hit the rusted trailer, slamming it shut. Phoenix watches through the rear windshield slats as the explosion from the tanker collision sends a massive fireball skyward.

Seven more vehicles break through the dark smoke and continue the chase. "How many more bullets do we have?" Falcon asks.

“I got half a mag.”

"I am so tired of these close calls." Falcon looks at a particular switch under the dashboard. He puts his finger on it and looks at Phoenix. "One shot. That's all you've got."

She looks down at the switch. A letter [E] is etched just below it.

"Boom," Falcon says. "We just ran out of gas."

Phoenix's shoulders slump in understanding. "Fine."

She stands up through the moonroof and points her gun forward. A few of the Marauders take shots at her but she holds her ground. Bullets hit the back of Jerin and the fuel tanks as mounted gunners fire rapid shots. The fast bullets finally pierce the already bullet-dented gas tank, spilling fuel on the road. Phoenix takes a deep breath smelling the fumes. "Now!"

Falcon flips the switch and the fuel line whips from the gas tank while the steel drums are ejected from the trunk. Phoenix follows the flipping gas drums and pulls the trigger. The bullet hit coupled with the sparks from the grind of metal and concrete, ignite the gas and blow up the fuel drums. A huge fireball blasts out in all directions, catching the nearest Marauder car in the brunt of it, setting off another explosion.

One car, trying to avoid being blown up, collides with a truck trying to do the same. Phoenix watches a car flipping end over end through the rising smoke, come to a crashing stop while the final three vehicles screech to a halt on the other side of the burning road. "They stopped," she says.

They both watch the three Marauder vehicles give up the chase and turn around to join in the pursuit of Stack.

Falcon brings Jerin to a slow stop and steps out.

Phoenix lets out a huge breath. She ejects the ammo magazine and clicks out two bullets. “And one in the chamber. We got another magazine?"

Falcon looks in the car and holds up one finger in answer to her question.

"You think he'll be ok?"

They both look down the road. So many fires and so much smoke rises into the air, completely blocking their view. Another explosion echoes far in the distance.

"He'll be fine," Falcon says.

"We're off course."

"Yup."

"Is there another bridge, nearby?"

"I don't know," Falcon faces the front. The road just goes on. "I know I don't want to be sitting here with three bullets and one magazine, though." Another explosion makes them look back.

"He's gonna give them hell, isn't he?" Phoenix asks.

"He is." Falcon gets in the fastback and shuts the door.

Phoenix lowers herself back inside and closes the moonroof. She switches out pistol magazines. "Probably better to run from here on out."

"Until we find more weapons," Falcon says as he closes his window. Phoenix does the same, once again putting armor on all sides of them.

"It's a long trip if we don't get across that river," he tells her.

"Let's hope we do, quick."

Falcon puts the car in drive and eases down on the accelerator.

T
he evening sun’s
orange rays poke through the metal slats as the fastback drives along the narrow two-lane road. Phoenix moves her head up and down, playing with the light. In her eyes. Out of her eyes. In them again. It has been a very difficult forty-eight hours.

"Have you had days like these before?" she asks.

"Not usually," Falcon says. "Most contracts are found and caught with no problem. The occasional shootout, maybe."

"Until your contract appeared." She looks at him.

"You mean until you accepted it." He returns her glance.

Grass grows inside of ruined vehicles in the field. Some of them look like they may have been military while others are definitely civilian. "The war was fought all over, wasn't it?" Phoenix’s question is more of a realization than a quest for knowledge. "Did you ever read about the civil war?"

"North and South? Americans fighting each other? Sure."

"This was worse."

"This one undid a lot of history."

"Think it can ever be whole, again?"

"A whole country like the Freelands? Depends on who's leading. And I don't think any of the seven nation rulers are going to give up control. Not without a fight."

"Last thing we need is another war." Phoenix looks at an oncoming road sign that says [ NEW LATIN AMERICA ] "We're going in to the NLA?"

"Yup."

"Great." Her tone is completely sarcastic. She ejects the full magazine and looks at it.

"That's the fifth time you've done that."

"You can't be too sure."

"You haven't fired it since the Marauders."

"Just nervous, I guess." She slides the magazine back into the gun.

Falcon checks in the mirror as he puts his foot down, speeding up the car.

A beeping sound comes from the dashboard.

"What is that?" Phoenix asks.

"I don't know. Mine never did that." A red light blinks near the gauges and the fuel dial hovers over the 'E'. "Oh. That might be a problem."

"What is it?" Phoenix asks.

"We're almost out of gas. You see any whole cars anywhere?"

"I hate siphoning."

"Me, too, but we won't have a choice."

Phoenix sits up in her seat, covering the side of her face to block out the sun. A small town appears just on the horizon. It's not much bigger than the Freelancer outpost. "That town." She points ahead.

Falcon nods and eases up on the gas, trying to conserve what little they have. As the buildings of the town become more discernible, so too, do the boards covering the windows. Falcon takes the speed down to fifteen miles an hour as the car crosses a section of train tracks. They see the bombed out remains of a train car on one side and the rest of the derailed train on the other.

"This town looks dead." Phoenix watches the short buildings pass by. Each of them has boards up over the doors.

“Nation citizens got forced into big cities and capitals. Towns like these are the only way outposts can exist. Maybe this was one at one time," Falcon says as they both see the faded words, [DIE FREELAN]. The rest of the graffiti is too faded but they can both guess how it ends.

Phoenix points at a gas station. Nearing it, they see the pumps are fallen down. Falcon pulls into the driveway and rolls near one of the caps on the ground. He opens the lid and sees the hole revealing the black insides of the tube. Falcon runs his finger along the inside and comes up with soot on his fingertip. "Dammit. Tanks are empty. Someone burned it all up."

"What about that?" Phoenix motions toward a small truck parked on a side street. A camper rests in the back.

"Siphoning it is." He drives Jerin toward the vehicle. Pulling up alongside of it, white radiator smoke becomes apparent and a man pokes his head out from under the hood. Seeing the armored fastback, he grabs a screwdriver and holds it out in front of him.

Falcon stops the car and quickly gets out with his hands raised. "It's ok. We're not gonna hurt you." He walks toward the front of Jerin and sees a woman and little girl seated on a bench. The woman does her best to cover the girl.

Phoenix gets out and walks to the front. "What's going—oh." She raises her hands, like Falcon.

"It's fine," Falcon says. "We just want to help."

"I don't need Marauder help," the man says. He swings the screwdriver. Falcon and Phoenix remain still.

"We're not Marauders," Falcon says.

The man looks at their car. "Only Marauders do that to cars. Marauders and...You're Freelancers?"

"That's right," Phoenix says, her voice reassuring.

"You have a contract on me?"

"We don't know you. We just want to help," Falcon tells him.

The man stays resolute in his defense. None of them are getting anywhere with this.

"If we help you, will you put the screwdriver down?" Falcon asks.

"A deal?" The man lowers the screwdriver slightly.

"A deal. You know what that means." Falcon looks at Phoenix. She holds her hand out.

The man looks at it suspiciously. "Marauders don't make deals." He lowers the screwdriver completely. "My truck overheated."

"We can help," Phoenix steps forward.

He takes her hand and shakes it. "Deal." He places the screwdriver on his engine block. "I was hoping a few minutes would cool it off."

"You're afraid of Marauders so you know where you are," Falcon says.

"I know we're not far from their territory. But we're still in NLA. Till we cross the border, we're relatively safe."

"I don't know how true that will be. It will be dark soon. Why are you leaving?" Falcon asks.

"Where are you heading?" Phoenix reaches into the back seat of the armored fastback.

"My wife and daughter don't speak Spanish. That's against the law, here. We're trying to get to the Freelands."

"That's a fair ways away," Falcon tells him.

"We were fine till this happened." The man points at the overheated truck.

"This should help with that." Phoenix comes out of the car with two bottles of water.

The man gladly takes the water. "Thank you. Thank you so much." He turns to his wife and daughter, holding the bottles in front of them as though they are thousands of dollars before pouring one bottle into the radiator. More steam hisses out as the thirsty vehicle takes it all. He uncaps the next bottle and pours it in.

"Will it be enough?" the wife asks.

"How long would you say the drive is?" The man looks at the Freelancers.

"Two, maybe three hours," Phoenix tells them.

"And there might be an army of Marauders between here and there,” Falcon adds.

"We'll take that chance," the man says.

"There are some newly wrecked vehicles that way. You may be able to siphon coolant from them if you need," Phoenix adds. "Do you have a weapon?"

"Just a pistol."

"We only have three bullets," the wife explains.

Falcon walks to Jerin and reaches in, coming out with their pistol and the last magazine. "Here. You might need it."

"That's our last one," Phoenix says.

"Not quite," Falcon tells her.

"I can't." The man shakes his head.

"You will. You still have to go through the Waste. Here." Falcon puts the gun and magazine on the truck and backs away.

"This is more than the deal we made," the man says.

Falcon gets back into Jerin and turns the key. The engine sputters but it doesn't turn over. He tries again with the same result. "Come on."

The man leans down in the passenger side and extends his hand. Falcon smiles and takes it. The two shake and the man goes to his camper and climbs inside. Falcon steps out and looks at Phoenix. Neither of them knows what the man is doing.

He finally comes out with a two gallon gas tank, holding it up he looks at his wife for approval. She smiles and he takes the jug to the gas tank of the car and pours it in. Both Freelancers are humbled by the act. It might have been just a deal to the man but for Falcon and Phoenix it's an act of generosity.

“Thank you,” Falcon says.

“It’s not much and this thing looks like it will drink that right up. But it might be enough to get you where you're going." The man walks back to his family and smiles at them. "I'm opening a tailor in the Freelands. Come see me and we'll get you a new jacket," he says to Phoenix. She looks down at her half sleeve and laughs.

Falcon nods in gratitude before getting in their car. He turns the key and it starts right up.

"Good luck," Phoenix tells the family as she climbs in the car. They smile at her as they pile into their truck.

Both vehicles part ways, heading for very different lives and vastly different destinations.