Wasteland Rules: A New Dawn (The World After Book 3) (20 page)

   He turned and faced Derek and the Red Beret captain. “If
one of you manages to survive, then you can walk out of here with your people.”

   “Wait!” Derek shouted and the crowd went silent at his
outburst.

   The Prince turned to him and studied him for a moment
before responding. “What? Do you want to beg for mercy?”

   “Oh no, I can’t wait to fight for your amusement.” Derek
said smartly. “But one stipulation. If I win I get his prisoner too.”

   “Interesting. The fact that you both want this man must
make him very valuable indeed. Maybe I should take him and trade him to the
U.S.T.G. myself?” The Prince mused. “…No, you can have him. If you can live
long enough to take him.”

   With that the Prince spun and walked away dramatically to
the cheers of his men. As he walked up the stairs, the crowd surged forward
again and grabbed the three prisoners. Rora was separated from the other two
and hauled up the escalator to join the Prince in the balcony. It looked like
some sort of eating area based on the broken signage, but he had installed a
large throne in the middle. The Prince resumed his spot holding onto the
banister and presiding over his minions. Rora was dragged over to stand next to
him by two of his bodyguards.

   The hacker stood there guarded by more of the Prince’s henchmen.
He had an almost bored look on his face and seemed unconcerned by his
predicament. He smiled at Rora and gave her a knowing look followed by a casual
wink. Then he went back to looking disinterested and ignoring everything and
everyone.

   “Don’t worry my dear; if he dies you can stay here with me.”
The Prince informed her casually. “I’m sure my men would love to entertain
you.”

   That drew chuckles from his bodyguards and made Rora
throw up a little in her mouth. Derek better win this, or it was going to get
very ugly for her. She was fairly confident he would win. The Red Beret captain
was beaten up and Derek had already bested him twice. He should be able to make
short work of their nemesis and then it all hinged on whether the Prince would
actually let them go.

September 7, 2029

Oakview Mall, Omaha, Nebraska

   Derek and the captain had been dragged off into another
part of the mall while she had been dragged upstairs. She didn’t know what was
happening to them, but she figured it wouldn’t take long because everyone was
still standing around waiting. A few minutes passed and Derek emerged from an
empty store shirtless with segmented metal armor covering his left shoulder and
arm. His machete was in his right hand. He looked like a gladiator from the
Roman Coliseum.

   He glanced up and gave her a confident nod. The crowd
booed as he entered. Derek merely sneered at them and feinted towards a couple
of the Prince’s gunmen. They flinched and he laughed at them. This only made
the crowd boo and jeer louder.

   His opponent emerged from another storefront, but to her
surprise it wasn’t the captain. It was one of his men. It was the man Derek had
been battling in the village before they had picked him up. He was also clad in
armor like a gladiator, but he carried a samurai sword. He was slightly smaller
than Derek and possibly older, but she had seen him fight in the village and
she knew he was skilled. He was stripped down to his standard issue urban
camouflage BDU pants and he had on a leather chestplate and had metal bracers
on his forearms and metal greaves covering his knees and shins.

   Her breath caught, when a second soldier followed him
out. This man was black and he was larger and well-muscled. He was also younger
than Derek or the other man. He carried a sledgehammer and had a very grim look
on his face. He wore similar armor to Derek’s except he also had on a metal
bracer on his right hand and metal greaves on his legs. The crowd let out a
loud cheer as he appeared.

   “What? You thought I would have Derek face a beaten up
man without his physical advantages?” The Prince said mockingly. “This makes it
a more fair fight don’t you think? I wouldn’t want my men to miss out on a good
fight.”

   Rora said nothing. It was all up to Derek now. This was what
he lived for, what he had been built for. He was a warrior in the truest sense
of the word and he would be forced to prove it. She merely stared down at the
unfolding spectacle, unwilling to give the Prince the satisfaction of a
reaction.

  He grunted in what appeared to be respect and gestured to
one of his men. The captain was now led in to join her at the balcony’s edge to
watch the battle below. He didn’t make eye contact with her, and looked
worried. That made sense; Derek had already proven he knew how to use that
machete by slaughtering many of the captain’s people. The Prince turned to his
men and raised his hand for silence.

   “This fight is to the death!” He boomed, which triggered
loud cheering. “Winner takes all. There are no rules, kill or be killed. Now,
FIGHT!”

   The men crowding around the makeshift arena sheered
wildly and stamped their feet. The two Red Berets immediately split up and
began circling, trying to position themselves on either side of Derek. The
soldier with the samurai sword began twirling it elaborately, which caused the
crowd the cheer even louder. The soldier with the sledgehammer moved slowly and
began taking small practice swings with the hammer. Derek merely stood still in
the very center, seemingly undisturbed by the coming fight.

   Then, as the two men reached their desired positions on
either side of him; he exploded into action. He turned and suddenly charged the
soldier wielding the sledgehammer. Caught mid swing, the man was completely
unprepared for Derek’s attack. He had apparently expected Derek to wait for
them to attack and didn’t react in time. Derek’s machete flashed out and slashed
a deep wound on the man’s left arm. He howled in pain and lost his grip on the
heavy sledgehammer.

   A vicious backhanded blow cleanly removed his head from
his body and it dropped to the ground in slow motion, followed by his body. The
crowd was shocked into silence and Rora heard the captain give a small cry of
dismay next to her. The odds were suddenly even and it had happened so quickly
that even the Prince started in surprise. He growled in anger as he realized
that Derek would probably win this fight, and quickly.

   So they were all surprised when the other soldier
launched a lightning fast attack of his own. With a shout of anger, he moved
across the small space with impressive speed. His sword caught the light as it
struck at Derek in a blinding series of strikes. Surprised by the man’s speed,
Derek barely managed to deflect the blows and circle away. The crowd’s cheering
again rose in intensity as the sword wielding soldier chased Derek around the
makeshift arena.

   His sword flashed as he struck and moved, like a snake
striking at its prey. Rora found herself leaning forward and involuntarily
gripping the banister tightly. Glancing around, she saw the others were just as
entranced by the fight. The soldier followed Derek, always keeping him in front
and constantly striking with the sword. Wherever Derek moved he was confronted
with brilliant steel. The swordsman opened dozens of small cuts on Derek and
the blood began to flow. This only caused the crowd to cheer louder and Rora
saw the smile on the captain’s face grow with every new wound.

   She couldn’t see the Prince’s face because of the mask,
but she could tell he was happy by his body language. The sound of the blades
clashing echoed throughout the mall center as the swordsman chased Derek
around. The fight continued for several minutes and to her surprise the soldier
was able to keep up his frenzied attack without seeming to tire. He didn’t look
like he was SuPERHUMAAN like Derek, but maybe the U.S.T.G. had been working on
their own super soldier project. That was something that needed to be
investigated in the future.

   But first, Derek needed to win this fight so they could
get out of here. She could tell he was slowing. Even with his healing factor,
he was losing too much blood. Eventually he would slow enough that the
swordsman would land a fatal blow. Derek was barely keeping him at bay now. He
needed to do something different.

   Derek must have heard her thoughts because he suddenly
changed tactics. He began slowly moving closer and closer to the cordon of men
surrounding them. He moved close enough that several of them pushed him away,
back towards the center. They wouldn’t harm him or impede him, but they didn’t
want him close to them. Despite their attempts to push him away he kept as
close as possible. This had the effect of preventing the swordsman from
slashing in from the side or he might hit a watching gunman.

    The swordsman frowned in frustration and the crowd began
to boo. One of the gunmen grew angry enough to grab Derek and hold the arm wielding
the machete. That was the chance the swordsman had been waiting for and he
boldly rushed forward and stabbed for Derek’s midsection. A fatal blow if it
struck. But, it looked as though this was what Derek had been waiting for as
well. He tore his arm free and pivoted to his right, raising the machete as he
moved.

   The blade hissed through the space that Derek had
previously occupied and straight into the gunman beyond. It rammed right
through his body and came out the back, transfixing him on the blade. Everyone
froze in surprise except Derek. He continued his motion and brought the machete
down with incredible force. He sliced the swordsman’s hands off just as he had
done to the giant cannibal shortly after they had first met.

   The gunman toppled backwards, the sword still impaled in
his body, and the soldier fell in the opposite direction staring in disbelief
at the stumps. He quickly bled out on the tiled floor. The captain screamed in
rage and disappointment and Rora cheered. The crowd fell silent and turned to
look up at the Prince. Derek merely stood in the center blood trickling down
his body to puddle on the floor.

   Slow clapping broke the spell that held everyone frozen.
“Bravo! Bravo Derek.” The Prince snarled mockingly. “You managed to defeat both
of them. I am most impressed…Buuut, you cheated so it doesn’t count!”

   “NO!” Rora screamed in anger.

   “Kill him!” The Prince shouted as one of his guards held
a gun to Rora’s head.

   The crowd began to surge forward and Derek raised the machete
in a desperate attempt to defend himself. There were too many, but he was going
to go out fighting. She heard the captain give a small laugh of satisfaction
beside her and saw the Prince looking down expectantly. She tried to struggle
but the guards held her tight.

   Then the ceiling suddenly exploded as a man seemingly
made of metal crashed through. He smashed down onto the tiled floor with a
thunderous boom, cracks spider webbing out from his point of impact. He stepped
forward and Rora could see that his landing had left two foot imprints in the
floor. Everyone stopped what they were doing and just stared.

   The metal man stood almost seven feet tall, dwarfing
everyone in the building. Concentric rings of metal conformed to the contours
of a human form, but he moved and flexed without the normal rigidness of a
robot. Rora couldn’t see any external joints or seams other than where the
rings fitted smoothly together. Based on her knowledge and limited experience
she believed the metal man to in fact be an android. But she was unaware that
anyone had made such incredible progress in the field.

   The Prince shook of his amazement first and addressed the
intruder. “Who, or what, are you?” He demanded angrily.

   “You can call me Father.” The metal man intoned in an
electronic voice.

   “What are you doing in my house?” The Prince screamed at
the android.

   “I am here for him.” The metal man announced as he
pointed to Derek.

   “Another member of your fan club Derek?” The Prince
sneered. “Well, you can’t have him. He is mine!”

   “I don’t think you can stop me.” The android said matter
of factly.

   “We’ll see about that.” The Prince snapped. “Kill it!”

   The throng of gunmen regained their composure and raised
their weapons. The android responded by firing a stream of pulse bolts from the
palm of each hand. The bolts scythed through the horde of gunmen, sending
bodies flying from the impacts of the bolts. The gunmen returned fire and the
center of the mall exploded into violence with bolts and bullets flying
everywhere. The sound of the gun and pulse fire in the enclosed space was
deafening. Screams of the dead and dying joined the cacophony of the weapons
fire.

    Rora saw Derek duck into the crowd and disappear before
she was dragged back from the edge of the balcony by one of the Prince’s
guards. The Prince disappeared into an abandoned food counter accompanied by
several guards. The captain was struggling with one of the guards and managed
to disarm him as Rora was being dragged away. He was cutting himself free of
his bonds as the android rose up into view.

   Powered by a small jetpack he floated up to the same
level as the balcony and hung there. The gunfire from below had quieted and
Rora assumed they were all dead or had fled. The metal man seemed undamaged
from all the fighting, and if his smooth metal face was able to assume an
expression she assumed it would be an arrogant grin. The guards dragging her
dropped her and opened fire on the android. He cut them down like one might
casually swat a fly.

   The Red Beret captain gave him one look and fled. He
grabbed the hacker and pulled him along with him. The man went along without
any resistance. They exited through an emergency exit and disappeared. Rora was
alone in the food court with the android. He floated over the banister and
touched down in the food court. He slowly approached her, his mechanical eyes
focused directly on her. She shrank back and tried to take cover behind a
fallen table, but the android merely tossed that aside.

   “You!” He said accusingly. “You pushed the button!”

   Rora looked around frantically for somewhere to run,
somewhere to hide; but there was nowhere to go. She was going to be forced to
fight according to Rule # 11. But she was unarmed and still zip tied. Not to mention
that traditional weapons hadn’t done any good against the android’s seemingly
impervious metal skin.

   She was given a brief reprieve when the Prince suddenly
re-appeared clad head to toe in bulky, heavy body armor and screaming wildly.
His silver latex mask was replaced by a metallic silver mask that looked even
more sinister. In his hands was a rail gun similar to the one Derek had taken
from the Outfit operative in Pelham, Alabama, only larger. The Prince fired at
the same time the android did and the results were spectacular.

   The pulse bolts from the android lanced out and struck
the heavily armored Prince at the same time a round from the rail gun struck
the android. Prince tumbled back into the food counter he had appeared from,
his armor smoking from the pulse bolts. The round from the rail gun struck the
metal man dead center and the impact knocked him out of the food court, off the
balcony, and across the mall center to crash into the elevator shaft.

   Rora took advantage of the situation and ran for the
exit. She crashed through the exit door and ran smack into Derek. He grabbed
her before she hit the ground. She noticed he had taken time to collect his
weapons and their gear. He set her on her feet and cut her bonds.

   “I was just coming for you.” He stated quickly.

   “Yeah, whatever, we need to go.” She said urgently and
pushed past him down the stairs.

   He gave her an odd look, but followed. They could hear
the distinct crack of the pulse bolts and the whine of the rail gun as the Prince
and the android resumed their fight. She didn’t look back and just ran down the
stairs. She doubted the Prince could stop the metal man and she just wanted to
get out of there before he came for her again.