Page 84 of Darling Wildfire
“Yeah boys,” Nyx answered for me. “You’re on the winning team now.”
The double doors opened, and I stepped out into the bright sunlight to an entirely different scene than the first map. A wide field of grass up to my thighs stretched off into the distance where I could see anold rail yard with a dilapidated train sitting on a track. There was a water tower off to the right, another one on the left and a handful of relatively intact buildings sitting in between them. The small space in front of us was mowed short and just like before there were comms units and a map on the building wall next to the doors.
“Fuck,” Atlas cursed. “We’re going to be sitting ducks coming back.”
“We’ll just have to kill everyone then,” Billy said.
“Easy Rambo,” Nyx said. “You’re no good to us dead.”
“There isn’t a reward for heroics here,” I said.
“What’s the move, boss?” Atlas said, looking at me.
“Why is he in charge?” Billy asked.
“Because he’s proven he’s not a fuckup,” Nyx snapped. “You barely look ready to have your training wheels come off.”
Billy opened his mouth to fire off a retort, but I held up my hand.
“I told you before, you go rogue, you're on your own. The target is a woman in a cage, the objective is to bring her back here. You, Dash and Vince sweep that eastern section of the rail yard. We’ll meet at the middle crossroad here,” I said pointing at the map.
“The target is a woman?” Dash asked.
“That’s what I said.”
“Be sure to load up on as much ammo and fire power as you can,” Preacher said. He shoved a comms unit into Billy’s chest.
“Copy that,” Billy said with a smirk.
The buzzer went off and Billy motioned for Dash and Vince to follow him. They took off towards the eastern section of the rail yard. Preacher watched them jog off.
“It’s like Vyper all over again,” he said with a sigh.
I agreed with him but I didn’t care. If someone wanted to be reckless and treat this like a real video game, they could do as they damn well pleased but I didn’t want anything to do with it.
“Let’s roll out.”
I motioned for the men to follow and we took off at a jog across the field. The first cargo car we came to had two .45s, and some grenades. We swept through the two next to it and found an ammo cache.
“Sucks to be the kids,” Nyx chuckled.
I shoved a clip into the gun before loading up on ammo. Preacher carried the other .45. In the next car we found a sniper rifle for Atlas.
“You know someone is going to camp on those water towers,” he said almost wistfully as he checked and loaded the rifle.
“Well then, we know where to aim,” I said as I looked out of the railcar to plan our next move.
“Billy, status report,” I said.
“Found firearms, working on ammo now,” Billy said over comms.
“Copy that.”
We were at the edge of a cluster of buildings. They stretched a few blocks deep before they gave way to another sloping field that led down to a farmhouse. I studied the building for a long moment.
“Damn it,” I muttered.
Nyx followed my gaze and shook his head.
