In the middle of a desert landscape, two cars speed through what should have been an empty and abandoned highway.
From the car on the back, a law enforcement SUV, a man screamed through a megaphone system, "This is the police! Stop immediately!".
"Sir, we should've called for an interception unit, this SUV is almost dying with this type of speed." said the driver to his partner.
"Kid, no other unit would ever come here, not this close to the neutral zone, damn, we're way too close for my liking, forget them" said the middle aged officer to his young trainee, he then reached for a communication system in the car, pressing a switch labelled 'HQ'.
"This is officer O'Riley to dispatch, the suspects have sped into the neutral zone, we're pulling off the chase.", their car stopped by a big state sign, labelled 'Neutral Zone: DO NOT ADVANCE.'
The car they were following, a much faster sports car, was going too fast for it's driver and passenger to care for a stupid state sign, no matter the 'advice' or 'information' it had.
"Stupid cops, why even bother trying to chase us, that huge piece of trash they're using couldn't reach a hundred even if thrown off a cliff!" said the driver with a subtle smile on his face.
"Well, it was your idea to go through a known speedtrap, if we had gone with my plan-", the passenger tried to talk.
"YEAH, yeah, we'd be on a boring route to deliver this stuff, whatever, I didn't buy this car to have it go slow, now, is the stuff still in one piece?"
"Sure, the packages are still tight on the back, frankly, with how much we're transporting, why don't we stop somewhere to get a taste of it? No one's gonna miss a few grams of it.", this time the passenger got to finish his sentence.
"Oh, now we're talking Jack, see, you gotta loosen up sometimes, not be so strict with life!", said the driver while relaxing his grip and turning the wheel to head into a small town in the distance.
Jack and Steven, a good criminal duo, known by a bunch of criminals to deliver stuff without a problem, but also mostly unknown to cops, this in fact was the first time a cop was chasing them.
In most of their jobs, they'd be going around a town's streets and avenues to deliver their stuff, but this time, this delivery was intermunicipal, and the pick up and destination were completely out of their hometown.
Jack always wanted to be careful, he was the one that traced the best and more effective routes, he knew where cops would and wouldn't be, and how to make sure they weren't any more noticeable than anyone else in a street.
Steven on the other hand, knew how to drive very well, he knew when to be fast and efficient, but also loved to go fast and furious when he had the chance, he always wanted to have fun, most of his nights were spent driving against other people in illegal races.
After a few minutes they reached the small town, the area looked like it was still stuck in the 50s, they then stopped their car by the first building they could find, the entire place looked abandoned so far.
Once out of the car, they started chatting, "Jack, where in hell are we?"
"I frankly, don't know exactly, we're probably in the Neutral Zone, so we should be fine, no one ever comes in here."
"GREAT! Then pass me one of the packs, let's get some of it." Steven said, while taking out his pocket knife and unfolding it.
Jack then reached into the backseats, and grabbed one the black cardboard boxes, they felt completely filled up, he then placed it on the car's roof, pushing it to Steven, on the other side.
In the distance, the sounds of a police siren could be heard, the sounds... were mangled in a strange way, as if the electronics were dying or at least had been doing this for a long time.
"What the fuck, cops? Didn't you say no one ever comes here?!" Steven said while picking the package, tossing it on the back seats and sitting on the driver's seat in almost a single movement.
"I don't know man, where in hell he could have come! It doesn't sound like the cops that were following us." Jack said while also getting into the car. "Let's just take off!"
"This... Is... The... Police..." a voice could be heard through the area, an electronic voice, from a tired electronic system. "Target... Resisting Arrest... Unit... Commencing... Hunt."
"The fuck, what kind of bullshit is this cop on about?" Steven said while putting all his weight down the gas pedal.
The sounds of the car's back tires squealing now shared the air space with the sounds of a dying police siren... and of metal calmly grinding through the ground.
The car that Steven had bought for this job, an incredibly customized 90's japanese car, started speeding through the town, reaching 80kph in a matter of seconds, as they went deeper into the town, they kept hearing the police siren and tank tracks getting closer.
The deeper they went into the town, the worse it looked.
The first few buildings, while abandoned, looked mostly intact, even if Time had taken its toll on them.
The next ones started to look worse and worse, small holes here and there, then they started to get bigger, to a point where walls were simply missing.
Piles of rubble started appearing in a few side streets. In one corner of a deeper block, a building seemed to be missing most of its top floors, that seemed to have collapsed into the lower floors and now were spread around the road and the rooftops of much smaller buildings.
After a few more blocks, in a crossing the chaser appeared coming from their right, Steven quickly stepped on the brake pedal, while pulling his car to the left, stopping parallel to their "hunter".
They stood there for maybe two eternal seconds.
"What the fuck, it's a tank!" said Jack, as the tank slowly turned his turret to face them.
"Fuck! It must be one of those living abominations!" Steven said while pulling the wheel even further to the left and stepping down hard on the gas pedal.
"RU-251... Spots... Prey." the voice from before, now had a real owner.
Steven's car was running at full power now, the tank then shot, an instant later, a huge explosion happened not more than 30m in front of them, forcing Steven to take the nearest left exit in a second, almost making the car flip.
"Fuck man, if that thing doesn't kill us, you're gonna do it!" said Jack, mostly accidentally.
"WHAT, DO YOU WANT ME TO SLOW DOWN AND BE BLOWN UP BY THAT THING?" screamed Steven.
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Enforcer, a RU-251 light reconnaissance tank that painted himself to look like a cop car, now prepared himself, it has been years since the last human had come to his small territory, years since his last taste of human fear.
He readied himself, turning on the police lightbar he had on his turret, his engine roaring, seeing as this human had a vehicle made to be fast, and not be "strong" enough to tank his 90mm gun.
He then let his metal threads go, slipping for half a second on the old asphalt, before pushing himself forwards, through this dead town.
He wasn’t a normal tank, no, he wasn’t even human made. He Was Born into this world, from other tanks much like him, that were instead made by humanity, and then were infected with life, through a toxic substance outside of God's creation.
He was born, and then caught to find, to hunt and to kill humans, and he’s Good at it.
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Years of doing this, turned this dead town into his own territory, he Enforced the law of the unholy Nature that was taught to him: Tanks hunt, and Humans are their prey.
He went after his new prey, taking the same left exit, he could hear the sound of the car’s engine, even with his own engine roaring and spitting fire from his exhaust, he could feel the fear humans have of heretic creations such as himself.
He always finds his prey.
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“We’re fucking dead, I knew we shouldn’t have accepted this job.” said Jack, while looking around, trying to find the tank hunting them, his heart was on the verge of having an attack.
“Oh shut it, we just need to exit this town, and we’re safe! A tank would never be able to keep up with this thing, what tank can go over 100kph?” Steven said, having his body filled with adrenaline, keeping him quick on the thought, and on the driving wheel.
They kept heading back into the direction they came in, the dying siren still occupying the sound space, never going away completely.
Now, even though they kept speeding up, the sirens kept getting louder, slowly, but surely, louder.
From their right side, and a block away, a building wall blew up, Steven stepped down hard on the brakes, and then they saw the smoke and clouds of dust being illuminated in red and blue, as the tank they were running away from, came speeding into their lane, sliding into view, directly facing their car.
“Fugitives… in Sight.” the tank then started to go forwards, to crush the car.
Steven quickly shifted into reverse, and yanked the steering wheel to his right, while putting down his feet as hard as possible on the gas pedal, in seconds after a change of gears, his car was already speeding away in the opposite direction.
The tank still followed behind, and while this close to them, they could hear all it’s terrible sounds, the horrific dying police siren, it’s metal tracks chewing through old asphalt, and it’s engine roaring.
The tank kept following them, each left turn Steven quickly took, the Tank took it just as quickly, for each right turn Steven drifted into, the abomination quickly slid into, as if the entire tank was the head of a gigantic snake.
Steven knew what this monstrosity could do, he remembers the stories from his dead father, a good fallen soldier, that fought against them, those things hunted down any humans in the vicinity, relentlessly, it didn’t matter who it was, could have been a soldier and his squadron defending their country, or it could have been a small child crying because their parents were killed, it simply did not matter.
They’d shoot them, they’d run them over, they’d kill them.
He never knew these things could’ve come to the Neutral Zone, it’s supposed to be a clean patch of territory, between humanity, and the areas infected by these horrible things.
Why would this one be so far from their colony of horrors? He heard of what happens inside those places, these... things... would just act like animals, moving around seemingly in an unmotivated reason, attacking each other with no intention of hurting each other, he even heard that these demonic things could give “birth” to other monsters.
Why is this one so far away from his unholy colony? And why did it have to be hunting him and his friend down? And why was it just following them? I could’ve killed them in the first shot! Jack was right, had he followed the original plan, they’d already be dropping off the stuff to his contractor by this moment.
His long winded thought was ended, once he heard that thing bump into his car’s back, “FUCK MAN, WE NEED TO GO QUICKER!”, screamed Jack to his partner.
“I’M TRYING, HOW IS THAT FUCKING THING SO QUICK?! WE’RE ALMOST AT 150!”, Steven then tried to take a right turn, but he wasn’t quick enough, the 25 ton vehicle, still clipped into the trunk of the car, throwing the car in a shallow ballistic arc, crashing broadside into the side of a nearby building, landing with it’s wheels facing the sky, by the end of its quick flight.
The tank followed straight on, disappearing behind the same building, alongside his horrible noises.
The car was as close to completely wrecked as you could get, inside it, Jack was stuck, slightly crushed by the roof and seating, his knees were now almost completely inside what should have been a simple glove box, his mind could barely process how much pain he was in at the moment.
Steven was in a comparably better shape, most of the impact force was acted on Jack’s side, the violent movement they suffered had made him confused for a few seconds, but he quickly came back to himself, he looked to his side, to his friend, he was crying, and his tears, were mixing themselves with blood, he was muttering something, something Steven could barely hear, “...this is all a nightmare, i just need to wake up…”.
“Jack, I’ll get both of us out of this crap.” Steven said, while bracing himself with one arm against the ceiling, and clicking the seatbelt out, he then crawled out of the car, and turned around, opening the door, to go back in and attempt to free his friend.
He struggled, not just with the car, that was still crushing his friend, but with the mutterings of pain coming out of Jack, the mixture of tears and blood now were starting to pool down on the ceiling of the car.
During his struggles, he heard the siren coming back, the slow and dying police siren, accompanied with the soft grumbling of a tank engine.
“Fuck, listen Jack, I promise you we’re getting out of here, I’ll be back.” Steven said while crawling back out, then looking for a hiding place, an open building on the opposite side of their crashed vehicle.
He went in, and hid behind an open door, keeping an eye out for the tank, and his friend.
The tank came from the right side of the block, turning its turret to keep its gun trained on the crashed car.
Slowly advancing.
It stopped right next to the car’s driver door, and rotated its entire hull to face it.
It put its cannon into the car through the open door, 'Fuck, he's gonna shoot Jack... I can't stop it..." thought Steven.
Then, the tank started to lift its cannon up, turning the car on its side, its engine then started to ramble, pushing itself forward slowly, soon the sound of metal being crushed spread through the air, followed by Jack’s screams of pain.
“NO!” screamed Steven, before he covered his mouth shut with his own hand.
The tank turned its turret to where Steven screamed from, while still going forward, finally killing Jack.
“One… Criminal… Pacified... You Are... NEXT."
Steven simply ran deeper into the building, finding an exit on the opposite side of the building, coming out into an alley and running deeper into it, he then started to hear the sound of tank threads grinding asphalt, as the tank slowly circled the block.
A shot was fired, and Steven dropped to the ground, with his hands around the back of his head, ‘I have to get higher.’ he thought.
If he could get higher and inside a building, he could hide until the tank lost interest, and safely escape, maybe even call a few of his father’s old friends to call an attack on this thing.
He ran into the first open door he found, and started looking around the floor he got in, once he found the first set of stairs, he started to run up them, and onto the next set, and once more, and 5 other times, until he thought he was high enough.
The building he was in, was an old decrepit apartament, left by its last owners to rot for at least 40 years.
He looked around the floor, into each of the 4 small apartments, to find the best thing he could describe as a bed, his mind was only telling him to rest, and wait for the tank to go away, his body was also agreeing.
Once he found such a “bed”, he simply lay there and waited to fall unconscious…
A few minutes later, an explosion was heard, and the building he was, shook violently, he jumped off of the bed, and started running down the stairs.
The explosions happened again, and again, and again, each one hitting the building every few seconds.
His tired mind, hearing the explosions and feeling the rocking of the building, finally accepted the truth, he was gonna die there was not escape, he then went to find a window or balcony to look directly at the abominable tank, to be quickly killed.
Finally finding a window to look down onto the monster, he just stood there, muttering, “You horrible creation, they should’ve bombed everyone one of you when we had the chance.”
Before the next explosion came, he finally saw it, the tank’s gun… Aiming upwards into the fourth floor of the building, the same floor he was, and directly into the window he was looking through.
He saw the fire come out of the cannon, and waited for the next instant when death would come quickly…
That moment never came, what came next was a short eternity of pain, he felt his skin melt and burn, his screams filled the air of the entire floor and building.
In his final horrible and painful moments, he heard the monster one final time.
“Targets… Pacified… Law Enforced...”
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Days had passed, and in what should be an empty and abandoned highway, a single car with a wagon in tow, casually went by it.
A Police SUV, inside were a middle aged officer, looking with binoculars ahead into the highway, and by his side, a much younger driver, focusing on the much closer asphalt he would go by.
“There, it gave it back.” thought Officer O’Riley while lowering his binoculars, he then grabbed the receiver on the car’s radio.
Just by a State Sign, a wrecked car sat still.
Once the SUV stopped, O’Riley stepped out and said, “Start turning this car around, Officer Moralez, we need to bring that wreck back.”, O’riley then closed the door and walked up to the wreck.
The outside of the car was ruined, the trunk was destroyed, the passenger’s side and roof were crushed, there was no one inside, but dried blood on the passenger’s seat and roof, and crushed boxes.
On top of the car, sat a sheet of metal, on it, a letter was crudely written, “Law was enforced, criminals arrested, sharing evidence.”
O’Riley looked back to see his partner exiting the SUV, “Sir, what’s that?”
“Nothing important, c’mon, let’s put this thing on the tow and get the hell out of here.”