“I can’t fix that scrap, but perhaps, with some luck, I can make you a new one,” the man relented after John vehemently complained. “But don’t expect something as crude as that firearm. We may be in the ass end of nowhere, but we aren’t savages.”

John ignored the unintentional barb. He had heard worse over the years. “A pneuma rifle won’t do. Not if this group comes back.”

The crazy-haired man scoffed. “It’s not like you're hunting big game. You need something to take down a person, a pneuma rifle will work just fine.”

John told him about the armored suits and reinforced walkers.

That seemed to get the man’s attention. “Steam-powered armor? Fascinating. Did you bring any back with you?”

“No, we had more pressing concerns.”

“Typical!” The man threw his arms up in exasperation. “We need to go fetch them.”

“What?” John had just gotten back, he certainly didn’t want to spend another few days riding through the countryside. Not to mention removing bloated corpses from armor.

“What, what? We need to retrieve this armor so I can study it.”

“Ok, but why?” John asked rubbing the bridge of his nose in irritation.

“They had movable joints, yes?”

John nodded, “Yeah, and what's your point?”

The artificer let out an audible sigh. “Sometimes I don’t know why I even bother. Didn’t you just tell me the Doc might need limbs for people?”

“I somehow doubt the armored limbs would fit.”

“Of course not, don’t be daft. But someone has already come up with a working design. All I need to do is replicate it on a smaller scale. Plus I could learn more about these powered suits.”

John supposed that made sense. “Say I agree and we go to retrieve the armor. What about the walkers I talked about? It’s not like those are around for us to study.”

“Bah,” the man said, waving off any concern. “I don’t care about those. It just sounds like they stuck a metal-reinforced box on top of a walker platform. Hardly the most inspired design choice. It would significantly reduce the speed of the automata, as well as its ability to travel through rough terrain. Useless and idiotic. Now, enough chatter, we need to go.”

“What? You mean now?”

“Of course! You’ve left these magnificent machines to the elements for far too long. If I’m to understand how they function, I need to see them before the weather damages them any more than it already has.”

While he certainly wanted to, John really had no reason to turn the man down. This artificer's strange fixation aside, recovering the suits could be key to finding further weaknesses to exploit. Or maybe they could even repurpose them for the town.

“Fine,” John finally relented. “But I hope you’re prepared for a long trip. It’s at least a day by horse and probably two if we take a cart with us.”

“We won’t need to worry about taking something as slow as a horse and cart. We’re going to take the walker you provided.” The man chuckled in delight as he rushed past John and into the yard.

John was starting to think having any excuse to pilot the walker had been the man’s purpose this entire time. He didn’t know if it was such a good idea to use the unknown contraption, but it seemed he didn’t have much of a choice. John could justify leaving the town for a day, a day and a half at most. But a four-day trip by cart was too much. Seeing as the artificer had already decided they were going, he double-checked his ammo and bandoleer. He had refilled it at the house but it paid to double check.

“Should we ask anyone else to join us?” John asked as he walked over to the man who was furiously scooping coal into the walker's bins.

The artificer worked like a man half his age as he shoveled the coal from a nearby pile. He didn’t even look up as he responded. “Seline might wish to come, but she is likely busy with everything you told me about. So no.”

“I’ll be back,” John stated with a sigh. He wasn’t about to head back to that valley without at least one long rifle. If there was another ambush waiting, he wanted to be prepared. And while the weapons he had taken off the ones who attacked the mining camp weren’t great, they were better than nothing.

“Hurry or I’ll leave without you!” The older man yelled.

John wasn’t sure how the man thought that would work since he had no idea where to go, but he paid it no mind. If the man did leave, he would eventually figure out his oversight and return.

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It only took him a few minutes to walk to the jail. It seemed things must have quieted down in the last few hours because Seline was sitting at her desk when he entered.

“John, you’re back. The Sheriff was looking for you.”

“Oh?” he asked.

“He wanted to ask your opinion on deputizing some people to help out in case that group returns.”

“Why would he need my opinion, he’s the Sheriff?”

She looked uncomfortable by the question. “I think he’s afraid of angering Mr. Novarez.”

John grunted. “Tell him not to worry about Novarez, I will cover for him. Just tell him to do what he thinks is best for the town.” As John said this, he pulled one of the rifles from the gun rack. He probably wouldn’t have given the Sheriff free rein to do what he pleased a few days ago, but the man had stepped up. There was still a possibility of him sliding back into his old ways, but keeping him busy was the best alternative John could think of.

“Going somewhere?” Seline asked.

“I made the mistake of telling the local artificer about those suits.”

“Ah… You met Uncle Travis. The man’s a genius when it comes to artifice, but he's also a bit scatterbrained, which is why he’s out here and not in some big city making money hand over fist selling to rich folk. He loses interest in what he refers to as mundane artifice.”

John had to scratch his head at that statement. “Wouldn’t coming out here be a nightmare for him then? I can’t imagine there is a large need for unique automata in Ember Creek.”

“There isn’t. But he came out here to sort of avoid those types of distractions so he could try and focus on the basics. I know, it's not a very sound plan, but that’s my uncle for ya.”

“Let me guess, you came out here to keep him out of trouble?”

“Something like that. I also came to learn a thing or two from him. Like I said, he is a genius. He just has a hard time putting that into functional work. My design for Sally came from speaking with him.”

“Sally? You mean that gun Wyatt used?”

She nodded happily. “He told me it worked wonders.”

“That it did,” John confirmed. Then he got an idea. “I spoke with your uncle about fixing up my rifles. He said one was junk and threw it in his scrap pile. Perhaps you could take a look at them while we are away?”

“I mean, if Uncle Travis says the weapon is junk, it's probably junk. The man isn’t often wrong about stuff like that. Then again… he may just not want to work on it. He gets like that sometimes. What were you looking for? Just a repair?”

Great, the one artificer in town and he turns out to be a temperamental genius. At least Seline seemed to be normal. “A repair would be ok, but I think we’re going to need something with a bit more stopping power if that group comes back with more of those suits. Do you think you could enhance the rifle somehow?”

“Enhancing an actual firearm?” she spoke, as she held a finger to her chin. “I honestly don’t know. I’ll take a look, but I will probably need to wait until you and Uncle return so I can speak with him. He will likely have some insight on how to handle that problem. Even if he doesn’t want to create it himself.”

“That’s fine. We’re taking the walker I confiscated, so we should be back in a day at most.”

When John arrived back at Travis’ compound, he found the man had indeed left. With an annoyed sigh, John found a bench nearby and sat down to wait.

It took a full two hours before he heard the mechanical clomp of the walker coming down the street. John didn’t budge until the thing came to a full stop and lowered itself to the ground. When he finally decided to tip his hat up and take a peek, he found the artificer, Travis, looking both somehow annoyed and embarrassed.

“Forget something?” John asked pointedly without getting up.

Travis sighed and let his shoulders sag. “I apologize. I tend to forget things when I get excited.”

“Yup. Seline mentioned that when I spoke with her.” John grabbed the rifle that he had left leaning against the bench and headed over to the parked walker. It was a bit awkward to board the thing as it sat a few feet off the ground, but he managed without much effort thanks to his enhanced physique.

Travis barely waited for him to climb aboard before throwing a lever that made the platform rise into the air again.

John grabbed ahold of a support post as the walker rose into the air. It reminded him of a damn elevator, only worse because it seemed to sway drunkenly as it gained height.

“Hold on!” Travis said belatedly as the walker turned in the street and began to pick up speed.

It was a very good thing the man’s compound was near the edge of the town. Even so, a few people had to scatter as the automata came barreling down the road.

***

By the time they arrived at the small valley, John had gotten used to the rocking of the walker. It wasn’t much different than being aboard a boat on the ocean. Watching the trees practically blur past was a new experience though, one John could have done without.

He had to stop the crazy artificer from just barreling into the valley when they arrived. Instead, he got the man to wait while he checked it out.

It was empty and quiet. The only changes were the large slide of grey rocks from the hill that he had stuffed the explosives into and a chorus of birds pecking at the dead. Since the workers had buried their dead, that left only the bloated corpses stuck in the armor as treats for the animals. It wouldn’t be long before larger predators wandered in so they should probably work quickly.

He hurried back to Travis and they entered the valley.

John wondered how they were going to load the heavy metal suits, but it seemed the walker had a built-in solution for that issue.

Travis pulled something from beneath the platform. The metal structure rotated up and locked into place with a click. Then he unfolded another bar from that, and in just under a minute, the walker now had a rotating crane with rope and pulley. It even came with an extension, allowing it to reach out further from the platform to pick up items.

Before using the crane, the old man hurried over to one of the undamaged suits and inspected it.

John asked what he was looking for, but the man was completely focused and didn’t respond. Soon he saw the man smile as he reached behind a plate. There was a click and the entire front torso popped open.

The smell that came out was awful, but Travis seemed completely immune to it as he found some more latches and folded open the leg portions. Then with a heave, he dragged the bloated body out of the thing. This would have been impressive if he didn’t also tear the body open while he did.

The smell finally made the artificer gag and hurry away from the suit. John didn’t gag, but he did turn away from the smell. “Perhaps let me help before trying to drag the next one out,” he spoke as he breathed through his mouth.

Travis gave him a shaky thumbs up as he bent over to the side to release his lunch.