Two days passed Stryme slept as if he hadn’t slept for an entire year. The man lay down and didn’t wake for 48hrs after his bath, which in my opinion was rather weird, but telling.
If he trekked through The Waste on his own, the possibility of him sleeping was close to zero and that was based on him encountering Ravagers and convoys, which left me a bit jaded.
However, in the time that he slept. I and Rook tested everything under the moon because it was clear, that I would need my new upgrades to remotely have a better chance at infiltrating Sceleratus.
It was a vast improvement, the slethe bleed was down 25%, which meant I could handle the stress test ten seconds longer, which made me wonder.
Rook and I theorising that if I can’t get inside, my next best option was to use my cybernetic wrist to survey Sceleratus, till I could find somewhere to infiltrate. He even upgraded the wrist for malware and spyware infections, just in case I could find a council to hack into, which would give me access to their network. One problem, five hundred and forty-eight more to go I mused, bitterly.
“Cypher, keep the fuck up, you’re delaying me!” Stryme roared.
“I’m fucking Cybernetic Stryme, cut the shit!” I hissed, agitated.
“Don’t care! Got too much ground to cover!”
“Why in the IMBIBE are we walking for fuck sake and don’t tell me to shit about the convoys and ravagers out here, I get, but it doesn’t mean I ain’t gon’ say shit!”
Stryme chuckled as he turned to look at me. He shook his head then nestled his backpack and trotted forward as if it were a Sunday run.
The trek through the dead coral and sand was vicious on my body. Thankfully though, my spine and cybernetic arm weren’t as detrimental as I thought they would be in this environment.
The buttes, mesas and surrounding mountains of the dead world surrounded Stryme and me, as I trudged through the Carib Waste, feeling itch lash and scratch its sand rained in on us as we crept ever so closely to Sceleratus.
The first day passed, and based on Stryme’s estimate, we were roughly three hundred and twenty-one miles off from Sceleratus, according to Stryme.
However though, I understand why we couldn’t use a buggy to leave, the sand trail would’ve attracted the Ravagers and convoys he’d seen, and that was bad.
A few days passed since we left Saunters Settlement, and we luckily didn’t come across anyone, which made the trek, slightly smooth in a way that made me feel comfortable, at least.
On occasions, we would move at night when the terrain wasn’t as strenuous and rest during the day underneath our camouflage tent.
It might not have been the smartest play, but we covered more ground in the night, thanks to the cool temperature, which meant drinking less water as we rummaged on.
Stryme and I barely spoke during the trek. Not because we had some underlying beef that I wasn’t aware of, but because I could tell he was keeping me at arm's length, business only.
If a stranger had been recruited for an op, I’d be very wary in all honesty. Hell, I’d feel incompetent, even though I wasn’t and from the looks of Stryme…he wasn’t
“Is it true?” I finally asked after the sixth day of silence in a rocky cavern, but Stryme looked back at me confused and just shook his head. Fair enough, I thought.
The crumpled sound of rocks shifting beneath his feet displayed his eagerness to increase his pace, which made me laugh to myself. I didn’t even ask anything, I mused, but whatever, he could run all he want.
The creek we crept through, was cold and narrow, with buttes spiralling to the sky. They were like needles, trying to pierce the moon, only to know their place whilst the moon sprayed its luminescence.
As I caught up with Stryme, I almost fell over a stone feeling a jolt of pain shoot up my leg. I scrapped my hand against a sharp rock, trying to catch myself.
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Salt trailed into my mouth, making my tongue water from its taste. Once I caught myself, Stryme was already halfway up climbing out of the creek. I hurried along, skipping over shattered stones, then skid across a slab which had to build a pillar.
I looked up, watching as Stryme was about to climb out of the creek we found ourselves in. It was night, I switched to night-vision to see the craggy rocks better because god knows how Stryme saw in this dark.
I found an incision on the cracked surface and placed my hands and feet in each incision. It took me about three minutes to climb a third of the creek, but the higher I reached, the slippery it got, which wasn’t helped by my cybernetic hand.
A cold pain shot down my right arm, numbing my fingertips after fifteen minutes of climbing. Sweat began pouring down my eyebrows hitting my lips, which I instinctively licked rejuvenating me slightly, as I went further up.
After ten more minutes, I finally made it up the creek, moonlight spraying across the surface in the form of rays.
As Stryme stood there, unmoved, but crouching behind a stone about a meter in width, having his back pressed up against it, peeking in the distance.
“Problem?” I whispered, noticing the concerned expression painted across Stryme’s face.
“Yeah…plenty.” He whispered back.
I pulled myself out of the creek and shimmied toward him. I peeked over the rock he was pressed up against. I peeked over the stone and noticed lights were beaming in what seemed to be a ravine in the short distance.
I turned to Stryme whispering. “Ravagers?” Only for him to shrug, in return.
“Fine.” I sighed, “I’ll check.”
I pulled my haversack free and slowly shimmied myself to the edge of the cliff. Two campfires were nestled among three floodlights. A subtle groan permeated the air in the form of a generator, which was located to my far left, away from the campsite.
Three tents, with four trucks, sat down below, and eight men were patrolling the canyon as if they were guarding gold. A large tanker was nestled up to the edge of the campsite, with a huge pipeline connected to it.
I slowly made my way back to Stryme and dabbed the sweat from my forehead. “Ravagers?” Stryme asked me.
“Not sure, but it looks like someone’s pumping water from the canyon.
“Fuck!” He hissed softly.
“What?”
“This is one of our water refill spots. We have to wait till they leave. We don’t need the hassle”
“Agreed.”
“Aite, Cypher get warm, let’s wait for these chumps to bail.”
“We can go around them, can’t we?”
“No…we’re low on water, our next refill is ten days away from here,”
“Ten days isn’t bad.”
“It isn’t, but it’ll fuck without a timeline. I want to get to Sceleratus quickly”
“Right,” I answered.
Stryme fished into his backpack, pulling a long coat free, and wrapped himself in it, then pushed his back against the craggy wall getting comfortable. “First watch’s on you.” He said, closing his eyes.
I sighed in annoyance, crept back to the edge of the cliff and began surveying the men that were patrolling down below.
As my cybernetic eye zoomed in on the camping site and I began monitoring everything on site. On the left side, three guards propped up on their vehicles, looking in the distance and all around them.
To the right, one man sat on his vehicle whilst his partner lay on the ground getting rest. The section of the Carib Waste they’d commandeered was about seven hundred meters from where we were.
The Ravagers might not have been able to see us, unless they had the tech to do so, going down there had crossed my mind but common sense prevailed, so I kept my ass quiet and continued monitoring the bastards.
Three hours passed, and then a shift change took place. I tapped Stryme but the bastard was out cold, which meant the first shift was left for me. Great, I thought bitterly.
After taking a fifteen-minute break, I continued my surveillance of the camp, feeling my fingers strain from the cold as the wind roared by the second stealing its warmth.
Moonlight sprayed across the ravine, providing a view of the landscape down below. The ravine itself was sculpted in the shape of an upside-down dome. It was fifty meters in width and thirty meters long.
The three lies in the centre were simple, compared to the one The Cobra Squad and I battled on our way to Saunters. Each truck had armour on the door at various lengths. I couldn’t say it was menacing to see, but it was probably effective as I reminisced of the battle…and thankfully, they weren’t hauliers.
The wind finally settled, allowing warmth to return to my fingertips. Subtle splashes of water chimed into my ear from the far right of the ravine, drawing my attention.
I proned and wormed my way to the left side of the precipice. Once I was satisfied with the distance, I rolled over, catching full sight of the moon, then tightened my abs, raising my upper torso up, then zoomed in to the far end of the ravine.
A shattered image appeared in my vision, showing me dozens of floating mirrors broken into hundreds if not thousand pieces, reverberating, collapsing and combining all in one fluid motion.
I looked at Stryme who was sound asleep. I guess that’s why he took this route, restock our water. He could’ve at least said something.
I rolled off of my back, pointing my chest to the ground and wormed my way back towards Stryme, getting back into cover. “Stryme,” I whispered.
He didn’t answer, so I tapped him on the shoulder twice. Stryme bloodshot eyes pulsed open as if someone had shocked the living daylights of him. He sneered at me for a full three seconds, then realised who I was again. “Your turn,” I said.
The man pursed his lips in annoyance and didn’t say anything. He simply tossed me the warmer and stalked his way over to the edge of the precipice to begin his shift. “Wake me if u discover something,” I said, but only got a grunt for an answer. Asshole.