The countdown disappeared and in its place a window materialised showing the exterior of the decrepit mall they had just fled. It was at a high angle that made Wilde think that who or whatever was filming it was hiding in one of the upper levels of the surrounding buildings. The fact there was a live feed coming in at all came as a slight surprise to Wilde. He didn’t think that any of the ‘runners would bother to stick around with the force of gangers incoming, they’d warned him and Kenda from staying around; what benefit could they find from doing so themselves?
Within seconds a large convoy of vehicles, all in the Nitro Mizuchi’s colours and style burst into the scene. Some were cars that wouldn’t have looked out of place in a street race, most though were vans that would have been fairly non-descript were it not for the bold colours emblazoned on them and gang signs they were covered with.
Once they were close to the building the convoy slowed to a crawl, though it never stopped, and gangers poured out of the assorted vehicles. They all seemed to be armed in a similar way to the rest of the Nitro Mizuchi had been, with a few of them looking better armed with gleaming chrome rifles. The ones with the superior firearms barked orders at the rest of the gangers as they swarmed around the old mall before breaking in through every possible mode of entry. They charged through the main entrance alongside the cars driving in, they smashed through boarded up windows, they kicked in barricaded doors.
It was an intimidating display to watch, but Wilde could also see the tactics behind it. They were swarming in through every possible entrance, which meant none of those could be used as an exit. If he and Kenda had been in there they would have been utterly trapped. The only possible options he could see would be to jump out of a window, but the fall was as likely to cripple the jumper as it was to kill them, and that would still leave them surrounded. Escaping into the sewers wasn’t much better as they would probably be overwhelmed by rabid ghouls and devil rats there.
Wilde might have been able to levitate himself down to the ground with a spell, possibly Kenda as well with the aid of a spirit. But in his present condition he doubted he could have accomplished such a feat. Even if they did reach the ground safely the pair would have been out in the open and in clear line of sight to the ganger hoard looking for targets to lash out at. No, their odds of survival against a group that well-armed and motivated were non-existent.
KABOOM!!!
A great fireball consumed the ancient building as the force from the explosion shattered the few remaining windows on the nearby building and shook whatever recording device was being used to take the video. Pedro was so taken aback by the blast that he flinched while watching it, but if Kenda noticed him do so, she didn’t react to him. As she leaned over the steering wheel, he figured she was too intently focused on getting away to register anything that he did that didn’t directly affect her.
Thick, greasy black smoke billowed from the building and Pedro watched as the walls started to sag before finally abandoning all pretence of strength and collapsing in upon themselves. A second plume of smoke and ash erupted forth from the site that once held the old mall. Now it was just another mass of ruined rubble only significant because it was burning.
How many gangers had Wilde watched crowd into the building? A hundred? Two hundred? He could make out a few wretched figures that had been in the process of breaking inside when the explosion happened. Their bright blue gang colours burnt black, ragged forms crawling away from the billowing inferno behind them. None of them made it more than a few meters before they collapsed to the ground.
As Pedro was taking in the devastation he had just witnessed, the point of view of the live feed started to get closer to the blaze. He thought it was zooming in on it until it began to slowly pan around the burning wreckage of the building from an even higher vantage point. The footage was being shot by a drone he realised. Once it had completed its “victory lap” it turned away and the window closed.
The commlinks interface returned to its normal state with no record of any calls or messages made. Pedro did see that the recording of the explosion and its aftermath had been saved to his commlink. It was labelled “NOT FOR PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION”.
After witnessing the devastation the shadowrunners were capable of, Pedro had no intention of disobeying them. He couldn’t help but wonder why they’d bothered to send him the video at all? Was it a warning about what would happen if they told people what happened? A brag about what they were capable of? Pedro didn’t know. What he did know was that he didn’t want to give them a reason to be pissed off at him.
His finger hovered over the delete button before he decided against it. Kenda deserved to see it for herself and make of it what she would. Wilde would normally have told her what he’d seen but he felt in this case it was better for her to witness it for herself.
They drove on for some time afterwards in silence. Pedro not sure what, if anything to say and Kenda seemingly absorbed in her task of getting them as far away from the Nitro Mizuchi’s gang base as she could. Former gang base as the case was now. She had slowed her driving to a more conventional speed as opposed to the aggressive rate at which she was tearing down just moments ago. He theorised it was more to help her handle the tight turns and poor quality of the roads she had to deal with rather than her becoming more relaxed. Her furrowed brow and tightly clenched fists on the steering wheel made that clear.
After a while Wilde saw that there were people walking down the streets that weren’t in gang colours, nor did they appear homicidally violent; a sign that they were getting closer to the “safe” part of Redmond. He started to notice landmarks and buildings that were familiar to him. A rusting lamppost covered in a tangle of old, long broken Christmas lights, leaning in a drunken angle from where he crashed into it when he was learning how to drive with Migel. The burn out remains of an old food truck that had made the best tacos in the barrens before some gangers set it alight for a joke. An aging building with its painted walls flaking away like scabs, that some squatters had converted the roof to a vegetable garden. Its neighbour, an utterly unremarkable building in the barrens save for the fact that was where Pedro and Kay had watched the sun rise together after their first date. He wiped away a tear he hadn’t known was whelming until he felt it running down his cheek.
With a lurching jerk that forced Wilde into the seatbelt he’d unconsciously put on Kenda stopped the pickup and turned to him.
‘So… y’ wanna get drunk?’.
As she said that Wilde felt all the exhaustion, both physical and mental catch up with him as he sat in the troll sized car seat. With the threat of retaliation from the Nitro Mizuchi gone, along with the shadowrunners seemingly not judging them as a loose end in need of being tied up, the adrenaline that had been fuelling him evaporated. He wanted to collapse onto his bed and slip into a blissful, dreamless sleep, hopefully waking to find the events of the day to all be a horribly realistic nightmare. But that would have involved him getting his motorbike from the back of the pickup, driving to his apartment building and climbing the stairs to his room; whereas some alcohol to numb his pain only required him to shuffle along to wherever Kenda led.
‘… Sigh…Yeah, that sounds good actually’.
‘Anywhere y’d prefer?’.
‘I’m good with anywhere’.
The image of Kay flitted through his mind for a moment. The first time he’d seen her at the “Tarnished Gold”, wearing a dull grey outfit that she’d clearly just bought out of a vending machine, pale skin like porcelain.
‘Anywhere ‘cept Tarnished Gold’.
‘Right. I gotta place in mind. Cheap an’ should have decent parkin’ at this time a’ day’.
Pedro spied the clock on his still open commlink. It was only five in the afternoon, and it felt as though his life had slipped out of his hands. He looked forward to Kenda’s promise of alcohol with a growing anticipation.
With practiced ease she drove around the gathering throngs of people walking about Touristville, making her way to an empty lot with a couple of orc gangers in motorcycle leathers milling about it. The window on Kenda’s side slid down with an electric buzz and she waved a credstick towards one of the orcs who sped over at the promise of money. A quick swipe of the red credstick and the gangers waved them into the lot where Kenda parked before turning off the engine.
‘Just there’.
She nodded towards a lifeless looking squat concrete cube of a building that had no windows and a sole faded green door as its only feature. There wasn’t even any gang signs or graffiti on it, let alone a sign indicating it was a bar.
Easing himself out of the giant truck he slowly walked over to where Kenda had indicated, taking his time so as not to push himself too much. Pedro knew that getting drunk in a strange place while he was in the state he was in wasn’t the best of ideas, but he didn’t care. He held his head high and walked forth trying his best to not look like he was about to keel over.
Kenda appeared next to him and quickly overtook him, making a beeline for the door and rapping on it with her weighty knuckles. By the time Pedro got to the door several metal clanging noises had come from it and the rusting hinges screamed in protest as the door opened.
Entering the building Wilde was hit by the pungent odour of sweat, stale alcohol, machine oil, and a general smell of dampness. A pale troll taller than Kenda, opened the door and his cybernetic arms hissed as he cracked his metal knuckles when they walked past him. Inside was a surprisingly well put together bar from what Pedro could see in the dim, flickering light spewed forth from naked bulbs hanging from the ceiling.
There was a bar attended to by a portly looking orc in a lightly stained apron, absentmindedly cleaning the bars worktop with a cloth. Behind him were some shelves crammed with a variety of bottles, though as Wilde got a closer look none of them had any labels. Still, given that the place was seemingly offering up a variety of choices elevated it to one of the better bars in Redmond.
The bar itself along with the rest of the furnishings all looked to be wooden, which in the barrens meant that it was all synthetic, replica wood. But they all matched for the most part and the seats included cheap foam padding that only some needed patching up. There were even booths on the lefthand wall opposite from the bar. All in all, it looked like Kenda had taken him to one of the better bars in Redmond, one that he hadn’t been aware of before.
Given the time of day and the innocuous nature of the place there were only a couple of patrons in, all of whom were sitting at the bar minding their own business. Only the bartender looked up to see who had entered. Making their way to the vacant corner booth Pedro collapsed into it and slumped over the table. He remained upright but he had abandoned all pretence of not being wiped out as he let out the deep sigh of a person who had been running on fumes for hours and was only beginning to recharge. Kenda remained standing.
‘Whatdya want t’ drink?’.
‘Something that’ll get me drunk but won’t make me blind’.
‘Alright’.
With that she walked to the bar and exchanged some banter with the barman that Pedro couldn’t hear and couldn’t be bothered with trying to. She returned with two glasses. Or rather, one normal sized glass and one the size of a pitcher.
Thump.
Kenda sat down on the opposite end of the booth from Pedro and handed him his normal sized glass. They both drank in silence, pouring the alcohol down their parched throats in great gulps until they were both finished. As soon as he set his empty glass down upon the table Pedro felt a numb warmness begin to blossom withing him. He didn’t know what the beer was, he had never been one for over analysing what he ate or drank, it was generally better to not pay attention to such things in the barrens, often you were just happy to have something in your stomach. But he had to admit that the beer was excellent by Redmond standards; it didn’t taste watered down nor like paint thinner.
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
When they were done Kenda raised a meaty hand towards the barman who responded with an almost imperceptible nod. While waiting for what he assumed were fresh drinks Wilde toyed with his empty glass and let his eyes wander around the nondescript bar. The walls were bare concreate, the only ornamentation upon it the occasional faded music poster for bands of the past such as Concrete Dreams and Shield Wall. The three other patrons sitting at the bar were all well dressed for the barrens in well-worn, durable, armoured clothing and well-armed, with heavy pistols all clearly holstered at their waists along with a genuine battle-axe leaning against one of the stools. They were all grizzled, older men, maybe in their fifties? It was hard to tell with dwarves.
Eventually he couldn’t stand the silence anymore and forced himself to say something to fill it. He wanted to do something, anything instead of think.
‘Never been here before. What’s it called?’.
Blankly blinking down at him with her mechanical eyes Kenda shook herself out of whatever daydream she was having and looked about herself for a second, as if forgetting where she was. Wilde was about to ask her if she was alright when she responded.
‘Uh… It’s called “Ed’s”. Dunno who Ed is though. Barmans names Chen. Bouncers called Maksym’.
She nodded towards the Asian orc who was in the process of trudging over to their booth. Wordlessly he put down two more of the same order before them before glaring at Kenda impatiently. She brought out her credstick and waved it over the pale lime green commlink that the barman, Chen, pulled out of his pocket. With the transaction done he picked up their empty glasses and walked back to the bar without having said a word.
‘Nice place. Drinks decent at least. How’d you find out about it?’.
‘Huh? Oh, Chuck told me ‘bout it couple’ve days after I was in Seattle. When I was outta the streetdocs I mean. Said it was a good place for a drink an’ t’ find work’.
‘Their hiring here?’.
He said in a sceptical tone. The bar didn’t seem like the sort of place that required a great deal of labour to keep it running, although Kenda could probably get by as a bouncer with her size and augmentations.
‘Na, na. I mean people come here lookin’ for work. It’s kind’ve a shadowrunner bar, sometimes people’re lookin’ t’ hire for a job’.
His eyes bulged out of his sockets at hearing Kenda say that so nonchalantly. Instantly his head whipped about, half expecting to see the runners behind him, the other half expecting to only hear the crack of the gunshot before he was shot in the head.
None of them were there though, at least not that he could see. Not that it was proof that they weren’t observing them in secret. Pedro had witnessed firsthand how stealthy they could be. None of the patrons nor the barman paid any mind to him, but he spotted the painfully pale bouncer, Maksym, drawing him a look.
‘S’matter man? It’s early. Nobody’s gonna be in at this time cept the old timers’. She nodded to the men at the bar.
‘I don’t want to bump into those ‘runners again!’.
Wilde hissed at Kenda, who looked down blankly at him. It occurred to him that he had been holding back some important information from her. He brought out his battered and cracked off-white commlink, pulling up the video of the destruction of the Nitro Mizuchi gang then sliding it over to her.
‘This popped up on my commlink once the countdown ended, take a look’.
Picking up the commlink Kenda fiddled with it with her oversized fingers until the video finally began playing and watched the hazy holographic screen with minor interest. Wilde furtively glanced around to make sure nobody could see what he was showing her, hindsight suggesting to him that maybe showing her the footage in a shadowrunner bar wasn’t the best of ideas. From what he could tell though, nobody had any interest in them or what they were doing.
Now it was time for Kenda’s eyes to bulge as she witnessed the conflagration that consumed the decrepit building they had just escaped from, along with what looked like most of the Nitro Mizuchi gang. Taking a second to absorb what she’d just watched she carefully slid his commlink back to him. He noticed that now she too was carefully examining their surroundings, as if she expected the runners to burst out from behind the bar and gun them down.
‘Frag…’.
‘Yeah’.
‘…They just… I mean, why’d they even do that? They got… got what they wanted there. They didn’t need t’ kill any of ’em t’ get t’ her, we did that… Why’d… why’d they do that?’.
Pedro shrugged.
‘Don’t know really… I was thinkin’ that maybe they had some plan that involved blowing the building up, but then we showed up. Once we rescued… more like once we cleared the gangers out the ‘runners figured they could just take who they came for and save themselves the trouble of blowing the building. But… maybe they didn’t have time to grab the explosives they’d planted so they decided to set them off anyway?’.
Again, he shrugged.
‘Thing is, I don’t understand why they bothered to show us that. Or why they wanted us to know when the gangers were getting there anyway. If anything, I’d have figured we’d be like a loose end they’d want tied up’.
With a deep, soulful sigh Pedro slumped further into the cheap padding of the booth before taking another mouthful of beer.
‘…All those people just… dead. I mean I know they were gangers that woulda killed us if they could but… It feels… weird seein’ it happen like that…’.
She drank from her troll-sized glass and finished half of it before setting it down.
‘I know what you mean, but… we killed a lot’ve gangers today as well. Might’ve been in a different way, but we still did it… If I got given a button an told if I pushed it all the gangers I had to fight would die… I might’ve just done it… I would’ve for her…’.
Another sigh and another mouthful of beer. The events of the day all felt so surreal, the pressure, the fear, the anger, the adrenaline, the guilt, all the things that had been pushing him forward were gone now. Along with the person he had done it all for. He had killed for the first time in his life, and in the end, it had been for nothing, a person who never existed, not the way he thought they did at least. Now that there was calm, time to reflect on everything Pedro felt… adrift. Like he was floating on the ocean with nothing on the horizon to swim towards.
‘That was, was different though. We were, were fightin’ for somethin’, someone. Ack’. Kenda waved her fight hand in the air in a vague gesture. ‘Y’ know what I mean. We didn’t go there lookin’ t’ kill anyone. Some’ve them were smart enough t’ run right!?’.
‘Yeah, I think I saw a couple of them break away when the bullets started flying’.
‘See! That what I’m sayin’! We didn’t go after ‘em though. We didn’t wanna hurt ‘r kill nobody. Just wanted t’ save… a friend’. She shook her head. ‘Any’ve the gangers could’ve run away when we showed up. They chose t’ stay an’ t’ not back down. We let ‘em run off if they wanted t’. I can betcha they wouldn’ta done the same for us. We did, we did as best as we could. Couldn’ta done more, couldn’ta…’.
‘I guess you’ve got a point’.
It was as much an attempt to convince herself as it was Wilde, but it had helped to sooth his conscious somewhat. Kenda was right. The Nitro Mizuchi had hunted a person down and were prepared to sell her off to… somebody. Only an idiot wouldn’t expect there to be a chance of retaliation for such an act, especially as they had such a poor reputation in Redmond, along with a weak position due to being so far from the main chapter in Renton and possessing no allies nearby. He and Kenda hadn’t gone there looking to kill anyone; they’d simply been willing to go as far as that to reach their goal. He still didn’t feel good about having killed so many gangers, but he didn’t feel as bad about it either though.
Wanting to change the subject before he became too fixated on it Pedro decided to bring up something that had occurred to him midway on their escape from the now truly condemned mall.
‘Anyway Kenda, I was wondering, how exactly are we going to split the SUV?’.
‘Huh, whatdy’ mean?’.
‘Well after everything we went through back there, even if it… Didn’t go down the way either of us were hoping, I’d say we both pulled our weight back there. And seeing as that’s the case I reckon we should both split what we got back there, including the SUV’.
Arching her eyebrow Kenda and Pedro both drank from their beers and studied each other. He wasn’t trying to demand anything from her, he wasn’t trying to accuse her of holding out on him. Pedro just wanted to get an idea on how they were going to split what little they had managed to salvage from the day’s events. His flagging body had sunk listlessly into the corner of the booth to keep himself upright, but he did feel his strength slowly returning to him. Either that or the booze was hitting him harder than he’d expected.
‘I was just wondering because I figured you’d want to keep it. Seeing as its sized for you and in better condition than your pickup. I’m fine with that, I just figure I deserve something for everything I did’.
‘Seem t’ remember y’ needin’ my help t’ get y’ outta the way after y’ ran straight int’ a buncha’ gangers with guns pointin’ atcha’.
A little colour flushed in his cheeks as he recalled how close to dying he’d been purely due to his own hot-headedness. She wasn’t wrong about him needing her help; he’d managed to survive the grenade only by the skin of his teeth, without Kenda he would have been riddled with bullets.
‘And I cast a lot’ve magic that made things a whole lot easier as well. Unless you had a way to throw ball lightning that you were holding back the entire time? Never would’ve found the place in time either if we hadn’t had my spirit out looking for… for Kay either’.
He felt like he’d broken some unspoken rule they’d had going over not mentioning Kay’s name, but Kenda seemed to ignore it.
‘Chuck was the one who told us ‘bout the hideout. Might not’ve given me the exact directions, but I’da found it ‘ventually’.
‘Oh yeah? And what do you think would’ve happened if you’d got there after the shadowrunners?’.
Wilde gave a loaded look towards his cracked, off-white plastic commlink, lying on the booth table to remind her of what she’d just watched.
‘Wha – Oh. Oh right. Yeah. Guess it’ve been bad if I’d been there when… well that happened. Suppose y’r right. We’re pretty much even’.
Upon saying that a small smile crept on the trolls normally stoic face. The more he thought about it, Kenda seemed to be more… emotive than he was used to seeing her. Part of that might have been due to them never really having spent much time together before. The other reason was that a lot of extremely emotional things had happened over the past few hours. Pedro knew that extensive cybernetics dulled a person’s empathy, their humanity. It wasn’t an academic theory to him; Pedro could see the ugly grey scars in a person’s aura, he could see how a person’s very essence was diminished through the presence of cyberware. It was one of the reasons he felt such distain towards heavily cybered people. But there was still some essence of humanity there within Kenda, some emotional core that couldn’t hide from all the pain she’d suffered through recently. He couldn’t help but empathise with her. Out of everyone else in all the barrens, of the Seattle metroplex, the world even, only they could come close to understanding the pain the other was feeling.
‘Y’ don’t need t’ worry though. I’m gonna sell the SUV. Chuck’ll know somebody who’ll want it. Might even buy it himself, it is pretty new’.
‘Really? You don’t want it? I was going to say you could give me the credstick and some’ve what you’d get from selling your pickup and we’d call it even’.
‘Na, its fine. The pickups got… sentimental value t’ me. Sides, even if the Nitro Mizuchi aint a thing in Redmond anymore, or anywhere’s else it looks like, somebody might be lookin’ for their ride. I’d rather not have t’ deal with that dreck. Na… dependin’ on how quick we try an’ sell it… the armour, the upped handlin’, how new it its’. She was mumbling more to herself now as she rubbed her chin before looking down at Wilde again and furtively whispering to him. ‘I reckon we could get maybe… forty thousand nuyen for it all in. Even split that leaves us with twenty thousand apiece. Not bad, eh?’.
The days events had been terrible. There was no sum of money that could be offered to Pedro that he wouldn’t have exchanged to make everything he’d learnt be some bizarre, overly elaborate lie. To have Kay back in his arms. For their relationship to have been real.
But if he couldn’t have that? Well, he wasn’t going to throw away twenty thousand nuyen.
‘An' if we split the nuyen we found on the ganger, an’ I don’t see why we shouldn’t, that’s like, twenty-five thousand… Don’t worry, I won’t count the assault rifle y’ picked up as bein’ part’ve the haul. Dunno about the katana though, suppose we’ll need t’ see ‘bout sellin’ that as well’.
Twenty-five thousand nuyen.
Forcing himself to sit up straighter He considered the things he could buy with that kind of money. A top-of-the-line motorbike. Months’ worth of real food, not the soy-based dreck he normally had to eat. Access to powerful spells and magical focusses. The highest quality of fake SINs. Money didn’t make things any better, but it did help take the sting out of the days pain somewhat.
He let out a low toneless whistle and examined Kenda. She didn’t look like she was lying to him. He might not have been able to see through Kay’s manipulations but he highly doubted that Kenda was on her level. If anything, the troll seemed mildly pleased as well; not entirely happy about things, but not upset either.
‘That’s… that’s a lot’ve money, especially out here in the barrens. Any idea what you’ll be spending your share on?’.
‘Me? Dunno… could afford t’ start payin’ Chuck proper rent for lettin’ me stay at the scrapyard. Frag, I could move outta there an’ start rentin’ a real apartment, one with runnin’ water an’ regular power… Other than that? Might put some love int’ my pickup. Fix’er up a bit y’ know? Get some bodywork done t’ deal with the rust, replace some parts I shoulda swapped out a while back. Dreck like that. You?’.
‘Not sure either really. Never had this kind of money before’. He rubbed his mother’s ring on his finger. ‘Least, not in a way I’d be spending it on myself. I’m not sure… I’ve been wanting to break into more professional Urban Brawl leagues and tournaments for a while now, but they check SINs at those, and my cheap fake would never pass a real examination… But with twenty-five thousand nuyen? I could afford to buy a good fake, one of those “rating six” or whatever ones with all the licences to go along with it, and still have nuyen left over. I’d be able to compete then, get out of small-time amateur games and start making a name for myself in the circuit. With what’s left over after that… Not sure. Maybe buy another magical foci? Trade in my ride and use that money and whatever I have left over to buy a better one? I don’t know… it, it feels strange to have everything that happened, happen and then just find ourselves with a big pile of nuyen at the end of it all… Don’t really know what to do next…’.