The Badlands: Kinship

I activate the whip so it glows in the now darkened desert. The night moisture fills the air. I tremble with chills washing over me. I know this may be the last stand I ever have to make. I look at Mia. She makes a nod in response. We know we have to win this. 

The feeling of heat surrounds us, even with the desert air getting cold and crisp. I can see my breath in the air getting thicker as these things come closer. The whole desert feels as if its becoming snow and ice.

"Do these things effect the weather?!" Mia exclaims.

"I don't know." I say.

As they match towards us, it would appear Mia's question had some remarkable merit. At the feet of these skeletal coated warriors is ice forming upon the surface of the sand.

"Mia, what could cause that?" I ask.

"Ark Tech is what." She Huff's. "I'm guessing some kind of pre war experiment got lose when the war happened." She says.

"Oh my god." I can't help but exasperate.

"Something tells me there is trouble waiting for us at the Predlym." She says, pulling out this gun shaped item.

She has so much gear I never know what I have seen before or not. There are so many mystical things that were made in the old world. It only gets me wondering what made them all kill one another.

The white plates are now close enough where Mia decides to fire a blue bolt into their midst from the piece she pulled a moment ago. I stand with my right leg behind me and I crouch, waiting like the old legend of lions. The great beasts were not but wise, they also were powerful and fast.

According to old books we had kicking around Basha, the lion was the king of the animals. I like to think humans are. Even if we are struggling to get through our world.

The shot lands on one of them and I can hear inhuman deep scoffing coming from the crowd. Mia looks at me with concern. I now am worried.

"Are they... Laughing?" Mia says to herself in disbelief.

"Are these like what you heard about?" I ask.

Before I get an answer, the group of white covered, multi-armed things begin to sprint at us with roaring from their voices. I stagger as I take a deep breath. We can't win, but I will die fighting.

"Mia, if we don't make it-" I try to start to say.

"Etha, don't. We're gonna be fine." She says as if she is just taking in the moment.

She smiles and looks at me. She gives me a quick wink. She puts the last item away and puts on what seems to be a set of some kind of gloves.

She taps her wrists together and her hands have balls of fire appear within moments. Can she use those gloves to create fire? How?

I look to the white spider-like-humanoids, they are almost right on us. Mia throws a couple of flaming bolts to them, staggering a few in the back of the group. I only wish I knew more about the stuff I got from Ruko.

I guess it's the moment of truth. I pull out the Ark Tech Daybreaker. I aim it at these sprinting beasts, holding my whip in my usual left, gun aiming with the right. I fire a round.

The gun shows a green pulse of energy building up the moment my hand is squeezing the trigger. The discharge goes on for some distance, plowing the weird beings in its immediate path away, some even being launched into the far distances. Me and Mia both look to eachother in shock.

"That was cool..." I say, lining up the next shot.

"Agreed." She says, running ahead a bit to hold off another section with a large barreling line of inferno coming from her gauntlets.

"That's also cool!" I say as I fire the opposite side clear from approaching Mia from behind.

I smirk. This actually makes me feel confident. We can survive, we can make it. Then I wonder, why couldn't the Predlym?

I put the Daybreaker away to it's holster and sprint for Mia. She blasts them with flames, one after another. The beings each scream from the heat, the ice hardly able to move. However, I was not expecting them to learn.

"Etha! Duck!" Mia says as she turns to me with a flame building in her palm.

I dive into the sandy ground. I smile as I hear the grunt of the one she was aiming for. I turn with a smile, remembering those silver discs. I pull one from the side pocket of my bag. I swipe it to fly at the closest being I can spot. 

I sprint to it, while it looks down and seems to be amused at the item. I slide beside it, the response it has is a confused grunt. I swipe my whip and watch smoke rise from it as it howls. The stench of flesh burning is strong, at least this close to it. 

I see a red glow and burst of heat can be felt with it. I can see Mia standing and looking distraught as she fires another bolt into another being. She starts to run towards me.

"Etha, slide to me!" She calls out as she pulls out the red metallic device from earlier.

I spring and find my way to slide towards her, she presses a button on the device the moment our feet touch. A wide purple energy field surrounds us. Mia bought us some time, I can't tell how much.

"How are we gonna kill an army of these?" I ask her.

"I don't know Etha, we haven't gotten much time before they will outlast the energy of the tech." She says.

"What do you recon we do?" I ask. 

"For a start, how many of those metal discs have you got?" She asks.

I look in the pouch and count out the sleek metal. Turns out I only have twenty-four. I suppose this was just a small number available. I shiver.

"Twenty four."

"That's not much." 

"You're telling me." I say.

I wish we had an idea to work with. Then I realize, fire and sand can become glass. That gives me an idea.

"What if you make the sand into glass?" I ask.

"I am not some kind of warlock Etha." She says.

"You have fire gauntlets, you don't have to be." I say.

"You are brilliant. Continue." She says.

The beings start slamming against the purple energy. I think our time has nearly run out. I know we have to see just how agile they are. If we run and she make it glass where we run, we may just make it out of this. I can only hope this is actually a good idea.

"Glass our path. We break for the Predlym." I say. "There may be some useful stuff we can make use of in this emergency." I add.

"Even if the people of the Predlym died, they did have some good gear." She replies.

"Sounds like a plan?" I ask.

The beings pound away. I pull out the Daybreaker. I know we are going to need crowd control.

"Yeah, you cover our front, I'll glass our ass." She nods.

"How long until it-" I say as a being of their kind approaches, this one much bigger and a lot more white pieces covering them.

"I think we should be ready now." She says, aiming her hands towards the new big guy.

"Right!" I aim the Daybreaker to the back crowd.

"He's gonna-!" She exclaims when a loud shatter is filling the air. 

I rush towards the group i aim at and fire the daybreaker watching a bunch of them fly off into the distance. I can hear the roaring fire behind us. I can hear the worry of Mia's voice as she changes from trying to glass the path behind us, to fire bombing the ones who chase us.

"It's not hot enough fire!" She exclaims. 

I can hear her firing a laser behind me. I aim right and fire. I can hear the barrage of landing bodies. I can see the wall or the Predlym, but the entrance is still so far and it looks so small from here. I need to get there now!

I turn around and let Mia get behind me as I start firing the Daybreaker every angle I can as we make our way, backwards, to the Predlym. I see lasers pass from behind me, we both are more concerned by the ones chasing us.

"Where'd the big guy go?" I ask.

"I don't know!" Mia replies. 

That, is the last words I needed to hear. I scan the area, seeing as the deep grey hub of the Predlym is so close by. I feel a sense of relief. We need to find a way to take that big guy down, for all I know, they are watching and waiting. We don't know how smart they really are. We only know these things can be considered very deadly. 

"Etha, c'mon let's get in!" I turn around and Mia is holding the door to the deep grey metal box of the Predlym.

"Woah.." I exasperate as I run in, Mia closing the door behind me.

"It's amazing, right?" She says with pride.