Crackle (Part 1)

[tweezers 1,034]

*Crackle*

‘I got damage, cover me’

‘I got your back, GO GO GO ‘

Birds took flight as a rumble turned into a roar and a massive hunk of metal trailing smoke and flying a tattered red flag crashed through the undergrowth and disappeared over a hill.

 

Alice Johnson shoved her tanks’ power lever forwards and cursed. ‘Guys I’m losing power where are you?’

                                                                                        *

Ben Thompson cautiously looked around. ‘Alice, I’m close to you. Send me a ping will ya?’

‘All right, got it. I’ll be there in a sec’. He swung the Dictators nose towards the direction indicated by the illuminated screen displaying the location of the ping and crept forwards.

                                                                                        *

James Mason gulped. ’Um, guys, you seeing this?’

‘What is it?’ The answers were almost simultaneous. ‘I’ll tell you later. Ben, get Alice and get out now!’

‘James, what the hell is going on? James? James?’

                                                                                         *

A few hours later, an old Hornet clanked its way past a secluded grove of trees and into a dirty grey wooden shed.

 

‘Guys, you here?’ called out James as he pulled up next to the Dictator and Wasp already parked in the middle of the floor and clambered out of the exit hatch.

 

‘Over here!’ Alice called out from the far side of the battered Wasp. She had a spanner in her hand and what looked like a whole can of oil in her short dark hair. ‘What on earth were you up to!’ said a pair of tattered blue jeans sticking out from underneath the engine of the wasp. Ben rolled out from under it, also covered in oil and with a blowtorch in his hand. ‘Wood nymph grabbed your tank did she?’ he teased with a grin on his face.

 

‘And hello you too, idjit’ James said and dropped onto the floor next to Alice. ‘You will not BELIEVE what I found. Another Viking factory. Right next to that lake we saw yesterday.’

 

Alice looked at him, her eyes wide. ‘But that would mean that it was….’

‘Camo’ said Ben, his grin widening. ‘The slimy little menaces that they are they figured out how to use the camo on their factory’s as well.’

 

‘There’s no need to sound so gleeful, this means its going to be harder for us to hunt them down now’ said James. ‘And by the way, why do both of you look like you took a shower in an oil fountain?’

 

‘Stupid shell took out the oil tank’ said Alice a little grumpily. ‘Should be easy enough to fix, but it sprayed oil all over the place and we can’t even figure out which other bits have got damaged.

 

James looked at their dwindling supply of spares sitting in the corner of the shed. ‘If there’s too much damage we’ll have to go on another scavenging and see if we can find a Wasp carcass to strip. Wish Fat Joe was still around.’

Fat Joe was the jolly old man who had been providing them with spares for years. He had contacts within the numerous factory’s building tanks for the government and smuggled each piece out one by one. Until one day, he got caught. Suffice to say that afterwards, ‘Fat Joe’ was never seen ‘Fat’ again.

 

This was the attitude displayed towards anyone who was found ‘guilty of betraying the government’. What it meant was that if anyone coloured out of the lines that the new government had set when they seized power four years ago, they would be executed or worse to set an example to all the other law breakers.

 

James, Alice and Ben were three of those lawbreakers. When the overthrow happened four years ago, they took their standard issue Hunter-Smoky’s from the central garages and set off into the forest. Ever since then, they had disrupted the government’s supply chains, attacked their manufacturing plants , and eventually ditched their old tanks for newer, better ones seized from the plants or the solo venturers encountered in the forests.

 

*BeepBeepBeepBeep*

 

‘Guys, sector three, incoming’ yelled James as the alarm systems they had set up around their base went off.

 

‘Alice, leave it, you can ride with me’ said Ben springing up from where he was sitting. ‘All right’ she said, her face showing pale behind the coating of oil her engine had given her.

 

Two minutes later, all three of them were outside making for the tree cover.

‘See anything yet?’ James whispered.

‘Nothi-JAMES WATCH YOUR BACK!’

 

 And then his world exploded.

                                                                                         *

 

Crackle (Part 2)

[Night-Sisters 2,139]

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[Night-Sisters 2,139]

Wow, intense. 

 

Looking forward to seeing a part two. =)

 

There is a part two, right????

[DragonOfStorms 2,706]

Great story. Was a joy to read, I did see a couple missing punctuation marks though. Lovely debut!

[Blackdrakon30 2,943]

Wow, intense. 

 

Looking forward to seeing a part two. =)

 

There is a part two, right????

:ph34r:  There better, be, or I will be very sad. That was quite a cliffhanger!

[You.Have.to.die 519]

Good story :)

[Quarks 2,255]

Wow, definitely need part 2

[tweezers 1,034]

Wow, intense. 

 

Looking forward to seeing a part two. =)

 

There is a part two, right????

It's in the works  :P

[tweezers 1,034]

Great story. Was a joy to read, I did see a couple missing punctuation marks though. Lovely debut!

Thanks! Mistakes noted, will take more time with the edit next time xD

[wheelnut 0]

This is almost as good as a real novel

[Great-Killer 39]

omg xDD noice work done me tweez xDDD keep up the good work ;)