Guns and Dust Ch. 09

It's just like chasing down the boars.

Adina controlled her skidding turn, following them. The bearcat bounced heavily over the hard ground, but its weight bit into the baked ground, helping her hold traction. The Ghost Eyes hanging from the outside of the other vehicle were shouting to the driver, pointing urgently. The raider tried to turn tighter, but unlike her, the lighter vehicle lost traction, starting to skid.

Adina bore down on it watching the face of one of the raiders as he grew larger in the windshield. She watched his expression, his eyes suddenly going wide in the instant before she plowed into the right rear corner of the vehicle.

The crash threw her hard against the wheel. The raider bounced off the front of the bearcat, then was pulled down under as the bearcat clawed partly on top of the other vehicle. The other vehicle spun away, scattering parts and debris in all directions. Adina turned and accelerated to put distance between her and the Ghost Eyes. When she turned back, she could see the spun-out vehicle through the dust cloud. Its whole right rear side was collapsed, and Ghost Eyes were struggling to get out of it. Adina stomped the accelerator to the floor again, staring at one of the raiders fighting to get out of the vehicle.

She watched his expression too, seeing it turn panicked in the moment before she drove into the center of the vehicle. The raider truck all but exploded from the impact. Adina was thrown forward so hard that her face hit the top end of the large steering wheel and she tasted blood. There was awful grinding and screeching of metal, the bearcat slowed, bogged down by something for an instant then was free and she accelerated away again. When she turned back again, the Ghost Eyes vehicle was torn apart, pieces of it still tumbling across the dark desert.

And she could see at least one of the Ghost Eyes thrashing, on fire, trapped in the burning vehicle.

The girl screaming and fighting against her rapist filled her mind once more.

Not again...

Adina stopped the bearcat, grabbed her lighter hunting rifle and climbed up into the cupola, just enough so she could see. One of the Ghost Eyes, it looked like a woman was limping away. Adina put the front sight blade of the rifle on the woman's back and pulled the trigger. Adina didn't feel the kick of the rifle. The woman pitched forward as Adina chambering another round, the motion as automatic as breathing. Another Ghost Eye was running, looking this way and that as if trying to find someplace to hide in the broad empty landscape. Adina's first shot took him low in the body. He fell, clawing over the hard earth, leaving a bloody trail. Adina climbed up further so she could get a clean shot. And she killed him.

She climbed back down and drove in a careful circle around the burning wreckage to see who was left. When she stopped, she didn't bother with her rifle. Or the pistol with the silencer on it, or even her knife. She pulled the big wrench they used to secure the lugs of the wheels from its storage rack, letting the heavy head hang low as she approached the vehicle. One of the Ghost Eyes stared blankly, blood streaming from an open wound in his belly.

Adina cocked her head, just watching him for a moment. She kicked his obviously broken leg. "Look at me." The pain brought him around. He looked up at her. And Adina brought the heavy, three-foot wrench down on his skull before he had a chance to say anything. His blood sprayed across the lenses of her mask. Adina slammed the wrench down on him again and again.

Through the hiss and crackle of the burning vehicle she heard movement. She squatted down and looked around the edge of the vehicle. Another of the Ghost Eyes was stumbling away, a pistol in his hand as he fell face first into the hard, rocky ground.

"I see you!" she called.

He turned back. She could see the fear in his expression. And the fear in the girl's face was there again. He fired. Adina ducked behind the edge of the vehicle hearing the hollow smack of bullets against metal, feeling the searing heat from the fire inside. When she peaked back around, he was squeezing the trigger, but the gun was empty. She stepped out with the gore covered wrench hanging from her hand.

The raider realized the gun was empty. He tried to stumble to his feet but fell again on an ankle that was twisted at an odd angle. "Shoah sees all!" He howled back at her. "He sees you!" He threw out an arm, spraying spittle. "He will come for you. Nothing can hide from him!"

"Good. Where is he?" Adina demanded, her voice ice cold. She just stared at the man in his body paint, scorched and bloody. "I want to meet him."

"You're nothing, you don't know! He sees..."

Adina stepped down on his broken ankle. "Where... is... Shoah." Her voice sounded dead in her ears. She didn't scream, or yell. She wasn't' angry. She was beyond that now.

He shrieked in agony. "You can never defeat him! He speaks to the dead! He sees all!"

Adina ground her boot into the shattered joint. "Where..."

"WEST!" he finally shrieked. "Days and days! From the old dirt freeway! It will lead you to him!" He spat at her defiantly, grimacing in agony. He seemed almost in a mad trance. "It doesn't matter! You are nothing!"

"You think he speaks with the dead?" She took her foot off of his ankle and stepped to him, glaring down at his mad expression. "Now you'll know."

Adina brought the wrench down on his upraised arms. They weren't in the way after that. The image of the terrified girl filled Adina's mind as the brought the wrench down again, over and over, onto his head and body. She kept pounding long after he stopped screaming; until she couldn't lift her arms anymore.

Adina finally stumbled back and collapsed heaving with exertion, the heavy wrench falling from her exhausted hands.

She suddenly couldn't breathe. She tore off her mask, the thick smell of the burning vehicle filling her nose as she retched hard, her belly cramping and pulling back into her spine. But nothing came up. She wanted to throw up, to feel the physical assurance of casting out what she'd seen. But something inside robbed her of it. She dry-heaved until she lay on the hard ground, exhausted body and soul, coughing and tasting dust with each breath. She felt her sobs and tears, but they were chained to emotions too raw for her to process.

Adina covered her face in her bloody hands and pulled herself into a fetal ball, trying to block out the awful images as the painful sobs took over.

And that's when the scream tore itself out of her. It ripped its way up from some place deep within where the slave's cries, the girl's fear, and her own terror lived. Adina screamed... and screamed... and screamed.

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As always, I LOVE to hear your feedback on Guns and Dust!

Chapter nine is a darker, more violent chapter than most and I am interested in knowing how you, as readers feel about that.

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Thank you for reading Guns and Dust Chapter 9! In case you are unaware, reader ratings drive everything for writers here on Literotica, so please rate my story (hopefully 5 stars!) , follow me, and tell you friends about Guns and Dust!

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