Jeurridam Ch. 02: The City of Rust

"I guess.." He said, obviously nervous, "Hopefully, it won't escalate to that level."

"Eh, it might. It's better to get experience now than when you're halfway across the continent." I smiled.

"You're right." He chuckled.

The walk was pretty long, took about four hours and in this desert heat, it was no joke. We could see the Vegas Ruins, a very popular resort for those who could afford it. However, we had to go further north. We had to head to district where tall spires of debris piled up near the canyons called The City of Rust. The only way I could describe it was 'chaotic beauty'. Pools of metal oxidizing acid lay on the ground and junk, useful junk was everywhere...as far as the eye could see. This was where the Merchants called home.

The City of Rust, much like the Vegas Ruins, could always be seen on the horizon. But truthfully, the City of Rust was a much more interesting place than Vegas could ever be. We had passed Henderson station, having to walk twenty five miles on the outskirts of the Vegas ruins before reaching Tanzanir's makeshift camp. By that time night was coming.

"BETH!" I heard faintly on the wind.

"You hear that?" I asked.

"Hear what?" Tanzanir asked, pausing.

"I think I just heard my..."

"BETH!" I heard again, this time louder. I truned, seeing my little brother running across the desert towards us.

My entire world came cascading down at the sight of him. All I could do was rest my head in the palms of my hands, unable to believe this boy followed me fifty miles from Arizona to Nevada.

"Wow." Tanzanir sighed, unenthusiastically.

The boy finally caught up to us, having to stop and catch his breathe.

"Beth..." He panted.

"How the fuck did you find me?" I asked, wanting to cut to the point.

"Uncle sent me after you...Said your father would be crushed upon his return to find you just upped and vanished." The boy said, still holding himself up by his hand wrapped tightly around his knee joints.

"Dammit, I said I'd be back in a few days!" I said growing angry.

"He believed that," Heaven responded finally able to stand properly, "YOU!" He locked eyes with Tanzanir, instantly falling into a rage.

"Um..." Tanzanir said unsure to to respond, "Hi?"

Heaven grabbed my arm, dragging me across the sand.

"We're going home..." He said.

"STOP!" I said, slamming my satchel into his face. The bag was quite heavy, knocking the boy to the desert floor, "Now you can go home! Like I said, I'd be back in a few days!" Heaven clenched his face, rolling around in the dirt.

"Ow," he said, "You didn't have to hit me that hard..."

"Look, Heaven... Go home. This is grown folk business and you ain't grown yet..." I sighed.

"No...I can't go home, not without you! How'd it look if I went after you and returned without you. You know how dad can get! I'm not gonna get beat like Ezekiel..." The boy refused.

"Wait, he beat Ezekiel?" Tanzanir asked.

"Yeah...all the boys get beat...no big deal, well all except Heaven. He's the baby so dad refrains." I sighed, going to help Heaven off the ground, "Now look... You never had to work a hard day in your life, so I want you to listen to me. Some Bonnie and Clyde type shit is about to go down and I need to know if you will pull through or not! You think you can handle your own with a gun?"

He pulled up his shirt, revealing he brought his dual beams, pistols designed to shoot shotgun slugs. He had a boyish grin on his face, that only was skin deep.

"I'm not bought. We might not need to send him packing, but the boy might falter in a real gunfight." Tanzanir said, stealing the words right out of my mouth.

"Yeah, I was thinking the same..." I said, looking at my younger brother intently.

"Wait, what's going on?" He asked.

"Answer my question!" I insisted.

"I showed you my pistols!" Heaven said defensively.

"No, I mean how'd you find me?" I corrected.

"Oh," He said scratching his head, "I drove over the dam, got to Henderson and saw your truck parked at the outpost. I then looked around for you couldn't find you so I asked the locals and they said they saw you with someone wearing merc robes and a turban traveling northwest on foot. And you know I'm really good at tracking so I eventually found you."

"Eh, she'll be here by midday tomorrow... I hope you didn't park in the way." I said.

"She? Man what the fuck are you talking about?" Heaven asked, growing frustrated.

"I rooted the truck, put an advanced automation system in her that can make her driver herself. She's programmed to meet me at my GPS location in eighteen hours." I sighed, going in the tent.

"Well that explains why you wanted no one to touch that ugly ass truck..." Heaven teased.

Tanzanir followed me, sitting at a tiny stool where his laptop was. I looked at the entry, wondering why Heaven was still standing right there.

"Is he just gonna stand there or come in?" I asked.

"I don't know..." Tanzanir shrugged, not giving much thought to it. It didn't take long for Heaven to cautiously enter the tent.

Looking at the computer screen, I could see one of the orbs had surveyed every square inch of the City of Rust, all except the Merchant Flats. It would be hard to survey that area without being shot down by a sniper mech. The orb was cautious for all the right reasons.

"All I can say is the City of Rust is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen but I will destroy it if I have to to get back my android... I just hope it doesn't have to get to that point..." Tanzanir sighed.

"Do you know your way around the Merchant Flats?" I asked.

"I didn't even bother to get close. I walked past a few dudes and right off the rip they could tell I wasn't from around here... I didn't stay long after that. I returned to the camp and sent the Orb out to survey from a high altitude." I sighed.

"So what did it find?" I asked.

"It found that the City of Rust was actually a crashed space ship carrying rare earth minerals from the Kuiper Belt. The ship was massive, Ten miles long and three miles wide. When it crashed it destroyed half of Vegas in the process, but the crash...the crash was actually controlled. An object with a minimum of volume of thirty cubic miles crashing into earth would have the ability to destroy life on this planet again... However, this was a controlled landing, one that destroyed the ship... You may ask why this is important." Tanzanir smiled.

"Yeah..." I said, unsure why that tidbit of information was relevant.

"Because those giant spires jutting thousands of feet out the ground are the ribs of the ship...the frame! Scattered all over the region are sniper turrets that do not fire rounds at all. They fire charged particles which is a sign that these were weapons mounted on the ship, not built by the inhabitants of this canyon." Tanzanir said.

"Wait..." I said starting to catch on, "So they are not weapons built by the locals?"

"No, they were already there. Someone tapped into them and turned them into mounted security mechs though. That means theres another person in that city who knows old war tech, too! Someone who could possibly be an allie." Tanzanir pointed out.

"You think you can find him?" I asked.

"He has quite a network built throughout the city... But, it's not encrypted. He probably thinks he's the only one capable of doing this! It'll be a shock tomorrow when I shut down his turrets. His location is currently triangulating." Tanzanir said.

"Well Got Damn, a girl needs something to do too!" I laughed.

"Welp, you can start a fire and whip up some food. The rations are in the crate beside the tent." He laughed.

"Sure thing..." I sighed, heading out. Heaven was right behind me.

"Why are you helping him?" He asked. I turned, seeing the disgust in Heaven's eyes.

"Why are you being so judgemental of him?" I asked.

"I just don't trust him! He damn near killed everyone of us and now tries to get you away from us on some damn suicide mission?" Heaven retorted.

"It's not even like that! I told you, if you don't like it, go home!" I snarled.

"And I told you, I'm not leaving until you come back..." Heaven said angrily, not backing down. I sighed, not really wanting to argue with him.

"This is my last goodbye with Tanzanir... I want to make it worth my while..." I said, sorting through the crate.

"So coming out here to a hazardous warzone with that...creep... is making it worthwhile, huh?" He asked.

"What creepy about him?" I asked defensively.

"Those big ass eyes. That ball shaped nose...those big slimy lips, just everything! He doesn't have one trustworthy feature..." Heaven said cringing.

"Now that's just racist..." I said, truly disheartened. It was hard to believe those words came out of my brother's mouth, "Where the hell is this coming from? You and Tanzanir used to play together as kids!"

"Dafuq is a racist? I'm just calling it the way Uncle Miguel called it, Zion called it and what Dad said..." He said, feeling completely justified.

I was reduced to staring at him, almost drawn to tears.

"You poor brainwashed soul." I sighed, grabbing the firestarting kit and the grill stand. Heaven shrugged, unsure why it was I felt he was so wrong.

"Well everyone else seems to have came to the same agreement except you..." He said, following me to the front of the tent.

"Of course they would. It's why I fucking want to leave and never come back... I'm out numbered, Heaven..." I said, planting the fire kit firmly into the ground.

"Yeah, just like mom..." He said.

"You really want to know why mom left?" I asked him, growing very ill of patience with him.

"Because she got tired of us!" Heaven said, obviously being another thing he heard from Dad and Uncle.

"No, because she disagreed with Father on a lot," I sighed, lighting the fire kit, "Mom was a part of the UCAC, she just never told anyone. She'll be back soon, but she had a tour to do. Dad didn't want her to go, said her duties were to her family and us alone. But, mom left for military reasons..."

"What the fuck is the UCAC in the first got damn place?" Heaven asked, obviously agitated.

"Ask, Tanzanir... He knows all about it." I said.

"No..." Heaven refuted.

"You're just like dad, it FRUSTRATES ME so!!" I growled.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"I mean," I said, placing the grill over the flame, "That you are blind to so much until it hits you right in the face and sometimes you still don't see it. You think everything should go the way that you see it, and if it doesn't...it doesn't go at all!"

"That's not true at all!"

"Oh really? Do you think mom is coming back?" I asked.

"No, dad said she's gone for good this time..." Heaven sighed.

"Bullshit! Mom said she doesn't know if she'll be back after this one, but she'll fight for us! Dad doesn't like it because he feels a woman shouldn't do anything except cook and clean but who the fuck thinks that way when there's no damn men to do the hard work? Not to mention, he pulled up a load of bullshit before she left which made it seem like she left him because they had a fight. No she left because she had duties to the UCAC as a Wing Fleet Nurse! She tends war wounds, Heaven!" I explained.

"But she didn't have to leave..."

"You know what," I interrupted, trying to compose myself, "I really don't want to view you as a complete and utter idiot so lets refrain from talking about the situation. All this is doing is proving my point..."

"How is it proving your point?" He asked, still wanting to argue. I walked back over to the rations, grabbing a water jug and two pots.

"Tanzanir, where did you get all of this stuff?" I asked.

"There's a military vault to the south of here. I found it and it had a whole bunch of supplies...and dead folk." He said from inside the tent.

"Damn, that's lucky..." I said.

"Not really. Vaults like this are all over the desert, just sealed tight." He sighed.

"Oh." I said, placing the pots on the grill rack. I filled both halfway with water. I went back to the rations crate and got a box of instant pasta and dehydrated boiling meats. I cut them open as the water came to a boil. I dropped the meat into the larger pot and slowly poured the pasta into the other.

"FOUND HIM!" Tanzanir exclaimed from inside the tent. I went in, looking at what he had on his computer.

"What does he look like?" I asked.

"Don't know yet," He said suddenly becoming disenchanted, "Uh oh..."

"What?" I asked.

"He lives in the Merchant Flat. He's one of the family members then..." He sighed.

"Well damn... We really got to walk this delicately then." I said, scratching my head.

"Eh, it's all good. I'll make sure I leave him a little something, something to help out his... creativity." Tanzanir smiled. His smile did something to me.

"I just can't get enough of whenever you smile." I said.

"STAHP!" Tanzanir blushed. He was just too adorable. I left the tent, checking on the food. I moved the pasta onto a far rack so it could simmer and slowly absorb the water. I wrapped the top with aluminum foil due to the lack of a lid and poked holes in it with my knife so the steam could escape. I wrapped the larger pot too.

Silently, Heaven watched me, looking at the flame kit under the grill rack.

"You know how it works?" I asked.

"How?" He asked, folding his arms, obviously still very angry with me.

"You get two paint cans, one big one little, put a roll of toilet paper in it and fill the smaller paint can with rubbing alcohol. Then you light it up. That's for the big central flame. The smaller flames are alcohol dipped gauze wrapped around cropped soda cans with holes poked through the top. Pretty easy stuff, you need to learn..." I said, sitting down on a log.

"Why do I need to learn it?" He asked, softening up a bit.

"Because not everything is going to be perfect out here. Sometimes shit happens and you won't have the comfort of home...electricity, running water...a safe place to shit. Ezekiel had to learn that the hard way and I'm afraid you may soon. You can't be Dad's favorite child forever." I teased.

"I'm not his favorite child. You are! You get away with a lot more than any of the boys!" Heaven refuted.

"I also pull twelve times more weight than any of your boys and Dad know's that! You may cook, but I clean! I fix the hot water when the shit acts up! I do ya'll nasty ass laundry! Since mom left, I've been in the Infirmary taking care of everyone in the settlement who gets sick. I do the mechanical work on most of the trucks because Zion is a fucking dumbass and can't tell a spark plug from a vacuum tube..." I sighed.

"That's precisely why you're his favorite..."

"Dad doesn't know half the stuff I do." I said back.

"Well you're not the only hard worker! I gotta cook breakfast, lunch and dinner for nearly thirty hungry mouths! And not any instant food like the shit you have done here! I got to skin hares, turkeys, quails, pacari, gut em, and make sure every single last one of you get a fair portion. I got to clean garbanzo and pinto beans every day, chickpeas, black beans, black eyed peas, sweet peas and preserve them! I have to treat rice so it can be edible for you all to cook it! I have to grind wheat and other grains so you all can have bread! And guess what, not one of you complain! So to say I don't work hard is utter bull..."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa," I laughed, "Let's back this shit up! I never said or implied you didn't work hard! I only said shit may get difficult if the power is cut to our home... Don't insinuate anything...just like dad, man I swear!"

"So you do mechanical work for Zion as well?" Heaven asked.

"Food's ready, Zanir!" I said aloud.

"Ok!" He responded. I got up, grabbing some disposable plates and forks. Tanzanir came from the tent, sitting on the log furthest from Heaven.

"And to answer your question, Heaven. Yeah... He fucked up a fuel pump on a truck and got mad at his crew for something he did. But, he left the petrol actuator up when it's supposed to be sealed so air won't get into the fuel line. Then he took credit for it, leaving me high and dry..." I explained, fixing Tanzanir a plate.

"Where you learned to fix cars and shit because someone had to teach Zion and I doubt you learned from the same man..." Heaven asked. I pointed to Tanzanir, Heaven becoming far less impressed then. All he could do was look on in displeasure and silence.

Tanzanir sighed, sensing the hostile energy Heaven had for him. It then dawned on me that Tanzanir heard everything Heaven had to say about him. The embarrassment engulfed me more than any flame ever could, however I didn't say anything. I was not one to try and bridge conflicts especially one's this one-sided. It'd have to heal on it's own.

I gave Tanzanir his plate, catching an eyeroll from Heaven. Tanzanir sighed, obviously having thoughts of his own, thoughts that I knew were harsh and bitter. However, I felt they were justified. My poor brother was an ignorant fool. I fixed him his plate and he scarfed down his food, obviously extremely hungry.

I fixed mine last...hungry, but willing to save my food in case either boy wanted extra. I placed the food on the log I sat on, watching Tanzanir use his watch to pick up where he left off on his laptop. Even Heaven watched him, completely amazed by the technology. It was all short lived when the disconcerting screeches of a dhole startled us all. Upon realizing what it was, I quickly relaxed.

"What was that?" Heaven asked.

"Dholes..." I responded.

"Dholes?" He asked.

"These," Tanzanir said, pulling up an image on his watch and projecting it in the air.

"Looks like a coyote." He said.

"It's not..." Tanzanir responded, going back to programing.

Another screech rang through the metallic spires of the ruins. Heaven looked around, trying to pinpoint the origin of the sound.

A Dhole crouched down, sneaking up behind him. The creature was utterly silent up until the point it started sniffing. Hearing the strange sound, Heaven turned seeing the large canine inches away from him. The boy jolted up, reaching under his shirt for his gun. The creature turned tail, running off at impressive speed.

"SHIT!" He said.

Just then. Another Dhole leapt a staggering twenty feet from a metal shard, landing with a thud. It too took off in an impressive sprint following its friend out of sight.

"Sit down..." I sighed.

"That thing nearly got me!" Heaven said, fully convinced that his life was in danger. Tanzanir sat rolling his eyes, not uttering a word.

"That dog was not going to hurt you... They scavenge and eat small mammals like coyotes. Just be glad it wasn't a saber toothed cat, now put up your gun." I said, hoping to calm the startled boy. He did so, catching a glimpse of the smug look Tanzanir had on his face. I was pretty sure Heaven wasn't thrilled to get these reactions from Tanzanir.

Minutes later another Dhole came to the camp, this one not bothering to sneak up. The inquisitive canid sniffed the air, edging closer to Tanzanir. He was soon the focus of the creature's curiosity as it cautiously approached him, sniffing. He picked up his plate, placing it on the ground near him.

The Dhole wasted no time in eating his scraps. It didn't take long for nine other Dholes to appear from the desert, all fighting that Dhole over the scraps. Their screeches were deafening and blood curdling, but these creatures posed no threat.

My plate fell of the stomp where I sat. A Dhole had snuck up behind me and began eating the scraps off the plate. Not long after, several others swarmed the poor Dhole and a fight ensued. They often sounded worse than what they were, Dholes being very vocal creatures.