Jeurridam Ch. 09: Primm Road

This story may contain graphic and dark material that some readers may not agree with. If you are squeamish, please press the back button and dodge this story...

The direction I went with this chapter is very, very different from any other chapter I've written so far. I never went with such a subtle approach before and I kinda like it.

As always, tell me what you think with a comment.

*****

HEAVEN:

We stared on as the boy leaned up from the bed. He didn't seem to be in pain which was remarkable to say the least. He had been shot repeatedly, and lost a lot of blood. His eyes fell upon the computer seeing a cable running from it. The cable connected to the back of his head, the having to touch it to believe it.

"No... NO!!" He cried, "Beth get this thing OUT OF ME!!"

As he screamed, Big Daddy came rushing into the hospital, everyone fleeing his path. The Leer was standing at alert too! Last but not least, Orb nimbly flew into the hospital. It hovered above Zanir, sensing he was awoke as well. It was just insane how these mechs swarmed in here! It was clear that these were not merely mindless machines.

Beth rushed over to the boy as he struggled.

"Quit that!" She said. Big Daddy whirred wildly, pointing at the computer, "What?"

"Beth get this thing out of me..." Zanir begged, obviously quite distressed.

"Zanir, what's wrong?" Beth asked, unsure what was bothering him. She looked at Big Daddy which gestured to pull the cord from Zanir's head.

"Just get it out..." Zanir said, crying heavily. Beth began yanking on the chord. Zanir screamed out in utter agony, the prong not detaching. Beth realized something was wrong with the prong.

"It's stuck!" Beth said, letting it go.

"I know... I know. You're going to have to hold me down to get this thing out." He said. Beth looked at us all.

"Guys?" She said.

Just as we were about to come to assist, Big Daddy put an arm in front of us, whirring out. We stopped, unsure what the giant sentinel was trying to get us to do. He gestures for us to all yank the cord out of Zanir's head. The sentinel placed a hand on Zanir's back and another on his head. Big Daddy nodded, whirring us the go ahead.

"Come one guys." Beth said. We all began to yank on the chord. Zanir squirmed, squealing loudly under the pain. Even Big Daddy struggled to keep the cybernetic boy down. This thing was barely budging.

Finally the, prong released with an audible pop. We all fell to the ground under our own tugging. Zanir lay in the bed crying. The pain must had been quite intense! Zanir didn't even cry when Rion shot him to bits. The boy eventually calmed down, his breathing slowed down to normal. He sat up, staring at the floor. There was so much on his mind.

"You okay?" Beth asked.

"Yeah, the brain implant in my head has a faulty port so the prong often gets stuck." He said back.

"No, I mean are you..."

"I'M NOT TALKING ABOUT THAT!!" He shouted quick to shoot down the discussion. He clenched his head, still haunted by the thoughts.

"I wasn't talking about that," Beth said, surprised by his wrath, "I mean your vitals... How do you feel? Your cybecytes have take another step and began fusing with your organs. You're becoming more... and more... machine..."

"I already know. I was hooked up to that damn prong afterall. I was aware of every...single thing that happened after I went offline." Zanir responded.

Big Daddy whirred, pointing at the food.

"Yeah, I know dad." Zanir sighed, clenching his head. He got out of the hospital bed without a limp or a anything. This was just insane! Not even forty eight hours ago, he had bled half to death from gunshot wounds, had several fractured bones and we weren't even certain he was going to make it. Not only was he alright but there was no trace of damage.

"You need to take it easy." Beth advised, rushing to assist him. He extended out his hand, pausing her in her tracks.

"I got this..." He said. Big Daddy whirred angrily, slamming a fist to the tarmac floor. The entire building shook with the force.

"Damn, who unleashed the beast. Alright, I'll chill." Zanir said, sitting back on the bed. We all looked on lost.

"Okay, is this something new? You've never been able to understand Big Daddy without a connection..." June asked.

"There's a connection, just wireless now. That's what Galveston and I was last working on before that psycho put a permanent dent in him." Zanir sighed, shaking his head.

"What the hell is going on in here?" Basil asked, rushing into the terminal, "ZANIR!!"

"Wussup?" Zanir asked, looking as blank as ever.

"You...you..you're woke? You got shot up and shot up bad... you're..."

"Look, Basil. I'm not like a regular person. I heal really fast, so spare me the confusion..." Zanir said, short of patience.

"So how well are you?" Basil asked.

"Rare and to go..." Zanir shrugged. Big Daddy looked at Basil shaking his head, refuting the claim.

"GET OUT! You're too big to be in here!!" Basil said, pointing to the door, "All you mechs get out!!"

They did so, Big Daddy bucking at Basil, as if to square off with the boy. The Leer brushed against him, almost knocking the boy over. These machines had a sense of humor, it seemed.

"Zanir your family is rude..." Basil sighed.

"They're just trying to be supportive, I guess." Zanir smiled. Despite his pure sentiments, it was quite a weak smile. They boy still had some serious thoughts lurking around his mind. We all did.

"Is it too soon to ask your for help?" Basil asked. It warranted a reaction from June that only could be described as sheer disgust. Hell, I wasn't too happy Basil didn't give the boy the first chance to breathe. He literally woke up a handful of minutes ago out of death defying coma!

"No... What do you need?" Zanir asked, looking not very enthused. However we all knew he felt indifferent. Basil sighed, obviously a lot needing to be done.

"Where... to... start...?" Basil shrugged.

"Maybe with the circuitry in the tunnels?" Zanir suggested.

"That'd be a good start." Basil laughed, "Come along..."

We all walked forth, heading out of the hospital. Basil began to lead us on an unexpected tour of the base.

"There are over five dozen above ground hangars here. Some are still under renovations but others have been completed. We're working on building a massive network of greenhouses to be completely self sustaining. We've been bringing in fertile soil from the Colorado river basin as well as planting crops..." Basil said.

"You my friend need someone to steal some trees for you... Waiting for them to grow will not serve you well at all, I'm afraid." Ezekiel said, warranting an intense glance from Zanir.

"How do you suppose we get trees in the desert?" Basil asked.

"There's a nursery in Phoenix. We saw it on our last run. We're can pirate a few fruiting saplings." June suggested. Ezekiel gave him a blazing glare before falling silent. June could feel the static emanating from Ezekiel but said nothing. He didn't want to engage in an exchange of hostilities with him.

"Hey, I'm not above stealing from others to get what I need for my people..." Basil shrugged, "But we're also trying to turn some hangars into power depots but we keep running into issues with wiring."

"I can help with that. I have a special project I've been working on and I think this place has just what I need to benefit us both." Zanir said. June and Beth looked at each other, sharing a few giggles.

"Told you." June smiled.

"What?" Zanir asked.

"Nothing." June responded with a quick head shake.

"And lastly, we have a few hangars with a whole heap of useless junk. After cleaning out many of them, we placed the junk piles in a select few hangars." Basil explained.

"Junk? I love Junk! I know what I'll be doing for the next few weeks then." Zanir said.

"I don't even know why I'm showing you all... You basically infiltrated this facility already..." Basil chuckled.

"Well you stole our booze." June said, surprising everyone that he still was holding on to that.

"Since our last run in, I've been having a change in operation... Haven't been blockading the Corridor any more. My goal is to get this place to be self sustaining and to build a wall around it but that's a long way off. Between that and now, we're utterly defenseless with no niche. My vision is starting to crumble." Basil sighed.

"How fucking old are you?" Zanir asked.

"Nineteen... Why?" Basil responded.

"You look like a pre-teen." Zanir noted.

"And you're one to speak?" Basil fired back, warranting a smile from Zanir.

"I can turn this place into the most advanced place in the Mojave... Hell, apart from the Hoover Dam, this place already is." Zanir shrugged.

"Need I remind you about your long term goal... getting to Labrador?" Beth asked.

"I still have loose ends to tie up and I don't feel prepared to make the journey yet. I still have to fix the turrets in The City of Rust which will be an undertaking. That means I'll have to find a way to synthesize cytotrolic acid which is fundamentally impossible right now and I have to transport enough of the acid back to Jeurridam... Not to mention, I need to fix the manticore mech. It'd be an important ally." Zanir said.

"Damn, seems you were so close to leaving... Now you're stuck here again." Beth sighed.

"I know." Zanir responded with a head shake, "I gotta do what I gotta do..." The faintest smile came across Zeek's face. Of course this love sick fool would be happy Zanir would stay a little bit longer.

"Where the hell are my gravity blades?" Zanir asked.

"Back of the buggy. They are a lot lighter than they look!" Beth answered.

"They're made out of an alien metal." Zanir responded.

"Alien metal?" Basil asked, "We have tons of alien scrap here, or so we think..."

"Really?" Zanir asked, "This place just keeps getting better and better..."

"So do all of you plan on staying? I need to know so I can arrange accommodations. We have more than enough space." Basil offered.

"Well, I don't know about you guys but I'd love to stay." I laughed.

"Sorry but I got work Monday..." Ezekiel said, warranting a bewildered look from Zanir. However, the boy didn't comment.

"So do you, Heaven." Julio said with a head nod. It had me so confused.

"What? I'm not working with Darren anymore..." I said back quickly.

"EEEEEEW You worked with Darren?" Ezekiel asked almost drawn to laughter.

"Yeah... Seems we all know him." I sighed.

"Oh my God," Ezekiel said, bursting out into laughter, "YOU'RE THE UPTIGHT DUDE HE SAID... BUAHAHAHAHAH OH MY GOD..." All I could do was roll my eyes.

"Let's refrain from even discussing..." I said back.

"I don't mind staying here, either." Beth said, looking at the expanse of buildings.

"Well how am I going to get to work?" Ezekiel asked.

"It's not even wise for you to get to work with Da Lagon lurking like they are. We all need to lay low for better reasons rather than worse..." Zanir advised, surprising us all. Zeek was left staring at Zanir in shock before having to compose himself.

"I don't know. I think it's worth the risk... Someone needs to wipe Da Lagon off the face of the Earth anyways... It'd be a cute little spec erased from these lands." Ezekiel responded.

"I wholeheartedly agree. I can wipe their entire force out in five minutes flat..." Zanir said, looking as stone cold as ever. It made Ezekiel glow to hear Zanir speak so grimmly.

"Hell no... Not only is it stupid because you're not well enough face off with an entire bandito faction, it wouldn't be wise to bring attention to you or the mechs in a place that hates mechs! We don't know who's a rat or not out there in Jeurridam... Everyone looks the damn same!" Beth said, the only rational sounding one.

"You think I'll use my mechs to take out Da Lagon?" Zanir asked smiling.

You think you're gonna take out Da Lagon while I'm still alive and kicking?" Beth fired back defiantly, her arms wrapped tightly around her chest, "Besides... Alistair is already promised to do so. Oh yeah, Alistair wants to speak with you, Zanir." "Why?" Zanir asked, completely terrified.

"Just go see him." Beth sighed.

"No... I can't." Zanir said, shaking his head, "I will not be able to look at him... I'm pretty sure he was one reason I didn't come out of my coma sooner. I can't look at him..."

"Zanir, it's not like that. He understands wholeheartedly what happened and is not upset with you. He wants Da Lagon on a silver platter over the spilled blood!" Beth responded.

"And he's not the only one... I want every Da Lagon roamer, every Da Lagon lord on the slaughter! I want it to be at my hands... Beth, if you knew half the shit they put me through, you'd see why I needed this! I was their pawn! I did their dirty work! I made them rise to power because of what they did to me and I want to take it all away... You don't know how bad I want this!" Zeek said through the grit of his teeth. It left Zanir shocked, completely and utterly floored. Zeek sounded like he was finally thinking right, like he'd come to his senses about Da Lagon. It was surreal to see because not long ago, Zeek was in much worse shape. Hell, it was a shock to us all.

"After the last blood bath, I'm done with missions for a while. I just want to nap around for a few days." I said, holding both hands up in surrender to the idea. Basil smiled at me.

"I can arrange that... I can make sure you're very well taken care of." Basil said. His eyes held something a bit more than just a pure intent. My gut was telling me he was up to something but I didn't know what.

"That sounds wonderful, actually." I responded.

"How do you get water out here?" Zanir asked.

"One of my wiser subjects flooded a tunnel that runs all the way from here to Lake Mead. We just filter the water with some charcoal pumps. We're never in short supply." Basil answered. Zanir was further impressed with this place.

"How'd you manage to do that?" Zanir asked.

"We used the lowest tunnel to channel water across the desert. The upper tunnels are sealed away and dry. You'd have to ask him yourself though. I'm terrible with the sciences." Basil said with a head shake.

"Me too. I don't get how Zanir manages it all..." I added. Basil smiled at me, as we continued to head into the main facility. Maybe he was flirting? I don't know...

"You're bunch are lucky to have him on my team. I hope he plays well with others... My subjects would be eager to learn from a mind like his." Basil continued.

"You're kind of like the Little Prince of the Mojave, aren't you?" I asked. He looked at me appalled by the title.

"Noooooooo... I wouldn't like to view it that way." He said shaking his head.

"Well you kind of are..." Zanir said, only to prod.

"I only am the representative of these people! As a whole, we come together to form decisions... I don't do it all by myself. It's all a massive team effort and we vote." He responded.

"Awe... Democracy. Fair but inefficient..." June shrugged, warranting a disapproving look from Basil.

"We have a committee... For the next six months, I'm nominated head of the committee and my plans, with the approval of others, will come to fruition. We try to keep the committee like minded but varied enough to see kinks and flaws in a regiment." Basil responded, "It has been in talks to keep me the head since my plans seem to be the only ones capable of getting off the ground..."

"Nice to meet someone that doesn't have shit for luck..." Zeek said, extending out his hand. Basil looked surprised, eager to shake it.

"So if you all stay, I apologize, I'm going to have to put you all to work. There is plenty to do around here." Basil smiled.

"Nope, not a fan. I'll move back to Henderson..." Zeek responded.

"I have work of my own, a cartel to run." June said.

"Hell, I'll quit my job for this place." I said, warranting a warm grin from Basil. Yep, this was definitely flirting!

"Nope... Monday, when we make the package drop to Tijuana, you're coming!" Julio said.

"Tijuana? You're taking my brother all the way to Baja?" Beth asked. Zeek turned to June, looking at him intently.

"You got my brother running cartels, now?" Zeek asked, not sounding pleased.

"It's up to him." June shrugged, not wanting this to turn into some type of confrontation.

"It's better than being cooped up in a shack and coming home, smelling like taco meat..." Zeek laughed, poking fun at me. It left June quite disturbed, unsure how to process Zeek's hard outward facade.

"How far is Tijuana?" I asked.

"About two hundred fifty, three hundred miles on a good day." Julio said, seemingly prodding for my reaction.

"And all of this on this upcoming Monday?" I asked, this being just so much.

"Yep." He said.

"Hell no... I'm not doing that." I responded. Julio came closer, smiling in some sickening way.

"Do you know how much desert transports make simply for carrying shit across the desert?" He asked.

"It's also incredibly dangerous!" I responded.

"Which is exactly why we need you. The more gunners we have, the safer we'll be." I said back.

"Tijuana isn't exactly a sanctum... Maybe a less dangerous mission for my brother rather than anything else?" Beth asked.

"No, let Heaven have some fun! He needs the work experience..." Zeek insisted. Beth looked at him threateningly, causing the boy to laugh.

"I've had my fun for the rest of the year! I just want to sit down for a bit before getting back into it." I responded.

"You sat yesterday... And you're sitting today... Tomorrow, we get back on that Mojave grind..." Julio said.

"I don't want to do it!!" I pouted.

"Hey, you'll be back..." Basil said, sounding reassuring.

"Eh, I guess I'll do it. But don't expect me to be all chipper and dandy about it. I'm fucking acting like Zeek but on ten..." I said.

"Acting like me? Dafuq you mean acting like me? I act a certain kind of way?" Zeek asked laughing.

"Yeah, mean as hell... detached, completely anti-social and slightly murderous..." I teased.

"Hey, my best friend was just killed by that Da Lagon scum... I'm still coping..." He responded.

"So did mine..." I said, challengingly. It warranted a strange reaction from, Julio. He rolled his eyes as though he weren't pleased at my sentiments over Swish.

Beth stared at the boy, quite unimpressed with him. Something was going on and I had the slightest clue about it. I shrugged it off like I did most things before Basil stepped forth, wrapping an arm around my shoulder.

"If the cartels don't work out for you, I may have the perfect job..." He smiled. It was so uncomfortable... I smelled like a walking armpit, having worked out early this morning and he, by contrast, smelled like a pool of the most divine aromas.

Not to mention how gorgeous he was. He stood about six foot one, and was quite slim in stature. He had typical mojave features, with the dark olive skin, curly, almost kinky hair, and caucasoid facial features. The only difference here was that he had honey colored eyes and a similar hair color. Still though, he looked much younger than nineteen and had this joyousness about him that I desperately needed right about now.

"I would ask what this job would be but I can't help but not train my focus smelling like this." I said, truly embarrassed. He looked at me, sorely indifferent.

"So what?" He asked, "We all smell bad when we don't bathe, don't we?"

This guys was just mesmerizing. He oozed nothing but charisma and had such a powerful mind. He seemed to be attracted to me as well. Still though, I didn't want to read too much into it. I'd have to see how things unfold between us and let them do so naturally. It'd be foolish to have some type of expectation for this after growing so close to Swish within a matter of hours. But still though, his death was a blow but nothing like it would have been if he and I were in love. No, it was just mutual attraction and exploration of our feelings.