Into the Pitt Pt 1
Posted: Sun Mar 27, 2011 12:53 am
Here's a fan fiction piece I've occasionally threatened to write. Please tear it a new one to discourage me from wasting my time writing more of it.
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Brody hunkered down into his sleeping bag, the stiff leather he was wearing stopping him from getting into a comfortable position. He had wanted to make it to the next town over before nightfall, but he judged the timing badly and that hadn’t happened. Exhausted and working in the cover of darkness, he had made a sort of junk barricade in the corner of a dilapidated warehouse. The hope was the barricade would stop someone with bad intentions from finding him as he slept; there was a part of him that would have been okay getting killed in his sleep, but his worst fear was to wake to the agony of being brutalized. When it came down to it, he was much more fearful of getting hurt and living with the pain than getting killed outright.
As Brody finally got his head settled comfortably on his rucksack, he heard a sound. At first he hoped it had been one of the violent gusts of wind that marked spring in western Pennsylvania, but once he heard the footfalls he knew someone else was out there. There was more than one set of footfalls; those of a human in boots and the other an irregular, light step, and Brody realized he was dealing with a person and a dog.
Brody glanced at the pile of ceramic composite and metal plates next to his sleeping bag, the armor segments he attached to his thick leather body suit that he didn’t have time to hook on, then reached for the holster rig sitting next to them. He drew his 14mm and slipped out of the sleeping bag slowly, aiming the pistol at the gap that was the only point of entry to his barricade. No one had come through by the time he was in a crouch, so he set down the pistol and grabbed his pump-action .12 gauge. He duck-walked to the gap, where he stopped to slowly unwind the tripwire trap he had rigged. Anyone who blindly caught their foot in it would have had a board with four knife blades attached to it spring up and stab them in the calf. On the one occasion the trap had been tripped it had saved his ass, the blood-curdling scream of his assailant waking him and giving him time to react. Brody euphemistically called assembling the trap “setting the alarm clock.�
He moved through the darkness, swinging the shouldered shotgun as he scanned what little he could see. Sidling up along a ruined hunk of machinery, he was startled when someone stepped around the corner, oblivious to his presence. Automatically he tracked the barrel down to level it at the figure’s head. Surprise flashed across her eyes as she raised her pistol and pointed it at his forehead.
“Drop the gun!� she demanded.
“Shit, lady, I get the drop on you and you tell me to drop my gun?� Off to the side, Brody heard a dog snarling.
“That’s the size of it,� the woman said.
“You get that mutt to heel and maybe we can work something out. I’m not dropping this gun when I have a pistol and a dog on me,� Brody said.
“We don’t have much to work with here,� the woman said.
“I shoot you, that dog’s on me before I can react. You shoot me, chances are I pull the trigger when the shotgun bounces in my hands and you lose your head. Only winner here is the dog,� Brody said.
“Spaz, heel,� the woman said. The dog moved to her side, but was still growling. “We lower our guns together on three.� Brody licked his lips.
“Sounds good to me. You count.�
She hit three, and Brody dropped his shotgun to the side. The woman kept her weapon raised.
“You cunt, we had a deal,� Brody said. She was surprised that she detected a hint of hurt in his voice.
“Nothing personal. It’s rough out here, I have to protect myself,� she said.
“That’s why it’s rough out here!� Brody exploded. “If you people had any shred of honor you could build something instead of wallowing in the shit of a dead civilization.� Abruptly, she lowered her gun to her side.
“What’s your name?� Brody asked.
“Star,� the woman responded, surprised. Brody noticed the details about her for the first time. Blonde, about five inches shorter than him. Might have been cute, but between the darkness, the fact he’d been a loner for weeks and the lack of obvious disease or mutation improving anyone’s look, he wasn’t sure.
“I’m Brody,� he said.
“You’re not from around here,� Star said.
“If my people were from around here, this warehouse we're arguing in wouldn't be a ruin,� Brody said. “And now that we’re introduced, I’m gone.� He was backing up towards where he had been hiding, keeping her in his sight.
“What do you mean?� Star asked.
“You compromised my hide site, I gotta pack up and move out.�
“Well, I mean, you can stay,� Star said, almost sheepishly. “You were here first.�
“Yeah, you’ll leave, I’ll go back to bed, then I’ll wake up an hour later with that mutt at my throat and you stealing my shit. The place is yours for the night, you win, take it,� Brody said. She had manipulated him into dropping his weapon by lulling him into a false sense of security, and he wasn’t about to trust her again.
“Well… I can’t stay here, either!� Star said.
“And why not?�
“What if you come back and kill and rape me?� Star said. Brody snorted; he liked to think he didn’t have the capacity to harm a stranger for no good reason.
“Don’t flatter yourself, honey,� Brody said, making a production of looking her over from head to toe. “You don’t have anything I want.� In truth, he couldn’t tell anything about her in the dark and through her heavy, formless clothing other than she had a Mauser and a vicious dog.
Brody threw his armor plates into his duffle bag, hoping he wouldn’t need protection while scouting a new site to bed down. As he left the warehouse he looked at the distant lights, four or five miles away, marking the Leetsdale Industrial Zone. Another five miles beyond that, his ultimate destination lay.
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Brody hunkered down into his sleeping bag, the stiff leather he was wearing stopping him from getting into a comfortable position. He had wanted to make it to the next town over before nightfall, but he judged the timing badly and that hadn’t happened. Exhausted and working in the cover of darkness, he had made a sort of junk barricade in the corner of a dilapidated warehouse. The hope was the barricade would stop someone with bad intentions from finding him as he slept; there was a part of him that would have been okay getting killed in his sleep, but his worst fear was to wake to the agony of being brutalized. When it came down to it, he was much more fearful of getting hurt and living with the pain than getting killed outright.
As Brody finally got his head settled comfortably on his rucksack, he heard a sound. At first he hoped it had been one of the violent gusts of wind that marked spring in western Pennsylvania, but once he heard the footfalls he knew someone else was out there. There was more than one set of footfalls; those of a human in boots and the other an irregular, light step, and Brody realized he was dealing with a person and a dog.
Brody glanced at the pile of ceramic composite and metal plates next to his sleeping bag, the armor segments he attached to his thick leather body suit that he didn’t have time to hook on, then reached for the holster rig sitting next to them. He drew his 14mm and slipped out of the sleeping bag slowly, aiming the pistol at the gap that was the only point of entry to his barricade. No one had come through by the time he was in a crouch, so he set down the pistol and grabbed his pump-action .12 gauge. He duck-walked to the gap, where he stopped to slowly unwind the tripwire trap he had rigged. Anyone who blindly caught their foot in it would have had a board with four knife blades attached to it spring up and stab them in the calf. On the one occasion the trap had been tripped it had saved his ass, the blood-curdling scream of his assailant waking him and giving him time to react. Brody euphemistically called assembling the trap “setting the alarm clock.�
He moved through the darkness, swinging the shouldered shotgun as he scanned what little he could see. Sidling up along a ruined hunk of machinery, he was startled when someone stepped around the corner, oblivious to his presence. Automatically he tracked the barrel down to level it at the figure’s head. Surprise flashed across her eyes as she raised her pistol and pointed it at his forehead.
“Drop the gun!� she demanded.
“Shit, lady, I get the drop on you and you tell me to drop my gun?� Off to the side, Brody heard a dog snarling.
“That’s the size of it,� the woman said.
“You get that mutt to heel and maybe we can work something out. I’m not dropping this gun when I have a pistol and a dog on me,� Brody said.
“We don’t have much to work with here,� the woman said.
“I shoot you, that dog’s on me before I can react. You shoot me, chances are I pull the trigger when the shotgun bounces in my hands and you lose your head. Only winner here is the dog,� Brody said.
“Spaz, heel,� the woman said. The dog moved to her side, but was still growling. “We lower our guns together on three.� Brody licked his lips.
“Sounds good to me. You count.�
She hit three, and Brody dropped his shotgun to the side. The woman kept her weapon raised.
“You cunt, we had a deal,� Brody said. She was surprised that she detected a hint of hurt in his voice.
“Nothing personal. It’s rough out here, I have to protect myself,� she said.
“That’s why it’s rough out here!� Brody exploded. “If you people had any shred of honor you could build something instead of wallowing in the shit of a dead civilization.� Abruptly, she lowered her gun to her side.
“What’s your name?� Brody asked.
“Star,� the woman responded, surprised. Brody noticed the details about her for the first time. Blonde, about five inches shorter than him. Might have been cute, but between the darkness, the fact he’d been a loner for weeks and the lack of obvious disease or mutation improving anyone’s look, he wasn’t sure.
“I’m Brody,� he said.
“You’re not from around here,� Star said.
“If my people were from around here, this warehouse we're arguing in wouldn't be a ruin,� Brody said. “And now that we’re introduced, I’m gone.� He was backing up towards where he had been hiding, keeping her in his sight.
“What do you mean?� Star asked.
“You compromised my hide site, I gotta pack up and move out.�
“Well, I mean, you can stay,� Star said, almost sheepishly. “You were here first.�
“Yeah, you’ll leave, I’ll go back to bed, then I’ll wake up an hour later with that mutt at my throat and you stealing my shit. The place is yours for the night, you win, take it,� Brody said. She had manipulated him into dropping his weapon by lulling him into a false sense of security, and he wasn’t about to trust her again.
“Well… I can’t stay here, either!� Star said.
“And why not?�
“What if you come back and kill and rape me?� Star said. Brody snorted; he liked to think he didn’t have the capacity to harm a stranger for no good reason.
“Don’t flatter yourself, honey,� Brody said, making a production of looking her over from head to toe. “You don’t have anything I want.� In truth, he couldn’t tell anything about her in the dark and through her heavy, formless clothing other than she had a Mauser and a vicious dog.
Brody threw his armor plates into his duffle bag, hoping he wouldn’t need protection while scouting a new site to bed down. As he left the warehouse he looked at the distant lights, four or five miles away, marking the Leetsdale Industrial Zone. Another five miles beyond that, his ultimate destination lay.
