Outrun – Cyberpunk LitRPG

Chapter 165

Chapter 165

The smooth rumble of an engine chugging along woke me up. Instantly, my drowsiness vanished as my brain kicked into high alert. It took a few moments to settle back down. 

I rubbed at my eyes, feeling quite happy all things considered. The soreness in my limbs had faded entirely. My hearing had also returned, thankfully. Though I was incredibly parched. And my trust, albeit begrudgingly given considering my own dire straits, hadn’t been betrayed! That was a victory in itself. At least, that I know of.

A yawn escaped my lips as I looked around. I was still in the Prowler, though we were in a different spot entirely. Just after dawn based on the way the shadows sat. The rotten corpses and eternal dunes had been exchanged for broken cement structures and tattered asphalt roads of a town. Probably Stuarton. 

Everything was dilapidated with sand stacked high in between the low buildings. We drove on what looked like an ancient interstate highway raised up off the ground, so we dodged the worst of the piled dunes. The ride was still incredibly lumpy as the convoy moved along the road. 

The entire town looked as if it’d been built around the highway, with even the lone tower of Stuarton built next to it. The tower was now a half-demolished structure with stretched rebar and falling concrete held in by its frame as if trying to cling to the last of its life. Life that would never return.

But not all life had vanished. With the shadows and occasional splotches of water from old city infrastructure, there were plenty spots of greenery scattered around. They hid like small oases amongst the rotting structures of the city. It was rather nice seeing such greenery in the city. It was almost as if a subtle reminder that life always finds a way.

And where there were plants and water, there were most definitely animals. Or at least insects, unfortunately. Some weird ones like Thermoguants and massive man-eating scorpions, but also normal flies and cockroaches made places like this their home.. I spotted a few bestial tracks scattered around, though the sandstorm from last night looked as though it’d covered most of them. Everything was fresh. Nothing too big, at least at first glance. Looked like a bunch of rats or some other kind of vermin.

The entire place had a weird vibe, almost as if we were driving over the corpse of a giant collapsed in the sand. In a way, I guess we were. There was a certain… forlorn feeling to the entire place, almost as if the town was still searching for its once inhabitants… or maybe I was picking up on a predator’s hunger for more prey.

The glitched-out holograms, which at a distance had still looked somewhat alright, were horrifying visages up close. Each twisted pixel of light pulled together almost as if the entire thing was made of faces screaming for help. Note to self, don’t jack into anything around here… not that it would be much of a problem. I hardly ever used my jacks.

Anyway, there was probably scrap code in most of these scrambled by years of disrepair. Or, if I was unlucky, maybe there was an AI trapped in the rotting town somewhere. With old, pre-K-10 Convention facilities, it was always a valid concern. No telling what was left of the old aging infrastructure. There was at least some level of electricity remaining considering the signs were still active.

With the sun out at full power, at least if the heat was anything to go off of, the neon signs and flickering lights were drowned out by the much brighter light. Still, flickers here and there in the corner of my attention drew my attention, making me incredibly uncomfortable. It was almost reminiscent of that time I glitched out, though I was almost a hundred percent sure it wasn’t just me this time around.

“Rise an’ shine sleeping beauty.” Lia chuckled to herself, drawing my attention back to the people in the cabin. 

“You really think I’m beautiful?” I asked in a sickly sweet voice as I put the most innocent expression I could on my face. 

Lia flinched back as a blush rose to her cheeks. “Oh, uh, yeah.”

“Aw shucks.” I dropped the act as I took in the rest of the Prowler. Everyone was back to usual. Hampton probably hadn’t woken up since he went to sleep earlier. Yonrow was still drawing away, this time depicting an artful depiction of a Prowler mowing down hordes of Dune Walkers. And then there was Renold, bobbing his head to classical music singing through a small radio up on the dash. Of course it was classical. He seemed the type. “What’d I miss?”

Renold turned the music down slightly. “We’re on our way to meet the Nomad contacts from the Deseran Family. Shortspire Mall, at the base of Shortspire Tower.”

”Shortspire? Someone had a good naming sense.” Not that I could blame anyone considering my own names tended to always end in -er.

I peeked out the window again, checking the distance to the tower. It was a bit far, but we were closing fast. Everything, including Shortspire Tower, was built off of the highway so it was almost a straight shot to it. Maybe ten or twenty more minutes. “Anything happen after I fell asleep?”

”Uh- we had to vacate the area almost immediately after. The sandstorm kept the Thermoguants away, but with it going away…” Lia shuddered. “Otherwise you missed an extraordinarily boring drive.”

I lifted an arm and tapped on the control pad just above my wrist. With a few more taps, I once more dropped the temperature controls to cool myself off. “Nova.”

The cab went silent for a few moments. Just as Renold turned his music back up, Lia asked a question. “What are we expecting from the Nomads?”

”The Deserans?” Renold shrugged, though his grip on the steering wheel tightened by a slight bit. “Normal Nomads. Captain didn’t say much about them, but they seemed alright. For Nomads, that is. More of the scavenger and odd-job type family rather than the raiding and pillaging kind like the Jackals and Hawks.”

“Chek. What about weapons? They have anything juicy?” Lia rubbed her hands together excitedly, which was a normal gesture turned rather strange by the way she crooked all four of her elbows.

Renold went silent as their radios buzzed. Captain Roger’s voice came through clearly. “All squads. The road is collapsed in front. Turn back and take the next exit. We’ll plow through the streets right quick then get back up on the interstate. Watch for Scorters. Red-One reported signs a herd had come through at some point.”

A chorus of affirmations came across, including one from Renold. We followed the convoy back the way we came, putting a bit more distance between us and the tower before we could get off at an exit. The exit itself was a dune piled high up and over the road, which caused the whole convoy to slow to nearly a halt as the drivers carefully maneuvered under the highway.

The bumpy ride got even bumpier as we started to move over the sand-smothered pavement. There were sections where I wouldn’t even be able to tell if we were on a road if not for the gaps in between buildings. Not that it was much help considering how many empty lots were in this town. We moved out of direct sunlight, and into the long shadow cast by the raised highway.

Occasionally, the convoy would slow down to a crawl as the APC rammed rusted frames of cars out of the way. There were quite a number of them that’d been abandoned out in the road, though most of the time it wasn’t too big of a problem since we drove on sand piled high above the roads. It was only an issue when we returned back to shattered pavement.

”What’s a Scorter?” Lia asked as we drove past the wreckage of one said ramming. The rusted car had almost disintegrated under the APC’s rough treatment.

For once, I actually knew the answer. While I couldn’t research every single thing in the Outlands, I did manage to hit a number of them. “They’re like mutant scorpions.”

”That’s not too bad-”

”About the size of a small car and can squirt acid from their tails that can easily melt you down to just bones in minutes, and even the bones if exposed for an hour or two.” I added on. Speaking of, I wouldn’t mind getting some of their acid into my canteen. I got a whole variety of acids back at Cold Moon Solutions, but Scorter acid was practically a bioengineered weapon.

”Don’t forget their claws have a crushing power capable of tearing through metal.” Renold spoke up from the front. “And have an extremely durable exoskeleton that can easily reflect small arms.”

Lia shuddered, rubbing at her arms. “Woah… are they weak to lightning by any chance?”

”Maybe?” I shrugged as I pulled out my phone and started reading. I’d copied quite a few of the files from Cold Moon Solutions that could fit onto it. I spent the rest of the time headed for the Shortspire Mall reading. Thankfully, nothing of notice happened on our way over aside from a short backtrack to once more get back on the ancient highway.

And then we were pulling out and toward the tower. Up close, it looked a bit more intimidating. The metal frame of the tower stuck out like spikes as if to ward off some great beast. Or maybe as though things repeatedly were thrown out, causing such a distortion. I had to look away as the brilliant sun started reflecting into my eyes.

We drove to the far side of the mall where another of those abandoned, empty lots were set up, taking quite a bit of space. Or maybe it was a junkyard? There were a ton of abandoned cars piled up. Judging by the sands piled everywhere, there were quite a few said piles around.

More importantly, a large truck sat in the middle of the parking lot. The truck was fully decked out with armored panels, armored tires, spikes to fend off anything from approaching close, and a massive cannon mounted to the truck bed. The truck was painted tan, nearly blending into the sand around it. I nearly missed it at first glance, though the white flag fluttering from a pole set up next to the truck drew my eye.

The entire convoy pulled to a stop just outside of the empty lot, and only one of the Prowlers moved forward. The rest of us were moved into the typical blockade formation the Crimson Company loved to use as if we were wary of an ambush. Considering how hostile the Outlands were, it was a fair concern. Red-One split off and headed for the truck.

”Is that them?” Hampton asked, startling me. When did he wake up?

”Should be.” Renold said as he eyed the situation through a gap in the vehicles. “Probably just a scout to take us to their camp. Or to call in people to come get the supplies.”

“Why are we dropping off supplies for the Deseran Family anyway?” Lia leaned back to get comfy as the Renold put the Prowler in park. 

Renold shrugged and turned his radio back up. “How am I supposed to know? Probably some deal they struck.”

”Uh- it was a request from Athena. We’ll be getting a couple of Nomad escorts out of it in exchange.” I was there for that part, at least. Not quite sure if there was more to it. Knowing how Fixers worked, there definitely was. Probably a chance to deepen her connection with the Nomads at the very least.

Hampton took on a speculative look before giving out orders once more. “Lia, eyes?”

”Chek.” In a flush of power, she once more summoned a sprite. This time, it was a normal-sized wolf with shaggy long fur. The wolf seemed to communicate with Lia before phasing through the door and sprinting across the sand toward the meetup point.

Lia once more made a screen showing the wolf’s perspective as it ate up distance with a casual lope. In no time, it caught up with the Red-One as they slowly approached the parked truck.