Dead Cities and Deader Men (Operative Title) Day 12 of 30

 

Dead Cities and Deader Men (Operative Title)

Day 12 of 30

11/30/2020

[Flashback]

Twisting, rending metal all around. Hiss of good air outbound, replaced with influx of deadly chemicals and waste products. Sounds of dying echoed with the stutter of futile small arms fire. The Driver Panels all screamed the story, the Track was dead and all inside were dying in one way or another.

All major systems off line. Movement, detection, internal life support, power, all about to fail. Smack the panel with heel of hand, see if it will jog it back into operation. Nothing working right. Camera relays showing ranks of serrated, rotating circular mouths ripping into the metal skin of the vehicle.

All Guns falling silent. Only movement now is the rocking of the frame under the repeated assaults of native monsters. The Deploy Panel shows no life signs. Obviously wrong, the driver is trapped in his space, unable to affect what is happening.

The power goes out, air circulation ceases, the outside cold starts to seep in past the thick armor and heavy reinforced glass. Nothing but pending death outside or inside.

Through the glass, can see the thing moving away. Somehow, it missed killing everyone, at least by one. So that is something at least.

Give it a while longer, wait for it to head out, then see what there is to salvage. Don the spare suit kept for emergencies. Give it an hour later, route battery power to the doors and they open up. The whole place is open to the local atmosphere.

Everyone is dead back there. There was little hope that anyone survived. None did. Pull up a spare Suit, load it with everything possible in Meds, Stims, Weapons, and Power Cells. Looks like almost enough to make it back to The City. Will have to push hard to make it work. Most things will not even notice something this small as long as they are not shot at first.