A Twink & a Trucker Survive the Was

A Twink and a Trucker Survive the Wasteland - Chapter 4

*

The crew took a couple of days to recuperate from the excitement of the beast attack, taking refuge in the shade of the palm trees that scattered around the edge of the oasis.

They took the opportunity to rest up, more so Trucker than any of the others. His arm was healing well - there were no signs of infection and the wound was closing up.

Mech had done his due diligence to carefully monitor it, changing Trucker's bandages, cleaning the area and checking the boss's pulse. Luckily, all signs were good.

Thankfully, the meat from the beast and the water from the oasis provided them with supplies so they didn't waste their pantry rations.

The few days were a nice reprieve from the intense heat and alertness of being on the road. Twink didn't seem to be in any hurry to go, he was fond of their idleness.

However, Trucker was itching to continue their journey. Not that any of the crew pressured him, but he knew the longer they stayed, the more they were jeopordising the quality of the medical supplies.

'Think we're ready to set sail,' Trucker announced one morning, rolling his shoulder and testing out his arm.

'Don't push yourself,' Red said.

'Not til you're ready,' Blue added.

'Are you sure, boss?' Mech asked.

Twink looked up from where he sat on the sand, sharpening his knives. His expression was empty.

Trucker hated to break up their tranquil peace by the oasis, but they had to leave some time.

'I feel fine. It doesn't hurt to move it. Reckon I'm all good to drive her,' he nodded to the truck.

'Yeeehoo,' Red yelped, preparing his bike to set off.

'That's my boss,' Blue cheered as well, packing up his weapons.

Both brothers were clearly excited about getting back out on the road again.

Trucker couldn't blame them. He was a road-head as well. Staying put was never much for him.

'Good to see you back in action again, boss. Thought we'd lost you there for a minute,' Mech smiled, patting him on the other shoulder and clambering into the truck.

Trucker looked to Twink who hadn't moved from his position on the ground, sharpening his knives.

'We're going soon, best get to it,' Trucker said to him.

'You sure you're ok to drive?' Twink looked up at the large man.

'There's plenty worse things have attacked me and I've managed to drive her to safety. Don't you worry, this ain't my first rodeo,' Trucker reassured the young man.

'Those cuts were pretty deep,' Twink replied.

'You sound like you're trying to get us to stay put,' Trucker stared at the young man, tilting his head to the side. 'Enjoying yourself a bit too much are we?'

'No, not at all,' Twink protested, but began blushing. The gig was clearly up.

'Come on,' Trucker turned to get on the truck. 'If you don't, we're leaving you and you're walking,' he said with a note of finality.

Twink gulped and got to his feet, he knew better to think lightly of the trucker's words. Warnings out in the Wasteland had a habit of coming to pass.

*

The crew had been driving for a few hours. All was good from Trucker. Beside some minor wincing from the wound, it all appeared ok. They were back on track, travelling the road to deliver the medical goods.

The drive was pretty uneventful. Once it was established that Trucker was ok to drive without much assistance, Mech went back to his repair work. Twink rotated between helping out Mech, doing some lookout work in the tower above and chatting with Trucker at the front.

Red and Blue did some recon on their bikes, driving ahead on the road to pass any useful info on the terrain, directions or if they spotted anything unusual. But, overall, the journey was quiet.

The crew had come to a flat plain, the land beneath them levelling out so the going would be smooth.

'Hey, I wonder if this area has any landworms underground?' Red said into his mouthpiece to Blue.

'Ewww, dude, don't say that,' Blue scrunched up his face.

'Why? They usually like flat terrains,' Red replied, speeding up as he watched the distance for any rocks.

'Because, they freak me out. Plus they might hear you,' Blue skirted some cacti plants that were growing along the road.

'How will they hear you?' Red asked, incredulously.

'I dunno. They might know you're talking about them and appear out of the ground and swallow us out. They're massive beasts that could gulp down a small town,' Blue was freaking himself out. 'Let's just change the subject, happy thoughts, happy thoughts,' he told himself.

Red laughed into his mouthpiece. 'Dude, chill, there's probably none here or else we'd feel the earth quake by now.'

It didn't do much to assuage Blue's fears, but his brother was somewhat right in what he was saying. The lack of vibrations in the ground was surely a good sign that there were no massive worms lying beneath them to attack.

When a large sand dune rose up to the right side of the road, blocking their view of the desert to the right, he heaved a sigh of relief. Any sandworms were likely to avoid the uneven terrain here.

The convoy drove onwards, the two brothers chatting light-heartedly between topics as there wasn't much of note in the distance.

'That grilled beast that Twink cooked has me thinking about all that tasty food they have in the Eden city markets,' Red was daydreaming.

'Like what? Barbecued scorpion? Spiced cactus? One of those special suncakes,' Blue's mouth was salivating thinking of the food.

'One of all the above, please,' Red patted his stomach.

'You guys are making me hungry,' Trucker complained through the mouthpiece and the crew all laughed, a nice moment of levity between them.

'A nice chilled beer is what I'm after,' Trucker said to them, but he got no reply. 'Guys? Guys?' He repeated himself, but there was no answer. He looked to Twink beside him, and then turned to Mech who was away at the back, but both shrugged unknowingly.

'Blue. Red. You there?' Trucker said loudly into the mouthpiece, but the two bikers didn't answer.

He looked as far as he could into the distance. They were mere dots on the horizon, but they seemed to have stopped at the curve of the sand dune.

Suddenly, Blue's voice cracked into the Truck's speaker. 'You gotta see this.'

'What is it?' Trucker asked, but all he heard was radio silence.

So on he pressed, accelerating for the next few minutes as they caught up to the brothers. The distance slowly decreasing between them. When they finally met them, the brothers just stood and stared beside their bikes into the distance.

Once the truck turned the curve of the sand dune, they could see what the brothers were looking at, and what had been hidden by the large height of the sand dune.

Trucker brought the truck to a halting stop, wide-eyed in shock at what lay before them.

A steam engine was hurtling towards them on a railway. It appeared to be a passenger train carrying denizens across the wasteland, probably wanting to go towards a city far away.

But what put the crew into paralysis was the fact that the train was on fire ... everything on fire.

The carriages, the wheels, the engine, it was all going up in smoke.

A few moments after Trucker had brought the truck to a stop, the train came rushing past them on the railway, screeching in agony as the hurtling train trundled along the rails.

But that wasn't the worst sound coming from the train. What brought a tingle to the spines of the crew were the shouts and screams of the passengers aboard who were stuck on board, burning alive. Some tried to jump off the speeding train, but it was moving far too fast and the jump was far too risking from a height, so they landed with broken limbs on the ground as they hit rocks or the hard surface, and landed but were unable to put out the flames.

'What the fuck?' Blue said finally.

'I've never seen anything like this,' Red replied.

'You haven't been on the road as long as the boss or I have,' Mech warned.

'I've seen this happen before. I don't know why they don't just shut down this railway, it's a killing magnet,' Trucker said in disgust at the horror before them.

'It's the promise of a new life for these people. Somewhere better than far away, somewhere where there's more than just sand, empty desert and bandits. Unfortunately, the train is what attracts bandits, and you get this,' Mech nodded to the travesty in front of the crew, the train ablaze and the people dying before them. 'Bandits trying to earn a quick piece of gold by killing a train full of people and then collecting what they can find in the ruins. It's truly sickening behavior. Innocent lives, lost for nothing.'

Trucker heard the door open and Twink scooted out of the truck. 'Twink, what are you doing? Get back in,' Trucker hauled himself off the seat and ran after the young man.

'We have to help them,' Twink screamed, wading through the sand as he moved toward the train flying past. The gust from the speeding train was pushing him back. Plus the blaze was scorching the air, which made it hard to move onwards.

'It's too late for them, Twink. We can't help, they're all dead or dying,' Trucker ran after the young man.

'No, it's not ... they can be saved,' Twink was shouting now, desperate.

There were bodies flung from the train, but no one was getting up. They were burnt alive, or broken, withering away before becoming still, dead bodies. The screams from the blazing train faded as the passenger train became a fiery coffin.

Trucker caught up to him and grabbed his arm. 'Listen to me, there's nothing we can do. They're gone. We can't save them. I've been in your position before. Too many times to count. Helped people flung from the burning trains, with broken legs, broken arms, burnt faces, burnt bodies, people who are a mess of limbs and burnt skin. It doesn't end well. Even with bringing them on the truck and trying to help them, they don't make it. We're not an ambulance. We're too far away from civilisation to get them the care they need. It just lengthens their agony. The truck becomes a hearse carrying dead bodies.'

'We can save some,' Twink began to sob, desperately trying to break free of Trucker's grip, but the large man pulled him into a tight hug, holding his head to his chest in a warm, protective embrace. He shielded him from the sight and sounds of the horror before them.

'It's ok, it's ok,' Trucker repeated, holding the young man.

'We can save them,' Twink repeated, crying deeply now, so his voice was a mere whisper above his sobs. But he'd given up trying to break from Tucker's embrace. The train came to a winding lull as it began to slow down, its fiery composure still intense and hot. Likely, there was no one alive on board.

The pair stayed like that for a few minutes, Trucker holding steady as Twink shook silently.

'Boss, we gotta go,' Blue warned.

'Just give me a sec,' Trucker said quietly.

'Sorry, boss. Bandits on the horizon. They're coming to collect their spoils, we leave now or they're coming for us,' Red revved his bike engine.

'Shit. Alright, let's go,' Trucker moved away, but Twink didn't follow.

'Twink. I know this is horrible, but we really need to go.'

Again, the young man didn't move as he stared at the burning carcass of the train in front of him.

'Twink, if we don't move now we're as good as the people on that train.

With one last watery-eyed look at the flames, Twink turned and followed Trucker.

Quick-sticks, the crew set off away from the ruinous sight before them, the smoke growing smaller in the rear view mirror of their vehicles.

Before it disappeared from view, they spotted the bandits amassing on the train. Whether they were too far away for a chase or the train spoils seemed more appealing, the bandits didn't try to follow the crew.

And with that the train, the fire and the bandits disappeared from view.

All the passengers, the lives they'd lived, the lives they'd yet to live, the people they'd loved, the memories they shared, they were all lost to the ages, to the burning fire, to the violence and greed of man. Now nothing but ashes remained, soon to become one with the desert sand, blowing over the ruin, the bodies, the memories. All part of the great wasteland. Stories washed away.

The drive after was one of silence. None of the crew felt like conversing. Part in shock at the events that had unfolded, but also out of the respect for the lives of the people who had been lost, and couldn't have been saved. As much as they had wanted to, they knew there was nothing they could've done.

Twink was deep in his thoughts, clearly traumatised by what had happened. As he continued to repeat the events, he knew Trucker had been right. There had been nothing they could do for the dying out here in the wilderness with nothing to aid the far gone with their suffering. But it didn't help soothe the shock of what had happened.

*

Later that evening when the crew was sure they weren't being pursued, they set up camp for the night.

The mood was sombre as they ate in silence by the campfire.

As Twink finished what he was eating, he cleared his throat, an announcement on his lips. He'd been silent since the train event, so the others were taken aback and hushed down their chatter.

'The reason why I had such a ... strong reaction back there was ... it brought back memories to when I ... lost my parents.'

'Oh, I'm so sorry,' Blue said.

'Twink, you don't need to explain yourself, we understand,' Trucker began.

'It's ok, I want you to know,' Twink said. 'I watched as my parents were killed by a horrible crime gang. My parents owned a jewel business. Made a lot of business from it. They were good people in the community. Then one day, this crime gang wants in on the business. Naturally, my parents refused so they had them killed, and there was nothing I could do to stop them. I was just a kid,' he had tears in his eyes.

The rest of the crew listen to his story.

'They spared my life, but made me work for them, doing their dirty work for years, beat me, made me feel like nothing, having to look at my parents' killers for years. Of course there was nothing I could do to prove it. Or if I killed them I'd end up in jail. So I decided I needed a way out, a ticket to a new life, so I stole something of the gang, from Big Lance, the crime lord.'

Twink fished in his rucksack and pulled out a glimmery diamond the size of a football.

The crew sat wide-eyed, eyes gleaming at the shiny jewel in front of the eyes. It sparkled in the light of the fire.

'Rarest and largest jewel in the world, worth more gold than you can count. It's my ticket to a new life in Eden.'

'Wooow,' Blue said.

'Holy shit,' Red was gagged.

'In all my days,' Mech whispered.

'That ... that's why they're after us,' Trucker was piecing things together. It was a lot of information to process, but suddenly everything was beginning to make sense: the pursuit, the stowaway, even Twink's personalities and motivations were all clearer now.

'Well, it belonged to my parents so it's not technically stealing.'

'You don't need to explain, Twink,' Trucker nodded as if thinking something over. 'We'll take you to Eden.'

'Really?' Twink sat straight up, not believing the other man's words.

'Really,' Trucker smiled. The young man had won him over with the story of his hardship, and he knew after all he'd been through, there was no way he was throwing him to the wolves when a simple lift to the city was all that was needed to help out a down on his luck man.

Twink returned the smile, tears in his eyes, as the sun set on the wasteland.