The Ute was old. A layer of copper-coloured rust covered its exterior like patchy moss, and the wheels – treaded as they were with spikes – looked like dangerous antiques. But when Junkrat turned the key the engine hummed and sputtered to life, and that was good enough for Tracy.

She did not know who Junkrat was. Nor did she know who Road Hog, Mercy, or Reaper were, not really, though their faces were becoming familiar. But a vehicle was hard to find these days, and she would take what she would get. More to the point it was difficult to find any kind of engine that wasn't trying to kill you.

Gingerly, she touched the scar on her stomach where she had been sliced open only twenty four hours ago. Mercy, the woman in white fatigues, had healed her. She did not understand how. She was grateful, of course, but more than just a little wary.

'So, here's the plan.' Mike said. Tracy looked over to him. He looked so young, stand amidst Reaper and Mercy, and even Road Hog. Not that Tracy had any idea how long Reaper really was. He seemed almost ageless.

As Mike explained that they would use the Ute like a pack horse, carting their few water and food provisions as scavenged from the gas station, he outlined their defence plan. They would be entering the canyon proper from here on, which would no doubt be crawling with machines and zombies just waiting to fall upon them. Or worse, bandits, hoping to kill and steal their way to a new land.

There were no new lands, of course. This was it. This was the world now.

Junkrat sat beside Tracy, and she took the opportunity to look at him closely. Her first instinct had been right. He was scrawny, the polar opposite of his partner Road Hog, and covered in soot and grime. He looked like a car mechanic, the kind that saw the underside of more cars than he would ever drive. Blonde hair, singed by fire, and a touch of madness in his eyes rounded out the image. Draped over each shoulder was a pack of tools and what looked like explosives, while strapped to his back was a grenade launcher.

The stump of his right leg ended just below the knee, and tapered off into a pirate-like peg-leg. Tracy wondered if Junkrat's maniacal grin was in spite of his injury, or because of it.

'So you're the girl, huh,' he asked, looking her up and down in a way that made her quite uncomfortable.

'Tracy.' She answered. She considered holding out a hand to shake, but decided against it.

'Where we goin', eh, Tracy? I hear from Hoggy that it's your plan an' that of Mikey what's leading us through the canyon. Dangerous path through the canyon, ya know. Very dangerous.'

Tracy didn't have the strength to argue their case, so she kept her response simple.

'A few days ago Mike and I passed a government facility. Well, that's what we think it was. Set into the mountains not far from here, almost impossible to reach. Well, completely impossible with only two people. But we might manage it with six.'

'Why so impossible, eh?'

'It's swarming with robots and those hungry undead things. Those mindless monsters.'

Junkrat nodded. 'Seems to me to be a stupid idea goin' up that way on account of all the danger.'

'You don't have to come.' She responded. No one had invited them, in fact, but after Junkrat's triumphant return he and Road Hog had decided, quickly and unanimously, that they would help approach the facility. Tracy still wondered if it was because they were frightened, lonely, or secretly planning to betray the group in hopes of keeping the women for themselves.

That thought frustrated Tracy, rather than scaring her. She knew that she could handle herself. So could Mercy.

'Well, like you said yourself,' Junkrat replied, grinning with missing teeth, 'you might just manage your task with the six of us intrepid heroes. But not so likely with only two thirds of the number.'

Tracy conceded the point. 'Then thank you for your assistance. And the Ute.'

Junkrat looked over to where the car was shuddering. He'd explained earlier that it was a passion project. There was plenty of fuel in the gas station, but he'd had to learn a lot about cars in a short space of time to keep it running. He had, apparently, tried to keep two cars alive in the beginning. But he'd accidentally let one of the batteries die. That had been before he met Road Hog.

Weeks ago? Months? No one was quite sure anymore.

'Don't thank me yet.' Junkrat cackled as he stood. 'It might not make it!'

…

Tracy drove. It was more or less all she could do, as walking any great distance tired her out. She was still recovering, after all. Standing on the back of the Ute was Junkrat, with his grenade launcher in hand. Walking on either side were the other four, all looking formidable with their weapons, all watching the sides of the canyons.

The deeper they strode into the canyon, the more cramped it felt, as if it were smothering them in an ever-tightening hug. Soon they would struggle to breathe.

The only direction in which there seemed ample room was up. The blue sky fell upon them like waves, unblemished by a single cloud, and in the centre hung the burning eye, yellow and furious, baking the earth. Tracy ached to be out of this desert. She needed clean clothes, a bath, a hot cooked meal. Water, soft drink, a beer…

Mike opened the passenger door and stepped in. It wasn't hard, the Ute was only travelling at a few kilometres an hour. Junkrat doubted it would handle anything more.

'What's up?' Tracy asked, winding up the windows so that they could not be heard.

'Just checking on you.' He replied, smiling warmly.

She looked into his hazel eyes, examined every inch of his tanned skin. He was so handsome. He was hers.

'I'm fine. At least, I will be. Whatever Mercy did to me…'

'That's what I'm talking about.' Mike said, eyes darting back. 'We don't know what she did. We don't know anything about her, or Reaper. And we know even less about those other two.'

Junkrat, standing on the tray, fired a grenade up at the canyon wall. A machine was blasted into small pieces. Junkrat laughed and laughed.

'You think they're using us.' Tracy summarised.

'Yes.'

'So?'

Mike paused. 'Well, we need to be careful.'

'Of course we do. We've been careful for the last six months, we're not going to stop now. But I don't care if they're using us at the moment. Because, to be honest, we're using them too. The whole world can use each other all day and all night if they have a common goal, it's not going to keep me up at night.'

Mike's mouth fell open, just a little, as her words rattled in his mind. Then he grinned. 'Good point.'

'Besides, you're the one who told them about the government facility.' Tracy pointed accusingly. 'We're practically leading them all into certain death.'

'No I'm not. With any luck we'll all get out of there alive.'

'But you haven't told them what is defending the place.'

This time Mike turned away, watched the road rolling under them. The right hand side of the Ute lifted and slammed back down as they passed over the rotten, rusty remains of a robot.

'No,' he said quietly, 'I haven't.'

A trail of bullets pounded into the front of the Ute, causing the vehicle to shudder and squeak. Tracy watched as smoking black holes appeared all over the bonnet, and ducked just as a dozen rounds spat through the windshield, shattering it.

'Mike!' She screamed. He had already dived out the passenger door, and was taking cover behind the car. Tracy covered her face with her hands, realising her reactions had been too slow, when suddenly her body tingled and she moved.

She did not move her legs, or her arms. It was her entire body that moved, as if in place. She was outside of the car now. Without a chair beneath her she collapsed into an awkward sitting position, and lowered her hands to look around. The bullets, she could see, had slammed into the driver's seat where she had just seconds ago been sitting. The door was still closed.

She looked around, wondering if anyone else had noticed her strange apparition. Standing above her, silent as the grave, was Reaper. His mask faced her but she could see nothing of his eyes in the dark holes of his skull mask. They held the look a moment longer, then he turned to face the upcoming bend in the canyon.

'They're just ahead.' The Road Hog grunted. 'If we turn this corner they'll mow us down. A turret of some kind. Fuck!'

Mike rushed to Tracy's side, held her in his arms yet again, grateful she had dodged the bullets.

'I hear engines behind us.' Mercy added. 'If we stay here much longer we will be surrounded.'

'My fuckin' luck.' Junkrat scowled. 'Twice in one day I get fuckin' trapped by these damned…'

'It's got nothing to do with luck.' Mike stood, and drew his katana. 'This is an ambush.'

Road Hog bellowed something about abandoning the car and leaving on foot. Junkrat set about laying mines and bear traps across the path behind them, hoping it would buy some time. But Mercy and Reaper seemed focused only on the path ahead. Retreating was no option, which in a canyon of only two directions meant they had to advance; even if the road ahead was guarded by a heavy turret.

'You might need to clear the path for us.' Mercy said.

Reaper nodded, and holstered his weapons into the belt across his waist. Then he drew his coat in around him.

'Like the fuckin' punisher, ain't he?' Junkrat asked, panting for breath as he lay his last mine and approached Tracy.

'The what?'

'The Punisher. Never read a comic before the Fallout? Guy with the skull on his chest, sober fella, dark 'n' moody type.'

Tracy shook her head. She had no idea what Junkrat was saying, and wanted to concentrate on what Mercy and Reaper were talking about. Whatever it was, it seemed they had reached a decision.

'Reaper and I will clear the path ahead,' Mercy said. 'The rest of you should defend our behinds.'

'Lady, I will happily defend your behind.' Junkrat sneered gleefully.

Road Hog chuckled, but everyone else ignored the comment, and followed Mercy's directions. Everyone except Tracy, who had no desire to get back in the car. She was driven by a compulsion to see exactly what the Reaper was going to do. She followed him toward the bend in the canyon, by the car, where he still had not drawn his weapons.

He turned and looked at her, but said nothing. Tracy wondered if he would wait until she was back in her position before launching into action.

Whether that was the plan or not, she never found out. The sound of bullet-fire from behind them distracted both, and Tracy spun around.

One of the bear traps had sprung up, latching around the tyre treads of a robot. But this was not one of the normal junkyard robots armed haphazardly with guns. This was a machine built to destroy, over eight-feet tall and sporting two arm-like limbs of steel and weaponry.

Road Hog was firing at the mechanical monstrosity, his shotgun spray denting and damaging the main body of the machine. Beside him Junkrat had already shot two grenades into the air, which landed on top of the robot and removed its head. The robot did not fall. The canon on its right 'arm' fired, and a deadly projectile slammed into the back of the Ute, causing the vehicle to shunt forward. The back fender fell away.

'Kill that thing!' Mike shouted, looking helpless with the sword in his hand.

Tracy did not stop to see what happened. She turned back to Reaper, who was now stepping around the forward corner, and the volley of bullets from the turret slammed into him…

Or, more accurately, passed through him. Reaper was gliding across the sand covered road, his hands by his sides, as if he were no longer just a man. As if he were made of smoke, or shadows. The bullets did not slow him down. He did not seem to even notice them. The only sign that they had touched him at all was the wisps of smoke that followed the holes in his body, before they closed up to reform his black cloak.

Reaper was… a ghost?

Tracy leaned further around the corner to watch what happened next.

Reaper crossed his arms over his chest, nodded his head down, and… disappeared!

There was a flash of darkness, an eruption of smoke, up ahead. Tracy followed the movement and saw Reaper. He had appeared – teleported, maybe – up into a hole in the canyon wall. He was standing directly behind the turret, which still fired into the road at nothing in particular.

Reaper upholstered both pistols, aimed them down, and fired. The turret stopped spinning, the bullets stopped firing, and it collapsed on itself. Tracy walked further into the now safe roadway through the canyon, gaping up at Reaper.

'That was amazing!' She called.

She shouldn't have said anything. She hadn't noticed the two more turrets in similar platforms throughout the canyon, and until she spoke they had not noticed her either. But now they turned on her, spinning rapidly, and a volley of bullets arced in her direction…