Chapter Seven
I find Zer0 leaning against a wall outside of my house the next morning. I had gone home after my talk with Vince and had thrown myself into prepping for this mission. I packed a bag of dried meat, dried fruit, and a large canister of water. The bag wasn't super heavy, so I added a clean, oil-free washcloth and a toothbrush. Didn't want to smell with Zer0 around. I didn't know how long this was going to take.
"Ready to go?" He broke away from the wall and started walking in the direction of the fast travel station. This seemed familiar.
"Um, how long have you been waiting there?" I fell into step beside him and I wondered if he ever really waited for anyone in his life.
"Doesn't matter, we're on our way now." he had a small pack on his back, his short swords crossed underneath the pack, and a sniper rifle attached securely with two straps around his hip and right thigh.
I fell silent and pressed my lips together. He was just as infuriating as Vince. I thought back to Vince's and my conversation. I didn't know what to make of him still, but my heart was broken for him over his sister. I wish I could have done something for him, but how do you help someone feel better over the death of a loved one? I don't remember my parents, so I technically have never lost anyone close to me.
Our first stop was Ellie's. I was excited to see her and when we popped into the dust near her garage, the nausea just a distant memory at this point, I ran right at her when we spotted each other and she squished me into her large body. Just like Moxxie, she was comfortable in her own skin, and had all these men and women vying for her attention and I really believe that sex appeal and confidence was genetic because it didn't come as easily to me as it did to them.
"Scooter mentioned you were coming." Her voice was higher pitched than Moxxie's and she was tall with Scooter's brown hair and Moxxie's permanently raised brow. She smiled cooly down at me, and I beamed up at her.
"Hey Zer0," my aunt nodded her head in his direction. "Thanks again for those statues. Having them around has been great."
I looked at Ellie and raised an eyebrow. "Statues?"
"Yeah, those bandits made statues of me, and, well, I wanted them. So I sent Zer0 to collect them." she winked at me. "I can teach you later how to get guys to do things for you." I laughed at her blatant confidence and was really glad that she and Moxxie were my female role models growing up. I think I'd be a little bit more insecure than I already was.
"We're here for a bad ass car, if you wouldn't mind sparing one?" I cut to the point after looking at Zer0. I haven't seen Ellie in a while and wanted to just sit down and chat with her, but I had a mission and wanted to seem professional.
"Hell yeah, I don't mind at all." She led us back to her garage. "I finished this beauty with Scooter just the other day". She typed in some commands on the catch a ride station. A sleek black, armored tank appeared on the pedestal. Its windows were tinted, and a large bomb launcher sat atop its roof.
"That's way cool," I said and nodded along with Zer0. This was the first time I noticed he seemed pleased with something.
"Do you know anything about Carson?" Zer0 finally spoke.
"Not much, but last I heard he was up at Goose's Roost." She pointed and we followed her gesture to see a tall rock structure in the distance.
Zer0 nodded his helmet and marched up to the tank and got in the driver's seat. I looked at Ellie and she shrugged. I waved and hurried after him and as I was closing the passenger door, he took off toward the rock structure.
Zer0 raced the car across the desert, kicking up dust and scaring the shit out of me when he stopped abruptly and tail spinned to directly face the tall structure. My hands braced against the dashboard. We both looked out the window and up and realized pretty quickly that there really wasn't an easy way up into the small settlement.
Zer0 faced his helmet toward me and I looked back at him, then we both looked out the back window at a rock structure that suspiciously looked like a ramp. I sighed and Zer0 seemed like he was grinning under that helmet. He was gripping the steering wheel-leaning forward- and was looking back and forth at the two structures.
He violently whipped the car backwards and this time the front of the car spun to face the bottom of the ramp-like structure. We looked at each other and I shrugged. Here goes nothing. He stepped on the gas and I readied the cannon. We rounded the ramp to the opposite side and sped up as we went up the incline. Zer0 didn't even hesitate as he approached the ledge. I definitely would have slammed on the brakes. Good thing I wasn't driving. We launched into the air sooner than I was ready for, and it was a lot.
I'm not going to lie. I had a moment where I thought I was going to die. Like, maybe we wouldn't make it to the other side, or maybe we'd land on the spikes that I could now see surrounding the bandit camp. I grabbed Zer0's hand that was resting on the gear shift and I squeezed what I call the "oh shit" handle attached to the roof right above the window. My stomach twisted from the unusual pull of gravity and my heart raced from fear, excitement, adrenalin.
We landed with a huge jostle and I think I might have gotten whiplash, but that was something to worry about later because our arrival didn't go unnoticed. The bandits immediately launched their grenades and started shooting the second we crashed into their camp. I whipped my hands away from his hand and the handle I was squeezing and positioned them on the triggers in front of me. I launched a bomb and the dust began to sweep through the settlement.
The fire, blasts, and dust obscured my vision outside the windows, but I continued to launch the bombs toward them. Zer0 had jumped out of the car right after I let go of his hand and I trusted that he was smart enough to stay out of my line of fire. The noise was deafening and my heart continued to race. After a few minutes I only heard my own bombs, and I realized that the car could only go so far. I grabbed my gun, activated my shield-the bought one, not the one that I could generate from my own body- and jumped out of the car.
I spotted Zero immediately, jumping from one spot to the next all the while shooting at the bandits around him. I ran over to him to join the fight and shot a few suicide psychos on my way. I had to jump behind a crate for one as he got too close and activated the bomb he was carrying. The blast broke the crate and I felt some slivers brush my cheeks and arms. I think I needed a better shield. Good thing there was no blood this time. It took me forever to scrub it out of my clothes last time.
I bounced to my feet and zigzagged toward Zer0. There were a few shielded bandits that forced me to spin on my heel to avoid their barrage of bullets. I returned many of my own and eventually I broke from the dust it kicked up and I couldn't see where Zer0 had gone. He had remained just in the corner of my eye the whole time until now.
The wind started up and even more dust blew into my eyes and I had to duck behind a barrel to block the worst of it. Note to self: buy goggles.
The wind died down quickly and I rushed in the direction that I had last seen Zer0 disappear to. I blasted around the corner and nearly ran into a raging goliath. I spun, ducked and barely missed him. He blasted forward and I used his poor agility against him by emptying the last of my bullets into his back. He went down as I reloaded my gun, my hands slipping over the gritty surface. I would definitely need to clean my gun later.
My gun was ready just in time since he tried to push his hulking body up from the ground, but I landed some well placed bullets into his back, again, and this time he stayed down. My braid whipped around my face as I looked around for Zero. The dust was beginning to settle, and I was almost certain that we had cleared this camp. We had ended up on the other side of the settlement and I didn't see anyone else. Zero then rounded a corner up ahead and walked quickly toward me.
"Everything's clear." His helmet faced in my direction for a moment as I fell into step beside him. "I saw something back this way". He abruptly turned down an alleyway that I didn't notice before. We walked to the end and found another open area scattered with dead bodies. Zer0 must have cleared this out while I was hiding from suicidal psychos.
There was a metal slab off in the corner of a few makeshift buildings. It wasn't lying flat and it made sense why when Zer0 pushed it away with his boot. A body, longer dead than the ones around it, layed with an echo recorder right next to his arm.
I picked it up and turned it on. The device flashed the names of those who had spoken in the interaction.
Gettie: "Where's the chest, Carson?"
Carson: "What was that noise? It sounded like some Hyperion Screw trying to pump me for info. Didn't it sound like that, brother?"
Mavis "Sure did, brother. Why don't you-"
Gunshots boomed through the speaker and I visibly startled. Zer0 quickly glanced at me, then back at the echo.
Carson: "Mavis! NO!"
I looked at the body that was probably Mavis and I tried not to throw up. I jumped again when the silence after the recording was interrupted by Mordecai. Damn, was I on edge. Too much adrenaline, maybe?
Mordecai: "Gettie's after the treasure, too? [Shit], He's a Hyperion goon, more bent than a boomerang. He probably took Carson to the Hyperion Friendship Gulog.
Zer0 faced his helmet at me, he must have heard Mordecai on his echo, as well. "I know a shortcut to that place."
I dropped the echo next to Mavis and turned to follow Zer0 back to the car. Such is the life of a vault hunter. I don't know why his death bothered me so much more than the bandits I've killed. Maybe it was the difference between murder and self defence. Whatever it was, I had to forget about it and move on to the next mission at hand.
We get back back to the car that amazingly didn't take that much damage. There were a few scratches here and there, but for the most part its exterior shone in the midmorning sun and seemed to defiantly face the cleared settlement.
We climbed in and Zer0 drove in silence, his usual stoicism a slight comfort for me, helping me forget about the whole Mavis incident. The next trick was to get the car down from the ledge, but Zer0 just sped toward the edge and we dropped to the bottom. I clutched his arm and I might have screamed, but I don't remember because I think I might have hit my head when we crashed at the bottom. I didn't pass out, It just shocked me out of my fear. The car was fine, strangely, and Zer0 took off through the desert.
I used the washcloth and water to wash off the blood and dust as I watched the desert pass by, after shaking myself out of the shock and fear. Zer0 expertly avoided the other bandit cars that tried to follow and shoot at us. There was one particular tail that I got so annoyed with that I turned the turret on our car toward them and fired. That took care of that pretty fast.
We arrived at what was a deceptive tunnel, but I could see the magnetic field blocking the way in. It was a fast travel station for a car. I don't think I've ever seen one of these before or even heard of it.
Zer0 connected the car to the fast travel system and typed in a location that I didn't quite catch. The same feeling that normally occurs when traveling is worse when it moves an entire car. I clutched my stomach when we arrived on the other side.
When the nausea passed I took stock of our surroundings. Zer0 was driving as if he wasn't affected at all. He probably wasn't. The land was still a desert, but there were some green plants and bushes. Instead of bandits, there were what my echo device identified as slags. They kept charging the car, but Zer0 just ignored them as I watched in fascination and a little bit of horror as they disappeared and reappeared nearby.
We headed toward a tall mountain in the close distance and stopped at the bottom. My stomach growled and I pulled out the dried meat and fruit. I offered some to Zer0, but he declined with an upraised hand. Of course he wouldn't take his helmet off. I wondered if he ever took his suit off, either. I wondered what was under… ahem.
"So, why did we stop?" I asked him through a mouthful of jerky.
"Scoping out the path." He replied while he stared up at the top of the mountain.
I followed his gaze and saw a gate toward the top. We weren't going to be able to take the car through there. Which meant we had to be prepared with everything we had. I looked through the car and found some bombs that I attached at my hip. I also found a shield that was so much better than the one I had now. There was a little note attached to it indicating that it was from Ellie to me.
I smiled and replaced it on my person and threw the other one in the back. Maybe this one would keep blood splatter and glass off of me. Speaking of glass. I looked in the mirror and noted that the scratches on my face weren't that bad. They were actually fading quite quickly. Another sign that I was meant to be a vault hunter. Vault Hunters tended to regenerate health a lot quicker than normal.
"You ready for part two?" Zer0's mechanical voice broke the silence. I didn't jump this time, thank the gods.
I threw my bag into the back and straightened my gun holster after checking the clip. "Totally ready." I didn't look at him, afraid that he would see the wide eyed fear.
I don't think you could ever be ready to face death.
