Chapter 11

Mike and Tracy's facility turned out to be a stone building of indeterminate size, locked into a cliff face in a nearby red-rock mountain. Its open front gaped like mouth of a gargantuan whale, deadly to all those who entered its dark and unwelcoming maw. Between the outer wall – a low, ineffectual layer of rubble – and the actual doorway set into the stone was approximately fifty meters of piled up, discarded vehicles, twisting corridors of trash, and semi-completed concrete defences. A labyrinth of defence.

'Not so hard.' Road Hog grunted.

McCree looked at the big man. Clearly the Road Hog had no idea what it meant to lead an attack such as this. Rushing into a war-torn mess like this one was suicide. There could be any number of traps, mines, or enemy soldiers lying in wait. If there was a sizeable force that did not want them to enter, they would be almost powerless to do so.

'Not so hard?' Junkrat backhanded the arm of his flabby companion. 'This is a death trap waiting to happen.'

Genji (whom McCree still thought of as Mike on occasion) spoke up. 'Last time Tracy and I passed by here we tried to get in. We barely made it out alive.'

'How did you?' McCree asked warily.

'Well, I don't think they wanted us dead.' Genji shrugged. 'We're not machines, and we're not dead, after all.'

The day had passed swiftly after the battle with Maya and her Japanese hit-squad. A few miraculous clouds had drifted lazily across the sky, small and wispy. It was not normal for this part of the desert but, after all, the weather was nothing to rely on. It had been wild and unpredictable since the Fallout. Who knows what damage had been done when those catastrophic missiles were detonated?

Still, night was fast approaching, and although no one had said it the fact remained that no one wanted to be outside when darkness came.

'So we approach cautiously then.' Mercy said, the perpetual voice of reason. 'With hands up, and weapons lowered. Whoever runs this place is not a mindless foe. They may see us as potential allies. They may allow us to enter.'

'I don't think that's likely.' Tracy replied, and there were hums of agreement from most of the party. Still, Mercy held a great deal of respect among the group. As healer and a fearsome warrior she had led them to victory more than once, and continued to bring them back to health with her inexplicable magic.

Her heavenly magic, if Reaper was to be believed.

And speaking of Reaper, the other six turned to him now. The silent, black-clad figure seemed disinterested in the conversation. And yet he, for whatever reason, held the same kind of authority as Mercy. She looked at him imploringly.

'It's the best plan.' He agreed finally. Mercy nodded briskly, and began directing their companions to look as submissive as possible. Only McCree, eagle-eyed as always, noticed her breath of relief, as if she had not quite known which way the Reaper would vote.

'Who wants to go first?' Junkrat asked once everyone was ready. He spoke from the front seat of the Ute, trying not to look like a threat, while the group gathered around.

'The car should.' Mercy replied.

'The hell it should! I ain't drivin' in there ahead of the rest of you! They'll blast me to pieces before I can get halfway to the first spot over there.'

McCree looked to where Junkrat was pointing, at a derelict looking wall that almost passed for a safe spot among the treacherous rubble. The doorway at the back of the cavernous entrance looked further away than ever.

'I will.' Genji said, unsheathing his sword in a show of defiance. Mercy slapped the flat of the blade down with her palm.

'Idiot. Don't show your weapon!'

'Let me then.' McCree drawled. 'I'm not much of a hero, but I owe the rest of you a…'

He paused as he saw Tracy leaving the ranks of the group and rushing toward the danger zone. His words caught in his throat. Of everyone here he had hoped she would survive the most. And yet there she was, running toward death ahead of all the others. Genji called out. A moment later so did Mercy. Tracy slowed to a walk when she was beyond their reach to stop and passed through the first set of walls…

Miraculously, nothing.

The assumption had been that there would be at least a turret of some sort situated on the back side of the walls, but the further past them Tracy walked the longer she lived – against all odds.

McCree breathed a sigh of relief. Opposite him Genji did the same, and suggested the others follow after. Junkrat brought the engine to life and the warriors moved forward.

Only then did the shots ring out.

McCree heard the bullets before he saw them, and in fact would not have seen them at all if pillars of misplaced dust hadn't been thrown into the air at each impact. A dozen spurts of sand raked their way toward Tracy, who rolled forward just in time, and the machinegun fire shot past.

Then she was gone, darting forward. Had she run, McCree wondered, or had she flickered in time again? Blink and miss it.

'Come on!' Genji shouted, rushing into the occupied zone and drawing his katana. They spotted the turrets then, hidden as they were behind piles of trash. Genji dodged one, and managed to destroy its firing function with a well-thrown shuriken star. Reaper appeared in a flash of smoke and disarmed another to their left. Road Hog, using his long hook, took out a third from a rooftop. They strode forward, feeling untouchable, Mercy at their backs with her healing stave in hand.

McCree checked to make sure he had six shots in the Peacekeeper and, sated, followed along cautiously.

They made it less than a dozen meters before they were attacked again, this time by actual enemy fire.

It came from their left. Road Hog was hit, three rounds slamming into his bulky side, and the big man staggered to take a breather. Junkrat shot at their foe without even looking, lobbing a grenade launcher, but the enemy had already moved on, shooting out from a position of cover and sprinting across the plain.

'Fuck,' Junkrat whistled. 'He's fast.'

McCree could not help but agree. The figure ran as fast as some motorcycles he had seen.

More gunfire from their left. The six turned to defend themselves when a rocket slammed into the wall behind them and it rained rubble. They turned again, but were too late. Their enemies, it seemed, were all around.

'What the hell…' McCree drawled.

'Anyone catch a sight of them?' Junkrat had stopped the Ute to help give them some cover, and was leaning out the driver side window.

'Anyone see Tracy?' Genji asked, looking somewhat afraid with his blade in the air.

McCree peeled his eyes and there he saw one, sprinting from a spot of cover to a new position. He whipped up the Peacekeeper and fired. The bullet tore through the running man's leg and he toppled to one side.

'So,' he drawled, 'the sons of bitches can be killed.'

It was Road Hog who took the next one. He was a big man, but he was angry, and his reflexes were sharp. The next soldier to run past was too close, and Road Hog snapped it up with his hook, winching the man in to finish him.

The soldier did not come easily. As Road Hog pulled him in he raised his legs and kicked the big man to the ground. Normally, McCree guessed, a kick like that would not have been enough to floor the obese road warrior, but Road Hog had just been shot after all.

The soldier raised his heavy pulse rifle and looked around at the group, daring them to attack him before he made the first shot. It was the stance of a bargainer; the stance of a young man who was not ready to die. The stance of a man about to say something that he hoped would save his life.

'Surrender,' Mercy said. 'We don't want to…'

The man shot her. A shallow wound across the top shoulder that dropped Mercy to the ground. The rest of the group surged toward her, but halted. Their enemy held a much more powerful weapon at this moderate range – automatic of course. A quick spray of bullets and he could take them all down.

As noted, it was Road Hog who took him out and saved them all. The big man got to his feet with deceptive noiselessness for his great size and, rather than use his shotgun, took out the throat of the soldier with his hook at close range. It was a messy affair, but Road Hog was full of vengeance. The enemy soldier died quickly, toppling to the ground in a pool of red.

'Fuck that guy.' Hog snarled.

More shots, more rockets, fired from all directions. The six gathered closer still, using what little cover they could from the Ute and the scrap-covered yard. They were too far from the door, and too far from the outer wall, to make a run for it. They were trapped.

'Where the hell is Tracy?' Genji asked.

McCree examined the body of the dead soldier. Though bloodstained, it was clear to see that his uniform was red, white, and blue; the national colours. He wore combat boots and gloves, carried standard issue weaponry, and had a wrist-mounted rocket launcher on his left arm. The face was covered by a tactical visor, red-lights blinking, that disguised all features save the scruffy blonde hair above.

McCree leaned closer still. On the man's waist was a small pouch he recognised. When he'd been leading the Deadlock gang he had run into a number of government agent's carrying them. A biotic emitter, field issue. He snatched it away and held it out to the Road Hog, whose injuries were the most serious.

'Here,' he said. 'This is a biotic emitter. Since Mercy's unconscious it will help with your wounds.'

'How's it work?' Road Hog growled.

'Just place it on the ground and the displaced biotic microbots will instantly move towards any injury they sense in the nearby…'

McCree was cut off. Rather than place it on the ground the Road Hog stuffed it in his mouth and shattered the protective casing with his teeth. The microbots surged into his system, healing the huge fighter even as McCree watched.

'Or,' he admitted, 'do that.'

More shots rang out, and a rocket detonated against the side of the Ute. Junkrat was firing out towards his enemies, and Reaper was soaring across the battlefield, a dark untouchable shadow. Genji looked frustrated, unable to risk approaching his enemy with the sword, but lacking enough shuriken stars to do any damage from a distance.

'Has anyone seen Tracy?' He repeated.

And this time, finally, McCree could answer yes.

He saw her over Genji's shoulder. She was practically flying – one moment jumping forwards, then darting through the air in an inexplicable flash. Her short brown hair seemed not to know which direction to face as she ran ahead, then back, then reappeared where she had been moments ago. Time was broken around her.

She was cute, McCree noted, in a way that he was unable not to notice. Her tight orange pants accentuated the slender grace of her legs, and she cut a lithe figure as she raced across and over and through all obstacles.

But she was also deadly. Her twin pistols pulsed as she moved, flashing shots towards her enemies on all sides, attacking them from all angles, a one-woman force of destruction and mayhem.

Enemies fell all around her.

He watched as she clambered up a pile of rubble, darted forward, and shot an unwary foe in the back of the head even as he took cover on a rooftop. She then flashed back to where she had been, kicked in the face a soldier who had been chasing her, and shot him too. No matter how many of the enemies approached her she could not be taken down.

McCree felt his heart swell with pride and, dare he admit it, attraction. She was a hell of a fighter. Whatever abilities she had, she was using them well.

Another thirty seconds passed and the coast was cleared. Tracy, dashing back and forth through the exposed battleground, had picked their defences apart with ease. She strolled back to the group now, hips swaying, with an expression of supreme satisfaction on her face.

'How was that?' She asked.

No one knew what to say to answer her. After McCree had spotted her the others had all turned their attention to her efforts, and were now all equally stunned by what they had seen. So Tracy shrugged and faced Genji directly.

'Do you believe me yet?' She asked.

He nodded weakly. 'Sure. I believe you. But what the fuck was it?'

Tracy opened her mouth, but remained quiet for a moment, as if not sure what to say. Perhaps she didn't even have the answer.

Either way she was spared the moment by the creaking noise of a doorway opening. They turned as one to look at their destination, a steel-locked door set into the mountainside, from which yet another of the identical soldiers was stepping forth.

This one was slightly different. The light shining from the room behind framed him in a glow of glory, but that was not it. There was something in the way he carried himself, a world-weary slackening of broad-shoulders. Or perhaps the slight extra weight he carried around his paunch. Or even the white mop of hair, rather than blonde, which flapped over the top of his tactical visor.

This man, it seemed was older. A leader. Someone who could make decisions. Someone worth talking to.

He spoke in the clipped tones of a soldier, brisk and to the point, but there was gravel in his voice. The gravel of an old man who has seen it all and lived to tell the tale. The gravel of someone who has fought for years, and will keep fighting no matter how bad the violence gets, until the day the last breath fails his lungs, for no other reason than it is the right thing to fight for.

'Now that you've killed most of my army,' he said simply, 'I suppose you'd better come inside. It seems we have a lot to talk about.' Then he sighed heavily and returned inside, leaving the door wide open.

The seven followed him in.