Chapter 8: Junkyard Grapple

The sunlight began to fade, and the moon was starting to make it's appearance. Knowing that they would be exhausted if they continued on, Max and Nausicaa decided to rest for the night. They searched for a place to stay, and found an abandoned junkyard, which was on the edge of a destroyed and deserted town.

The outside of the junkyard was surrounded by a large metal fence, complete with barbed-wire at the top of it. Through the open gate and inside the junkyard, were several old and destroyed cars, some of which were smashed and stacked on top of each other. There were also random bits and pieces of junk in there as well, such as destroyed tools, broken TVs, and other various refuse that had been put there.

"What is this place?" Nausicaa asked, her tone curious. "They are many machines here, but they're destroyed."

"This is a junkyard." Max replied. "It's where things that don't work end up. All these cars, all these things of the past, all of which was taken for granted, has been put to rest here. And speaking of being put to rest here, this is where we'll spend the night."

"Are we going to sleep in there?" Nausicaa asked, pointing in the direction of a large building that was a part of the junkyard.

"No." Max replied. "That's a storage building, which means that in there is just more junk. We'll sleep in one of these old cars, if we can find one that still has the seats in it."

Max then went deeper into the junkyard, with Nausicaa following behind him, looking around in amazement at how the cars could be smashed and stacked on top of each other. After a few minutes, they came upon what once was a limo, but was now destroyed: it had no wheels, some of the windows were broken, and it was missing the engine. But the body was still in good condition, and hopefully, the seats were still in there. If they were, then it would serve as a perfect place to rest for the night. Max went to it, opened the limo's door, and looked in: the interior, despite being a small bit dusty and run-down looking, was in good condition.

"Here." said Max. "We'll sleep in here; there's plenty of room for two people."

Max moved back, and Nausicaa cautiously climbed into the limo. Max followed in, then shut and locked the car door behind them. Once they were in, the two sat down and began getting ready to sleep. Nausicaa took off her backpack, along with the makeshift spear, and set it on the floor. Max did the same with his backpack and the barbed-wire baseball bat, and then lied down on one of the seats.

"So, what type of machine was this?" Nausicaa asked, still sitting up and looking around. "It's different from your type of machine."

"It's called a limo." Max replied, lying on his back. "Rich people, along with people of power, rode around in cars like these. Sometimes they did it for fun, while others did it to go places."

"Did you and your family ride around in machines like this?" Nausicaa asked.

Max remained silent, and Nausicaa remembered that asking questions about his past struck a nerve with him, so she stopped asking questions after that. She then lied down, got comfortable, and began falling asleep.

"Good night, Max…" Nausicaa spoke, her tone kind. "Thank you for protecting me."

"Good night…" Max replied, his tone indifferent. "Nausicaa…"

As Nausicaa drifted off to sleep, she couldn't help but remember Obaba's words about Max, and who he was before:

"You were once a protector, but now you are a wanderer. You are offered chances to become what you were before, but instead, you ignore those opportunities. Instead, you begin a walk into insanity, into becoming an animal. But despite all that, there is something inside you… something that prevents you from falling into darkness. If you didn't have that, you wouldn't have rescued your young friend."

At first, Nausicaa didn't know what Obaba meant by saying those things. But when Max mentioned the Main Force Patrol, and how he used to be known as 'Mad' Max Rockatansky, maybe that was what she was talking about. Either way, she didn't know, and she was tired from the day's events; she would find out more in the morning…

Nausicaa awoke to faint screaming, which sent a chill up her spine when she realized what it was. She looked over to Max, and saw that he was awake as well, and looking out the window of the limo.

"You heard it too?" Nausicaa whispered.

"Yeah." Max whispered back, before picking up the barbed-wire baseball bat. "You want to come with me, or you want to stay here? Your choice."

"Someone needs help." Nausicaa replied, picking up the makeshift spear. "And I want to help in any way that I can."

"Okay, but be careful, and stay close to me."

Max opened the limo door, and the faint screaming could be heard again, sending chills up both Nausicaa and Max's spines. Slowly and carefully, the two crept through the junkyard, following the screaming. Then they came upon the storage building, where they heard multiple cries for help coming from it.

"Looks like we've located the source of the screams." said Max.

"What's going on in there?" Nausicaa asked, her tone worried.

"I don't know, but something's telling me we're not going to like what we see." Max replied.

The two crept to the storage building and opened the door, hearing the wailing and crying get louder. Inside, the storage building had shelfs of different junk knick-knacks and other various debris. And in the corner of the storage building, there was a large trap door, and as Max and Nausicaa approached it, they could hear the screams intensify.

"Sounds like some people are trapped down there." Max spoke. "The only question is how many."

"I have a better question." said Nausicaa. "Why are they trapped down there?"

Max shrugged, and then looked at the trap door, finding that a latch was all that was keeping the door locked. He knelt down, undid the latch, and opened the trap door. The screaming suddenly stopped, and there was only darkness, and steps going down, to greet the two travelers.

Max then turned to Nausicaa and said, "Find me a flashlight."

"What?" Nausicaa asked.

Max sighed and replied, "Sorry, never mind; just keep watch on the darkness here."

Max then went to find a flashlight, while Nausicaa focused on the darkness. Listening closer, she heard what sounded like breathing and whimpering coming from this opening, which only seemed to add onto her worry and curiosity. After Max returned with a flashlight, he turned it on and viewed into the darkness, and what they saw made him wish that they never did come here in the first place!

There were about twenty people down there! Men and women, all of different shapes and sizes! They wore torn clothing and looked emaciated, like they had been starved for several weeks! They were the source of the screaming, crying, wailing, and all other noises of helplessness!

"Help us…" A man wheezed, as he crawled up the stairs. "Please…"

"Help us!" A lady cried out. "Save us!"

The prisoners down below began clamoring towards them, and Max quickly shut the trap door and closed the latch! After taking a few seconds to regain his composure, he turned to find Nausicaa, and saw that she was gone; she probably got scared at the sight of the captives and ran.

"There must be a cannibal living here." Max muttered to himself. "We better get out of here, or we're going to end up like those people."

Suddenly, Max heard Nausicaa yelling his name, and rushed out of the storage building. He then turned, and saw Nausicaa, who was being held by the largest man he had ever seen in his life! He was even bigger than Blaster, who he fought at the thunder-dome!

The man was extremely tall, with a bald head, a fat face, and piggish eyes that were colored brown. He was severely overweight, wearing a tan colored tank-top that was too small for him, a pair of jeans, and heavy boots. In his right hand he held Nausicaa by the back of her neck, as she was squirming to break free of his grasp, while in his other hand, he held a cleaver that looked small in his hands.

"Sorry about trespassing on your property, but we needed a place to spend the night." said Max, keeping his tone calm. "If you let us go, I promise we won't tell anyone what we saw."

The man let out a large, booming laugh and replied, "I'm not gonna let two fish who swim into my pond just leave! Don't have much meat on the both of you, but what we have is choice! It's now dinner time, she's going to be dessert, and you, my friend… you're the main course!"

The man threw Nausicaa to the side and rushed at Max, swinging his cleaver wildly! Max dodged the wild swipes and chops, wound his barbed-wire baseball bat back, and hit the man in the right shoulder! Much to his shock, the hit didn't seem to phase the man, who dropped his cleaver and knocked Max away! He then pulled the bat from his shoulder, grabbed both ends of it, and broke it in two over his knee!

Now Max didn't have a weapon to fight with, as the man picked his cleaver back up and continued his attack! Max continued dodging the wild swings, and began trying to deliver punches to the large man! But the man absorbed every hit he delivered; it was as if his fat was acting as a sort of armor, protecting his body from Max's hits!

He then sliced Max's left arm, but the metal armor on Max's arm protected him the cleaver blade, and he responded by punching the large man in the nose, which made him recoil! Now finding his weak spot, Max began targeting the man's face, as the man continued his barrage of slicing!

Unfortunately, after successfully landing several hits on the man's face, the large man dodged Max's attack, and then responded with a right uppercut that sent Max flying! Max landed on the ground, and tried to get back up, but the man stepped on his chest, pinning him to the ground!

"I'm definitely going to clean my plate with you on it…" The large man snarled, as he readied to bring his cleaver down on Max.

Suddenly, from out of nowhere, Nausicaa came up from behind and stabbed the large man in the back with her makeshift spear! It went into his side, and it caused him to let out a yell of pain and drop his cleaver! But then, after a few seconds, he turned to face Nausicaa, still with the spear sticking in him! Nausicaa, who had the look of a fighter on her face, was not going to back down from this monstrosity of a man, no matter how frightening he looked.

"I usually don't have dessert before dinner, but for you, little one, I'll make an exception!" The man snarled, before letting a roar and racing at Nausicaa.

Nausicaa quickly ducked and kicked him in the leg, causing him to topple to the ground, and the spear to go clean through him! But, despite now losing lots of blood, and being punctured in the side, the man was still alive! He got back up, and began trying to grab Nausicaa, who dodged his wild hands and responded by delivering powerful melee attacks!

Max got back up and, picking up the cleaver, came up to the man and threw it at him, hitting him in the back! But he was still standing! Even after taking hits that would kill a normal person, the man was still standing! Both Max and Nausicaa were panting from the fight, while it seemed that this gruesome individual was unaffected by his injuries. Unlike their opponent, Max and Nausicaa were not injured in any way, but they were getting tired, and needed to find a way to either defeat him or escape.

"Tell me, do you have a plan to defeat this man?" Nausicaa asked.

Max looked around, and then saw a tower of five cars was stacked slightly off, meaning that one wrong move could send the entire stack smashing down, on top of whoever was unlucky enough to crash into it!

"Let him chase us to that stack of cars over there." Max replied. "I have a plan to get rid of this person once and for all."

Nausicaa looked at the tower of cars, and then understood the plan that Max had concocted. Suddenly, the cannibal came charging at them, and the two quickly dodged out of his way! He tried to grab them, hoping to rip them apart with his bare hands, but Max and Nausicaa were proving to be too fast for him! Not to mention he was severely overweight, which wasn't helping, as his extra-extra fat was slowing him down!

Max and Nausicaa led him to the tower of cars, and waited for him to begin his attack again! And while he was coming over, the cannibal found an old, metal beam that had been discarded, and he was now going to use it as a weapon! He cornered Max and Nausicaa, who both were pinned against the tower of cars, preparing to kill the both of them!

"Looks like…" The large man panted. "It all… stops here. Any… last words… before I kill you?"

"Yeah." Max replied, a small, sarcastic smirk on his face. "Ever thought about buying a treadmill?"

Nausicaa didn't get that joke, but the large man got it, and it made him furious! Letting a loud and furious yell, he raised the metal beam and charged at Max and Nausicaa, who quickly jumped for it! The large man then ran into in the tower of cars, bouncing off it and falling on the ground! The tower of cars wobbled back and forth for a brief few seconds, as the large man turned over on his stomach. He was about to get up, when a metallic crunching sound was heard, and the towers of cars began falling! It came forward and-

CRASH!

When the dust had settled, Max and Nausicaa got up from the ground, both tired and beat from the battle they were in. They looked, and saw that the large cannibal had been crushed under the cars, his body twitching for a few seconds before finally stopping; he had been crushed to death.

"That was a close one." said Max. "Let's get out of here."

"What about all those people that were captured?" Nausicaa asked, her tone somewhat worried. "We can't leave them down there."

"Right." Max replied. "Go and get our supplies, and wait outside the junkyard for me. I'll free the captives, and then we'll make a run for it; we don't want to be around when they get out."

Nausicaa obeyed and left to get their supplies, while Max went into the storage building to free the prisoners. He waited by the door and watched the entrance to the junkyard, waiting for when Nausicaa was going to exit. When she did, wearing her own backpack and carrying his, Max went over to the trapdoor, undid the latch, and opened the trapdoor, before running out of there as fast as he could.

He ran out the entrance to the junkyard and to Nausicaa, who quickly handed him his backpack, which he put on. The two began running along the road, away from the junkyard, and away from the abandoned town. Once they were a far distance away by foot, the two slowed down to walk.

"We have to be more careful from now on." said Max, his tone solemn. "We can't let something like that happen again."

"That was awful." Nausicaa spoke, her tone appalled. "How can a person become like that?"

"People lose their minds when everything goes south." Max replied. "They find a good reason to go crazy, and there are no laws to stop them when an apocalypse breaks out. I don't know why, but that's the way the world works…"

Nausicaa didn't reply, but allowed her eyes to focus on the road in front of them as they walked. Things were a lot different out here than they were in the Valley of the Wind. Out here, people were savages, and they were out to get everyone but themselves. It was a whole other world out in the desert, a whole other world than what she knew.

A whole other world… that was dangerous…