AN: Special shout outs to Kalaong and Irishbrneyes, because what can I say? You know the way to my heart is by leaving reviews. Now on to the update ;)
Chapter 3: Buzzards
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River's POV
She feels the Buzzards lurking, circling their prey. Hears their spikes and claws in her mind. Tastes and smells the iron-oxide dust that coats their vehicles. They are carrion-eaters, and want to pick dead flesh from of their bones.
As the skin on the back of her neck pricks up, she senses the teeth lurking nearby. She has to warn Furiosa. She crawls as fast as she can to the hatch in the front of the compartment, but feels a hand tug her leg back away from the door.
"You'll get us all killed." Toast says as she yanks the girl back.
She snarls in response. "She has to be warned!" She says as she kicks her leg out to free it from Toast's grasp.
"We are supposed to stay hidden!" Angharad tries to reason and play peace keeper.
Just as she is about to protest, everyone is slammed into the side of the compartment as the War Rig makes a hard left… undoubtedly to avoid the teeth that she had felt chomping in her mind.
She uses this as her opportunity and makes a quick dash to the compartment and throws it open, the wind from the War Rig's speed whipping the air into a frenzy. But before the others have a chance to stop her she's gone.
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This isn't the first time that Furiosa has dealt with Buzzards. She'd cut her teeth taking down plenty of pursuit vehicles on supply runs. It's what had earned his praise and trust, made her his fearsome warrior. But this is the first time in a very long time that she had the feeling of apprehension and pin pricks of fear along her skin.
As a Buzzard comes up on her left side, she slams the accelerator hold in place and opens the driver side door of the War Rig to fire with Ace at the Buzzard vehicle. They make quick work of the vehicle and it explodes into a fiery ball. The Buzzard vehicle behind doesn't have enough time to make any evasive maneuvers and the fire ball slams into it.
Furiosa breathes a quick sigh of relief as Ace moves to return to the back of the resume fighting the approaching pursuit vehicles.
That relief is short lived when she hears the back floor hatch open and long brown hair whip into the cabin.
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River's POV
Her worry, fear, and anger slam into her as she crawls into the small floor compartment in the back of the cabin.
"I told you to stay out of sight!" Furiosa yells as the girls crawls into the cabin.
"She can help!" She yells back over the wind and sound of metal clashing.
"Should have stayed hidden." She hears Furiosa think as the older woman hands her a bag of ammunition and small weapons. She knows that she doesn't know about the weapon, but the girl's pride is hurt none the less.
"Reload these and stay out of sight!" Furiosa yells back to her as she hands her an old carpet back full of mismatched weapons and bullets.
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Max's POV
We've cleared the pack behind us and I can see the target in front of us. I watch as we approach the War Rig and the Buzzards fighting to pick it's bones clean. It smells of guzzoline and burnt metal as we get closer.
"She's ours, Slit! She's ours." Half-dead yells behind me. "First, we get the Buzzards off her back!"
"Form up!" Fucker yells from behind the car as he throws an explosive lance into the Buzzard in front of us.
I hear the lance whiz past my ear, just a few inches from my head.
"That's my fuckin' head!" I yell back to him. I know it won't make any difference to the psychotic fuck, but I'm too mad to care. Fucker is too careless.
The lance connects with the car in front of us and half-dead has to swerve to avoid the fiery wreckage. Two more Buzzards come up from behind us.
As one pulls up next to us the gunner from the back of the War Rig shoots a harpoon into the roof of the car. The gunner celebrates hitting his target, but the Buzzard quickly slams into us as it tries to free itself. Half-dead quickly breaks before it can slam back into us, and the movement causes the harpoon to pull the entire rood free of the vehicle.
The passenger of the Buzzard quickly uses a dart gun to shoot at the gunner and I watch as the darts pierce his throat and chest. He's still alive, but struggling.
"Get up! You can do it!" Half-dead yells to the gunner.
I watch in horror as the gunner begins to spare some type of metallic substance into his mouth. A look of kamikaze rage on his face.
"Morsov!" The gunner yells as he grabs two explosive spears.
"Morsov!" Other half-life War Boys yell in unison.
"Witness me!" The gunner says as he stands on the back of the harpoon rig.
The chants of "Witness!" can be heard all around me and I watch as the gunner in sick desperation launches himself from the War Rig into the Buzzard next to us. The lances explode on contact and the shrapnel flies past my face.
"You all are bloody crazy!" I yell at them all. No one hears me, or if they do they ignore me, and the calls of "Witness!" go out across the battlefield again.
With that Buzzard disposed of half-dead begins to steer us up in front of the larger buzzard attempting to tear apart the War Rig with a tractor digger attachment.
"Get ready!" Half-dead yells to the fucker in the back as he steers in front of the digger and the War Rig.
"Back me in!" Fucker calls and I feel the car decelerate so that we are neck and neck with the War Rig.
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River's POV
As she reloads every gun that's in the small carpet bag she feels it… the energy, the electricity, and it's as if time stands still. She sits up from her hiding spot in the back of the cabin and looks out the window and sees him.
There is no sound, no explosive energy, no battle… nothing exists in the moment that their eyes lock.
And she sees everything. His pain… his scars. The demons and ghosts. It's like a dam breaking and they flood into her with such intensity it takes her breath away.
He's just as broken as her.
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Max's POV
By the time I blink the ghost in my mind in gone, an empty void where her face had been moments before, and I'm left wondering if she was even there.
I don't have long to think about the ghost as I feel the car being slammed forward by the digger behind us and Fucker lands near me on the hood of the car. Before I realize what's going on the car swerves and does a one eighty so that the front of the car is now facing the War Rig and digger. The half-lifes are throwing every grenade and lance they have into the digger to little avail as the jigsaw blades in the front of the digger slam into the driver side of the War Rig.
I watch as a War Boy climbs on top of the digger attachment in the throws a grenade into the hydraulics of the digger. There is a small explosion and I quickly duck my head as the jigsaw takes off the top of two explosive lances in the stand next to me. The sparks from the jigsaw cutting metal ignite the lance heads as they tumble underneath the vehicle and cause the explosive end of the digger. It takes the top of part of the War Rig and a few of the remaining War Boys with it as it flips over into a dusty pile of scrap on the side of the desert.
"Now we bring home the booty." Fucker says as he crawls back to the back of the car just before half-dead spins the car back to drive forward towards the War Rig's driver side.
It's then I see the dust storm that we are driving straight into.
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…On the War Rig…
As the violence ebbs to an end Furiosa can feel her nerves begin to settle, but her pulse is still racing as they head into the storm ahead. She's about to turn and tell the girl to go back to the others when Ace sticks his head in her window.
"Why can't you stop?" Ace asks as he watches her curiously as she continues to drive.
"Out of the way! Out of the way!" Someone yells from outside the cabin.
Ace begins to turn and look at them when he sees something in the back of the cabin, a small brunette he recognizes instantly. His face twists into pure disgust and hatred before he refocuses on Furiosa.
"What have you done? What have you done!" He screams wildly as his hand comes up and latches on to Furiosa's neck.
But before Furiosa can even attempt to peel his hand off there is the sound of a gunshot and Ace's hand quickly loosens its grip as he falls off the rig. Furiosa looks behind her to see the girl holding a small pistol… smoke still coming from the barrel.
Furiosa's too stunned to ask any questions.
"She can help," is all the girl says as she climbs over and straps into the seat next to Furiosa.
Furiosa refocuses on the task at hand and quickly slams into the pursuit vehicle next to her. Her wheel connects with theirs, and it deflates a tire.
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Max' POV
"We need counterweight. Get the Blood Bag down the back." Half-dead yells from the driver's seat.
I feel something yanking on the chain attached to the muzzle on my head and then hear and audible hiss as the metal cuffs around my wrists are disconnected.
"Hunt them down! Hunt them down!" Fucker chants behind me.
But before I have any time to react, I feel myself being dragged to the back of the car. My face slams into the windshield of the car and I get a good look at half-dead.
Next thing I know though I am hurled up over the roof of the car and to the back. My neck is craning against the torque from the chain as a sadistic laugh filters through the wind.
"Hey, head! Say bye-bye to the neck!" Fucker yells to me.
But then I hear half-dead call out. "We're going in Slit!"
Fucker looks up for a moment to see what his driver is talking about and that's when I yank the chain free from him and send him spiraling towards the back of the car. He grabs my leg to keep from falling off the back and I kick him as hard as I can to get him off of me.
One more good kick sends him flying, taking one of my boots with him.
I try to climb into the vehicle to avoid the upcoming storm, but it's no use. Half-dead has closed off the hatch and window. So I am forced to stay on the outside.
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River's POV
The heat from the torch approaching them makes her skin prickle with sweat. She's quick to grab one of the revolvers from the bag behind her. She steals a glance at the approaching vehicle and steadies her breath as she... does the math as Kaylee once put it. One. Inhale. Two. Exhale. Three. Bang, bang, bang. Three dead. Two remaining and three bullets left. She needs to conserve ammo though.
There's one way to do it, but it's risky. She shimmies her way half out of the window and steady her aim.
"Get back in here." Furiosa screams at her as she begins to roll up her window and put her goggles on to prepare for the approaching storm.
She doesn't listen though and closes her eyes. One. Inhale. Two. Exhale. Three. Bang. The bullet connects with the motorcycles front tire and sends it spiraling into the car next to it. They collide and then slam into the back wheels of the War Rig, exploding as the crash ignites the remaining lances on the car.
She quickly gets back into her seat and rolls up the window while grabbing an extra pair of goggles and placing them over her eyes.
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Max's POV
As we enter the storm I am knocked back by the force of the wind around me. The only thing that manages to keep me on the car is the chain that the IV snakes through. I feel something yanking the chain up and I regain my hold on the car. I watch as through the review window as half-dead swerves to catch up to the War Rig.
There are wind cyclones around us and I see the War Rig push the last pursuit vehicle into one. It carries the lightweight car into the air, along with the remaining War Boys from the back of the rig itself. They circle up into the air and the car ignites into a fiery blaze.
We are pulling up next to the War Rig, and half-dead begins to scream something nonsensical as he pulls at the hydraulic tubes feeding guzzoline into the vehicle.
"Oh, what a day! What a lovely day! I am the man...who grabs the sun...riding to Valhalla!" He then sprays the same metallic stuff into his mouth as the kamikaze did earlier. "Witness me...Blood Bag!" He screams as he takes out a flare and lights it.
Fuck. I begin to punch the back window as much as I can hoping to break it and steal the flare from him. I will not go up in a fiery blaze today.
"I live, I die, I live again!" Half-dead screams as I continue to punch the window.
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River's POV
She looks back through the dusty window to see the car still following them, and feels the War Rig begin to swerve to cut it off. Every molecule in her body screams 'no' in unison as she quickly tries to straighten it out.
"NO!" She screams.
"They want me dead!" Furiosa screams as she fights with the girl to regain control.
But Furiosa can barely hear her over the wind whipping around them. "We can't!"
Furiosa manages to turn just enough to clip their car. The girl lets go of the steering wheel and looks back in horror as the car rolls over itself and smashes into pieces. All she can see is a single flare burning behind them in distance as they drive away.
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AN: Dun, dun, dun! Well, we know they aren't dead, because where would the fun in that be? But you will have to wait a little longer for Max and River to meet (yes, I'm evil, but if you hurt me then you won't get the next update) Until next time, stay shiny ;)