Turret fire. A narrow canyon. One moment Tracy was in the line of fire of the incoming bullets, the next she was standing back around the corner of the canyon, by the car, safe. A buzzing sensation thrilled her. Mercy was standing two feet away, and she seemed confused.
'Tracy?' the blonde healer asked. 'Were you just…?'
Tracy shook her head. 'I don't know. I think I just… blanked out for a second there.'
Mercy nodded slowly, but the look of concern in her eyes betrayed what she was really thinking. How had Tracy just appeared out of thin air? Tracy was glad that Mercy didn't ask. She didn't have an answer.
Behind them both were Mike, Road Hog, and Junkrat. They had succeeded in bringing down the biggest robot, although it had done some damage to the car. It seemed there were more omnics behind them – B-grade machines firing haphazardly around corners. Mike led the retreat as the group re-formed at the car.
'Go!' Mike called. 'Get out of here!'
Tracy clambered into the vehicle and pressed the pedal. The Ute lurched forward. A piece of metal plating fell from the back of the car as its aging chassis shuddered.
'Faster than that!' Mike exclaimed, overtaking the Ute, his katana drawn. 'Step on it, Tracy. The Ute might not last long, but we need to get as far away as…'
An explosion interrupted him. Tracy glanced into her review mirror as two robots were blown apart behind her. Junkrat had been laying mines. Their retreat was being covered – for now. It would not last long.
Mercy was looking ahead.
'Has Reaper cleared the way forward?'
'I think so,' Tracy said. She gulped, unsure. He'd cleared one of the three turrets when she'd last seen him, but surely he would have done the rest by now?
'Good. Then forward. Let's find a better position to hold, in case our enemy continues to grow.'
Tracy did what she was told, and shifted the car into third gear. They were travelling faster now. In the narrow, twisting corridors of the canyon it felt like breakneck speed, though in reality it was a slow pace. She soon left her allies behind and drew up alongside Reaper, who had travelled some distance ahead.
'Are we safe?' she asked.
He said nothing, simply kept walking, skull-like mask fixed on any obstacles that might come their way. Tracy wondered if he knew something he was not mentioning. It seemed likely. They continued for a while, then stopped at a clearing.
Mike and the others caught up a few minutes later, all out of breath and sweating.
'We can't keep doing this.' he said through the car window. 'We need to stop. A rest point, or something. Some place we can defend ourselves.'
Tracy doubted they would find any sort of rest point here, in the canyon in the middle of the desert. This unforgiving landscape had taken the lives of thousands, perhaps millions, in the last year. She did not want to be one of them, but she did not think they would find peace here.
It was Road Hog who answered Mike, in his rumbling boar-voice.
'Shanty village ahead. Might be some tools, or water.'
'How do you know about it?' Mercy asked. 'If you're familiar with this canyon you should have told us before we entered it.'
Road Hog glanced at Junkrat, who looked away. The normally wild tinkerer looked serious and unhappy. More secrets. Road Hog shrugged.
'I just do, alright?'
Mike frowned, and opened his mouth as if to question what the fat man was saying, but there was no time. The screaming and screeching of robots echoed behind them. They were running out of time.
'Come on,' Road Hog insisted. 'Best place to go. Trust me.'
Tracy gunned the engine, which had been idling the last few minutes. Mike looked at her, and she shrugged.
'He's right. We don't have all day.'
Road Hog grunted his thanks, and the convoy set off. Above them, soaring over the tops of the canyon, were more robots. Some of them stopped to aim, and fire down. Most of them lost their balance or their grip, despite their specially treaded wheels, and fell down to the bottom of the canyon like large, artificial boulders, shattering against the floor. Deadly, random hail. Junkrat was almost crushed, but Mike pulled him aside just in time.
'We're travelling too slowly.' Mike said through gritted teeth. 'We won't even get to this shanty town at this rate…'
Road Hog looked up at the canyon top and fired his hook. It latched onto a robot and yanked down, causing the machine to fall and break against the floor.
'These are just scouts.' Reaper's voice filled their minds. 'They're trying to slow us down.'
'Well, it's working,' Tracy replied, forcing the Ute to a halt as a robot fell to earth in front of her. Mike and Mercy pushed the remains of the machine out of her path.
Finally they came across the split in the canyon, and turned to the shanty town, which was up ahead just as Road Hog had predicted. The machines were closing in.
Another minute on the road and the town came into view. It somehow looked both old and new, as if it had been constructed only in the last few weeks, but out of second-hand materials. The wooden pillars and planks looked dirty and roughly hewn, and most of the walls were made from either handmade bricks or sheets of tin and steel stolen from other buildings. A dirt path led between the buildings. There were six or seven structures, each with a quaint little deck, like a desert town of old. Creaking doors, swinging saloons – that was what Tracy pictured.
The group of six, protecting and driving the car respectively, rolled into the town. Tracy parked the car and climbed out, retrieving her twin semi-automatics from their holsters. They surrounded the Ute, using it as cover, a good place to make a stand.
'Here we go,' Road Hog growled. And like that, the enemy appeared.
The first of the machines was caught by Road Hog and pulled in, at which point he blasted it into pieces with his double-barrel.
Mike, standing in front of the Ute, took out another enemy with a shuriken and then abandoned his throwing stars for the full use of the blade, cutting down enemies on the left and right. Mercy defended his flank with her staff, which was now glowing as she beat the simple machines back.
Junkrat lobbed grenade after grenade into the fray. Tracy herself fired clip after clip of her twin weapons into the army. Her small calibre bullets did little damage on their own, but a few rapid shots at a time were more than enough to fell the mechanical marauders.
The tide was thinning. Slowly, gradually, it seemed they were winning.
And then it appeared: another of the giant robots, the eight foot monsters with canons for hands. It fired a shot without warning, and hit the car. The vehicle spun on locked wheels, slamming into Junkrat and knocking the scrawny blonde man down. A second canon shot hit the ground just in front of Mercy, and she was knocked back.
Reaper appeared, his two guns blazing as he fired at enemies on the left, the right, the left… He was halted midstep by a semi-destroyed machine on the ground that fired up at Reaper. The bullet ripped through his leg. This time he was not in ghost-form. He fell to his knees, and a wave of pain flooded into Tracy's mind against her will. It was Reaper's pain she was feeling – his pain was in her head.
Mike twirled the blade faster, faster, faster, fighting his way to Reaper's side to protect their ally. But he was being overwhelmed. Another few moments and there would be nothing he could do.
'We need to take down that machine!' Tracy called out, aware that almost all of her new friends had been knocked down and were nowhere to be seen.
Road Hog, that pillar of indomitable bulk, stepped up to the challenge.
'I can do it,' he grunted. He fired his hook up at the giant robot's neck, and it latched on. But when Road Hog tried to pull it down toward him he found that he was not strong enough, or heavy enough, to outweigh the machine. Instead he simply held the chain like an anchor.
'It's too heavy!' he roared.
Tracy had noticed. She fought to get closer to him. Emptied her clips of ammo, reloaded. Fired again, reloaded again. 'Hold your hook tight. I'll try for a better shot.'
Road Hog grunted. He understood the plan. He pulled back, holding the chain of his hook as tight as possible, while still moving around so he didn't provide a clear shot to the omnic leader. His gun ran out of charges. He slammed it down like a club, and decapitated yet another machine.
Genji called out, waved his katana in the air, did all he could to keep some of the machines focused on him. A few more seconds. Tracy's idea had to work…
She leapt onto Road Hog's chain. He almost buckled under her weight, and she came very close to losing her balance, but he managed to keep it steady. She took two wobbly steps, then two more stable steps, and jumped from the top of the chain up onto the giant robot's head. From there she jammed her twin weapons into the monstrosity's central processing unit and pulled the triggers together. Direct hits. Maximum damage.
The machine fizzed, sparks flew, and the head was blown apart. Then the main torso buckled, and the two canon-wielding arms drooped down. The robot slumped forward, throwing Tracy away, and collapsed onto two of the smaller robots, crushing them. Mike was granted a moment of respite, during which he pulled Reaper up. The limping warrior did his best to fire at the enemy, and they pushed them back.
Road Hog retrieved his hook.
'Nice thinking,' he grunted.
Tracy beamed, and started to thank him for his help. But she never got the chance.
The dust cleared and six more machines swarmed forward, each blasting toward them. The rapid bullet fire caused Tracy and Road Hog to fall back behind the Ute. Mike and Reaper also retreated. The four of them took defensive positions over Mercy and Junkrat, hoping to protect them in a final stand, or fight back if they could get a clear shot.
Then a voice from above called out. A new voice, male and drawling, that none of them had heard before.
'Get down!' the man shouted.
They were already about as low as they could get, hiding from the wave of enemies. But they did as told. Tracy was the only one who took that bare instant of time to turn and look up. It was hard to see the figure at first, because the sun was at its peak behind the roof of the building. Midday. High noon. But even with the glare of the light she could see the figure's broad shoulders and cowboy hat.
A stranger, yes, with a six shooter. Just enough bullets to kill her and her friends – or to kill the robots. She started to raise her own weapon, hoping against hope that she would not have to use it, but it was too late. They were at the stranger's mercy.
He would either save them or kill them all.