The group rose with the sun, wary of one another but cautiously optimistic for the day ahead. Mike and Tracy, though not currently speaking to one another, reassured the rest of the party that their destination was not far away. Road Hog and Junkrat hung back, morose. Cassidy swaggered somewhere in the middle, Mercy drove the Ute, and Reaper moved where he pleased.
Everything was going fine until they saw it in the distance.
It appeared to be a dot on the horizon at first. It did not bother them until well after they had stopped for a morning rest and drinks break. But by then the dot was bigger, and there was not a single member of the group who did not have it on their mind. They continued in silence, save for the puttering of the Ute, wondering what was hurtling towards them.
'Robots, I'd say.'
Reaper overheard Mike whispering it to Cassidy, but the seasoned warrior shook his head, scratching his stubble with the false limb.
'Naw… the dust clouds too big. That's vehicles.'
'Vehicles? As in… more than one?'
'Plural, yeah.' Cassidy squinted. 'Maybe… three?'
Reaper, who had little experience with vehicles, and even less with being tracked like an animal, deferred to Cassidy's judgement. He asked the more important question, projecting his voice into their minds.
'How long until they reach us?'
'Not long,' Cassidy answered, his voice a pessimistic drawl. 'Less than an hour. On terrain as flat as this a speck in the distance won't look like much until it's almost upon you. And then there's nothing you can do.'
'We can get to high ground,' Mike interjected. The young man had a hand on the hilt of his blade, and was pointing with his other hand to a rocky outcrop only a few hundred meters away.
The group took a quick vote. It was unanimous. They angled the Ute toward the outcrop and picked up the pace. If they were about to be drawn into a fight it would be on their terms.
Cassidy's guess had been very close. It was four vehicles that skidded up to the outcrop about half an hour later, each armed with swivelling turrets and a handful of weapon-wielding men and women. All of them looked to be of Asian descent, and all looked tough.
Skidded was undoubtedly the wrong word. These were upgraded vehicles, from just before the Fallout – the kind you saw scattered and abandoned all over major cities. When they parked onto the dusty sand it was with a low thrumming noise, grains of sand fanning out under the pressurised air. Hovercraft.
From each of the vehicles a soldier climbed out and took the turret in hand, aiming up at the outcrop. The rest of the soldiers unloaded themselves, and brought with them a heavy looking weapon, futuristic and sleek. In contrast the weapons of Reaper's allies looked pitiful. Cassidy's Peacekeeper, for example, was ancient, despite how effectively he wielded it. And Road Hog's shotgun looked practically handmade.
'We believe you have someone we want,' the apparent leader of the newcomers declared. She was a fit looking woman, rifle in hand, and a sword on her back. The sword was not half as ferocious looking as Mike's, but Reaper could not help but notice the resemblance. Katana.
Mercy was the self-appointed spokesperson. She stood up, abandoning her defensive position, and looked down at the siege. They only had two or three meters in height advantage, and the outcrop was not wide, but it was big enough to give them a significant advantage. If their pursuers attempted to surround them, Reaper would gladly pick them off. They had parked the Ute on the far side of the rocky hill, where it blocked the easiest path to the top. Either their enemies could sneak around, or they could try and climb up the steep rubble. Both would be obvious.
'That is no way to start a conversation,' Mercy replied. 'Tell us who you are, and what your business is in these parts.'
'You are in no position to make demands from us.'
'Actually,' Mercy smiled, 'I think I am. We have a truck full of supplies up here, and you seem to have brought almost nothing. I'm guessing you are a scouting party. And though your scouting party may outnumber us, we have the higher ground as well as the more defensible position. If you try to circle us, or starve us out, we will destroy you.'
There was a significant pause from below. The woman seemed annoyed. Finally she looked up.
'You're right. But your correct assumptions do not put you in the good position you believe they do. Think of it this way. If we're a scouting party, out in the middle of the desert without provisions, that tells you two things. The first is that there is a bigger force we're scouting for. The second is that they're close. I say again. I say it clearly: you are surrounded. This entire desert is not large enough for you to escape our sight or our grasp. And you have someone we want.'
'I have someone you're never going to get,' Mercy said, more forcefully, 'unless you answer my questions.'
'You won't have the option of receiving my answers unless you…'
It seemed the show of tenacity was going to get out of hand when Mike, finally, stood up, his arms in the air as a show of deference. The woman below, and her troops, looked around at each other. There were some whispers and gesturing. No one fired – at least, not yet.
'So, you're going to come quietly, are you?' the woman asked, with a hint of taunt in her tone.
'Not likely,' he answered. 'And you can fuck off, Maya.' He lowered his arms and ducked back behind the rocky defences.
'Ah, don't be like that.' Maya, the leader of the enemy, was grinning now, apparently enjoying the turn of events. Reaper watched the exchange passively, not particularly caring for the subtle dynamics, but curious as to what the hell was going on.
'What is she talking about?' Mercy asked, her voice only low enough for the people on top of the outcrop to hear.
'She's talking about me,' Mike replied, sounding regretful. 'She's here on behalf of my brother, in Japan. I'm guessing he's nearby, probably with their main force.'
'And what do they want you for?' Road Hog grunted. Hard to tell from the expression on his face whether he wanted to fight and die for Mike, or hand him over. Reaper, to be frank, had not made up his mind either. But still he said nothing.
'It's a long story…' Mike trailed off. It was Tracy who finished his thought.
'Because he betrayed his family and stole that sword.' She shrugged, when Mike gave her an accusing look. 'Sorry. But that's the basics of it.'
'Genji!' Maya called from below. 'You still up there, or are you hiding now?'
'Who's Genji?' Mercy asked.
Mike lowered his face, something like shame dragging him down. 'I am,' he said. 'But I haven't been called that in many years. Not since I left Japan.'
Shots rang out. A few bounced from the rocks that ran around the outcrop. The enemy meant business if they were aiming that close. Mercy, who was still half-standing, bent lower to keep out of their line of sight.
'Well, Genji,' Mercy said, looking displeased, 'it looks like we're in some danger because of you. I hope you have a plan.'
He didn't.
While Mike – Genji – did his best to explain and Mercy did her best to arrange their defensive perimeter, Maya and her team were already moving into position. She had taken the enemy's silence to mean that they were going to fight back, although the opposite was much closer to the truth; Junkrat and Cassidy seemed to agree on something for the first time in their lives. Both men wanted Mike handed over.
'That's not how we do things,' Mercy snapped.
'We're a dictatorship, now, are we?' Cassidy murmured. 'How interestin'.'
Tracy added her own thoughts. 'Mike is my best friend, my partner, my... lover. We are not sending him out to die. You wanna do that you can go through me.'
Junkrat raised his grenade launcher at a devastatingly close distance. 'I might just do that, sweet thing.'
Cassidy was more permissive. 'What if we send him down, an' he acts as a distraction? We could still get out of this alive.'
Reaper allowed his own thoughts to bury those of his allies. 'We have reason to trust Genji. We do not have any reason to trust those people below. We should do for him only what we would want him to do for us.'
That bought a moment of silence.
'It's a pretty point you're making,' Junkrat scowled, 'but the fact stands that I haven't brought a platoon of enemies to our doorstep.'
'I disagree,' Tracy countered. 'The first morning we met Road Hog there were two dozen zombies crowding our escape. I reckon there's a fair chance they were in the area looking for you. That was the same night you stayed out late, wasn't it?'
Junkrat turned away, muttering angrily.
'And speaking of Road Hog, what's your op…' Tracy's voice died in her throat as she turned, and the remainder of the group turned with her.
Road Hog was standing on the edge of the rocky outcrop, his bulk blocking out some of the sun as it rose in the East. Below, Maya and her forces were staring up at the large man, and looked unimpressed. But Road Hog did not care for them.
With booming voice he called, 'Get the fuck out of here,' and fired his hook down into the throng of enemies. One was caught by the hook as it latched around his shoulder and pierced his upper chest, but before the man could cry out he was yanked back up by the winch on Road Hog's back, hurtling through the air with nothing but a sprinkle of falling blood trailing behind.
The man arrived at Road Hog's left hand, limp and terrified, having dropped his weapon and his bravery on the brief flight up. Road Hog raised his right hand – the hand that always carried his shotgun – and pressed it into the man's face.
'I really hope your pals down there get the message,' he growled, 'because this is gonna be fuckin' messy.'
And he pulled the trigger.
True to his word it was fucking messy. The soldier was blown apart by the close-proximity blast, and Road Hog was showered in blood and body-matter. What remained of the corpse dripped from Road Hog's hook and fell away. Road Hog, as soon as he had fired the shot, returned to hide behind the meagre rocky defences. Maya and her troops were shouting and screaming and firing pointlessly up at them.
'That was stupid,' Mercy berated the big man. 'All you've done is made them mad. Unforgivably mad. Our only chance for a somewhat peaceful resolution has been squandered.'
Reaper didn't say it, but he admired Road Hog. The obese fighter had made a decision and stuck with it. Why he had made that decision it was difficult to say: perhaps the Hog had bonded with Mike on their first night at the gas station, and was unwilling to give him up. Perhaps he was just a team player. Either way, they were bound together now. Maya and her forces would consider everyone on top of the outcrop an enemy, no matter how they really felt about Mike / Genji. So the group would have to fight together.
Or die together.