Chapter 6

Two days had gone by since Slayer was thrown out. He had spent his time alone, traveling through the rubble of what was a bustling city, avoiding STRI-KRs that would pass by almost every hour down almost every big street he traveled down. Eventually he made it to the residential areas on the other side of the city. As he was poking around inside the outdoor cellar of an old house out of boredom, he could feel the ground shake a little.

Poking his head out of the cellar, Slayer watches as a convoy of five missile launcher trucks follows two STRI-KR transports. One of the last launchers passing by, which was being followed by another transport truck, began to sputter to a stop. Slayer watched as the STRI-KRs got out and tried to fix whatever caused it to stop. After about a minute, the machine roared back to life and began catching up with the rest of the convoy.

Curiously, Slayer decided to follow the small convoy. After miles of trekking, he hides amongst some garbage and watches as the trucks enter what looks like an old power plant. Slayer soon realized that this was converted into the STRI-KRs main base of operations, as he saw hundreds of them exiting a hangar that was built to the side, along with transport vehicles. To the right was the torture camp. He zoomed in towards the area, and witnessed people being enslaved to perform meaningless and painful tasks. Some were thrown into small shacks, along with a few other STRI-KRs. Slayer didn't dare want to discover what went on in there.

"How has nobody else noticed this?! It's in plain sight!" he thought. Slayer turned around and began racing back to The Talons' camp. After ten miles of non-stop movement, a few dirt bikes and older cars suddenly jumped out from atop of a huge pile of garbage and started chasing down the Wall-E. "We've found it!" one of the drivers yelled. Slayer turned his head only to see many old modified vehicles of all types racing after him. The drivers and other outlaws hanging off the sides with their choice of weapons began cheering and shouting their war cries as they charged after the small robot. Slayer was about to shoot at the cars, but his body was incapable of running backwards at the highest speed his treads could carry him so he could properly shoot the vehicles down. All he could do was try to outrun and lose them. When the cars drew closer, shots began to be fired. The Wall-E swerved to avoid being shot at, managing to dodge every bullet and flaming arrow being projected towards him.

Suddenly, from his right traveling at a speed of almost a hundred miles per hour, emerged Bullhide's battle semi. It crashed its way through a pile of garbage Slayer and his attackers had passed. The truck was getting close to overtaking Slayer. A gunner from the left side of the trailer began firing at Slayer and managed to hit his right shoulder. The bullet ripped through and was lodged into his shoulder. The quick and intense pain caused Slayer to lose focus, causing him to fall and roll forward until he came to a stop. The armored truck along with all the other vehicles screeched to a halt in front of him. Slayer gripped his shoulder in pain as he watched the marauders surround him. "Make any sudden movements, you'll be torn apart" called Bullhide's voice from the loudspeaker on the truck.

-

At Bullhide's campsite, his marauders had formed a circle around where a large fire pit had been made, and Slayer was inside it. His arms and treads were chained up in an X position. His head was locked in place so he couldn't spin his head around and use his laser to cut the chains. In front of him were the rotting corpses of the outlaws he had killed days ago. Aside from them, a radio operator was trying to get into contact with allied gangs.

Bullhide approached Slayer, both staring at each other with death in their eyes. "The bodies that lay in front of you were our finest dogs of war." explained Bullhide. "They were chosen to take command of my ever-growing army of grand warriors. You shall pay for their deaths by being cremated along with them." Bullhide steps aside, slowly turns around and pulls out his pistol, aiming it towards a gas tank that had been opened and thrown into the pit.

"You humans fascinate me in all the wrong ways, you know that?" Slayer commented. Bullhide looked up. "Here you are, wasting your time with a ceremony over a couple of dead guys that tried killing innocent survivors, while there are other more important things at large!" Slayer continued. "Nothing important is happening anymore other than our reclaiming of the planet!" Bullhide responded confidently. "The world is dead, and we are here to forever purify it!" "You aren't purifying shit!" Slayer protested. "You're hunting other people instead of the STRI-KRs!" Bullhide laughed. "The STRI-KRs? The STRI-KRs have done nothing to us! They're too busy twiddling their thumbs while guarding garbage robots like you!" Bullhide raised his gun back up and looked back at the pit where he was about to shoot. "All the Wall-Es are dead!" Slayer shouted. Bullhide looked back up again in confusion. The radio operator in the back turned around as well.

"The STRI-KRs killed us off and staged our deaths to make it look like Operation Cleanup is failing!" Slayer explained. "They snapped photos of the dead and sent them off to the Starliners! We were built to represent the fraud Buy N' Large have created!" Bullhide and the rest of the marauders stayed silent. The radio operator meanwhile had left the high-powered radio on a common channel used by various other gangs, and left the microphone on. It was picking up everything Slayer was saying. Nobody knew it, but other gangs were listening.

"And don't even think for a second that you humans are safe!" Slayer continued. "Tens of thousands of people, gang affiliated or not, are being captured and tortured to death! As of now, they have already gotten their hands on ballistic missiles and might be getting ready for an all-out blitzkrieg to get rid of you once and for all! They didn't bother with you before because you were doing the work for them by killing each other over essentials! Don't let that be what divides you...division leads to decimation!" Bullhide remained silent along with the rest of the marauders. The thousands who were listening to the signal were all silent too. "So if you truly want to 'purify' your world," Slayer concludes, "do exactly what you did back in 2105, unite as one, and annihilate Buy N' Large, not each other!" Silence fell for what felt like hours. Bullhide slowly moved his arm holding his gun downwards away from the pit.

"This is Thunder Warrior's top commander," said the voice from the radio. "Whoever said those words, we acknowledge and are behind you one hundred percent." Everyone turned to face the radio as more responses from other gangs came on, some cheering so much that the speakers became muffled from the voices of the many who heard Slayer. Bullhide's marauders began chanting along with them. Bullhide looked around, then directly at Slayer. "Well, are you going to remove these chains?" asked Slayer.