Mad Max: Road to Salvation
Episode 2: Blizzard of claws
A/N: HOLY CRAP! This many reviews in a short time?! I must be doin' something right!
[Guest 1: You better believe its good!]
[Guest 2: Oh I am going to keep on trucking with this!]
[SilentType 1997: I'm not discouraged, in fact its quite the opposite. This is one of the best review turnouts I've had for a first chapter!]
[Mad Max Fan: Glad you're liking it!]
[Cloneguy: You are awaited in Valhalla!]
[Engineer2172: I hope you enjoy the ride.]
[SilentXD7: Thank you, I'll do my best to make this even more interesting!]
Max hauled himself up to the steering wheel and shook his head. He glanced over to his dog and saw that his canine companion was just fine. He then took a look at the environment around him and gawked. Green, the area around him was green! Trees, plants, birds, it was all here. The wasteland wanderer shook his head again trying to see if it was just his mind playing tricks on him, it wasn't. his instincts kicked in and he focused on his new objective: find out just where he is. He turned the ignition key and started the interceptor, causing the big chief V8 to roar to life. Max inspected the petrol gauge and saw that the tanks were still near full from his preparation to cross the plains of silence.
There was a clear road through the woods ahead of him. Max stomped on the gas pedal and blasted off down the road like a bat out of hell. He saw something ahead of him, he couldn't quite make it out though. The features on it were canid or lupin in nature, of that much he was certain. But how could that be? Wolves in his world wolves had been extinct for a very long time as far as he knew. This further fueled his decision to figure out where he was.
The beast became more defined as he drew closer to it revealing a pair of red eyes and a white mask of bone, he gunned the motor and engaged the nitrous. When you see a deer in the headlights, you speed up. The beast took up an aggressive stance and howled. The interceptor plowed over the creature with black blood spewing all over the hood of the car. Other creatures heard their fallen kin's howl and tried following the vehicle through the woods. Max saw some turns ahead and slowed down to avoid crashing. The beasts of the woods tried getting in his way, only for him plow right through them. Max drifted around another corner and went downhill. He saw a large bear creature at the bottom of the slope, this creature was far too large to run down even for the interceptor. He considered using his trusty shotgun, but this beast was armored in what would normally be any creature's weak spot. He knew it would be suicide to fight this thing and the other beasts head on, the only option was to run.
The road warrior just barely swerved out of the way of the lumbering bear beast and rolled on down the road. The other creatures followed him organizing into a large horde. Max gritted his teeth and the dog barked in agreement. The saw a ramp shaped rock directly ahead, a perfect jump. Max engaged the nitrous and took to the sky for a brief before landing on all four wheels and spinning out. Max stopped for a moment to see if he'd lost the horde of dark creatures, but the dust cloud was keeping him from seeing anything. Then as the veil dust lifted a large bear beast appear along with another horde of beasts. They surrounded the car and max tried to re-fire the engine but it refused to start. Max looked at his ammo belt and then at the largest creature. The beast looked him in the eyes as if it were challenging him to a one on one fight.
Max answered the challenge of the beast, stepping out of his car with the dog right behind him. Max hauled out a thunder stick and a machete from the compartment behind the seats. He stowed the machete on his back and prepared to throw the thunder stick. The beast roared loudly and quickly charged at the steely eyed Max. He dodged the claw of the charging monster and nailed its back with the well-aimed thunder stick, causing it to roar in pain. The beast swung around and charged again determined to kill the resilient human. Max was no stranger to fighting giant opponents, and waited for the lumbering black beast to strike. It swung a massive claw at him and he rolled under it, drew his shotgun. After emptying both barrels into the creature's belly, Max rose once more and reloaded.
The bear beast stood on its hind legs and roared again. Max looked the beast dead in its eyes and swung his fist signaling 'come at me!' The creature got back on all fours and ran at him again only this time it tried biting the surprisingly nimble human. Max saw an opportunity to strike another big hit and rolled under the beast's head. He pointed shotgun at the underside of the bear creature's jaw and fired both barrels again. This blew a hole clean through the creature's head causing it to sound off one more roar before dying. Max dove out from under the beast and stood up dusting himself off. The other creatures sounded their respective calls for the human's blood from the death of their leader and swarmed at Max. He brought his fists up and the dog joined in on the battle snarling at its own opponents as well.
The man reloaded his shotgun and hit one creature square in its armored face. Max cracked the skull mask, which dizzied the wolf beast. He brought out a shiv and brutally stabbed it in the neck. Another beast charged in to try and kill Max, but the dog ran to the aid of its master. Dinki-di jumped on the larger creature's back and began tearing into it. the dog kept at it, managing to bite into the wolf creature's spine and break it. The wolf creature died and the dog jumped off to fight another creature. Dinki-di was proving to quite formidable in battle, showing exactly why it had once been the pet of warlord Scrotus.
More wolf creatures ran at Max from multiple angles. He pointed his shotgun in the direction of several and knocked them back with both barrels of fire power. He then rolled out of the way of several claw strikes and bites. Dinki-di ran over to the car and pulled out max's second shotgun, the jury rigged over-under double barrel pipe shotgun from his Gastown troubles. The dog masterfully avoided the biting jaws and slashing claws of the other canid creatures as it made its way to Max. it threw the second shotgun to it master who snatched it from the air, dual wielding the two tools of destruction. Max now had 4 barrels for his troubles and blasted them at the creatures directly in front of him. He holstered and quickly reloaded both guns for another four-shell blast.
The creatures organized themselves and began attacking him using teamwork like real wolves. Max gritted his teeth and fired one shell from the sawed-off in his right hand while firing another from the pipe shotgun in his left hand. The beasts were craftier by the moment and Max knew he was running out of both time and munitions. Dink-di stayed by Max's side and the two of them continued their epic battle against the dark creatures. One creature charged at max's front while another hit from behind and knocked him to the ground. Max felt a pain in his side, it felt like the impact had cracked something. He shrugged it off and rolled out of the way of the other beast's attacks.
Max pulled himself to his feet and ran back into the fight to save his dog. The poor animal was getting overwhelmed by the swarming pack of larger beasts. The fierce and fiery canine refused to die a pathetic death and kept on nimbly avoiding their strikes. Max arrived and began blasting at the creatures again with his shotguns. Max had begun to lose his temper and put his shotguns away. He then let himself get furious and began using his fists to deal out pain to the beasts. He smacked one of the creatures hard enough to dizzy it, grabbed it by the neck and snapped it.
He punched another one so hard he knocked out its teeth making it howl in agony. He sidestepped the next beast and charged into its side. Max heard the snap of bones and levied a heavy blow to the creature's belly, killing it. He had begun a furiously violent rampage and started really slaughtering them one by one. The numbers of the once seemingly endless monsters had thinned out and Max had begun to show his fatigue. Eventually he and his dog managed to kill all of them with the last one simply collapsing from the lethal weapons that are Max's fists of fury.
Max and his dog were bruised and bloody from the battle against another twisted force of nature. Max walked to his car and checked the engine for the cause of the stall. A simple fix here and there, the interceptor was ready to go once more. Max and his dog hopped in to the car to drive on to their next destination. Max had a drink of water from his canteen and fired up the engine. The road warrior tightened his grip on the wheel as he took off again into the forest. He looked up briefly to the sky and saw smoke rising from the distance ahead.
"Smoke like that means something's wrong." Max said as he drove towards the black smoke that came from that direction.
"Woof!" The dog barked in agreement.
They drove on and saw a sign that read 'Riverdale-junction'. Max figured it must be the name of a nearby town. On instinct he put the pedal to the floor, the interceptor's engine roared loudly as if it were also agreeing with the urgency of the situation. They passed by what appeared to be ruined lookout towers, probably for sniping or early warnings from Max's best guess. A bridge was coming up and max saw bodies that had been torn apart. The bridge was badly damaged but still stable enough for the interceptor to cross over the small gorge. He could hear the sounds of death and destruction growing closer as he drove. The red glow of large fires was also becoming evident from what he could see, which was probably coming from burning buildings and bodies.
After another few minutes of driving Max could see the town directly ahead and he engaged the nitrous. He saw several men ahead of him, looting bodies. They were bandits, a large and well-organized group of them. He saw turn and look right at the vehicle, they raised their weapons and fired on the interceptor. Max ducked down and avoided getting shot by the well-armed bandits. They kept firing until they ran out of ammo and Max knew just what to do. He rose up and drove straight ahead, running over them with some blood spattering on the hood.
Max reached the center of town and saw the bandits battling against the surviving townsfolk. The engine's loud roar acted as a signal and some of the bandits looked in his direction. The townsfolk were also getting a good view of the worn looking but still mighty, black vehicle. Max skidded to a halt and hopped out again, he cracked his neck and knuckles, Dinki-di also hopped out again. The inseparable duo of hound and master stood their ground outside the car as the bandits rushed them thinking Max was just easy prey. They did not know of him, and did not fear him. Oh, how wrong they were to not fear this feral man. Max slammed his fist into the face of one that tried to fight him head on, another came at him with a sword. Max parried the sword strike with his machete, and sliced off the man's hand. Max heard a shatter come from these men when he did so, like glass being broken. He grabbed another man's arm and broke it, causing the man to cry out in sheer agony. Max then snapped his neck and threw the body at the others. Max charged them, slamming his knuckle dusters into the throat of another bandit. The man was choking violently as max brought one of his sawed-offs to the man's gut and fired both barrels. He died, and Max rolled out of the way another few bandits as they tried to strike him down.
The road warrior was about to be fired on by a bandit who was going to use his rifle. Dinki-di ran up and bit the bandit's arm. The proceeded to viciously take down and maul the shooter, ripping his throat out. The dog then went on running around taking down more and more of the bandits one by one. He even fooled a few of them into shooting each other. Max brought out his two shotguns and blasted them at group of enemies in front of him. They all died instantly from the brutal force of the close-range blasts of the two shotguns. Max took cover behind the interceptor and reloaded, he rolled out of cover when he was done and fired one shell from each of his two guns. Max took down another two bandits with the blasts further dwindling their numbers. The others had begun to retreat and called for their leader.
Max saw them doing this and he saw the most peculiar thing, a woman in a bony looking mask who stepped out of a portal wielding a Japanese sword of some kind. Max remembered swords like that from a long time ago in his world. Many who wielded such a blade were said to be skilled in their use. Max pulled out his machete again, and looked straight at the woman. She stared right back as she readied her blade, Max did the same.
-END CHAPTER-