Mad Max: Road to Salvation
Episode 4: Spare the piston rod…
[Dungeon Wyrm: big thanks for the suggestions man.]
[SilentXD7: you guessed right.]
[Mad Max Fan: in due time he may, it is 2 years before volume 1.]
[Cloneguy: Its possible, whose to say what really happened to the warboys with the death of the Immortans.]
[engineer2172: I aim to please.]
[blessingpilot4: Don't worry I won't be stopping this crazy train, except for more guzzoline!]
The broken moon shined brightly over the forest, illuminating the path ahead. Max had been driving through the woods on a paved road for a while now, and still had yet to notice the young orphan faunas child hiding in the back seat. She had fallen asleep while letting the smooth ride rock her there with each passing hour. Dinki-di had snuggled next to her to keep her warm, she had her arms tightly wrapped around the war hound she had come to adore. Max had figured that the dog simply wanted to sleep more comfortably, and let it be when it went in to the back seat. Eventually the forest road ended and an old cracked up one leading into the vacuo desert began. Max felt the familiar dry air of the arid plains again and it brought him a strange sense of comfort. The whole time he had no idea that a certain vengeful bandit woman was tailing him from a distance. Desert winds howled and the sands swirled in the normally quiet dunes as the interceptor's V8 roar filled the air.
Max then spotted a light in the distance, he pulled off of the road and out onto the sand. He stopped the car on top of a dune stepped out and pulled out his binoculars for some recon. Max spotted a group of people out there in desert, all of them had bone masks and strange animal features to them. The extra features were quite bizarre to the wasteland wanderer. He shook it off and focused on what they were doing, several people were chained up and being lead onto a platform. The road warrior could see exactly what they were going to do, an execution. He'd seen it many times before during his travels in the wastes of his own world.
He considered what to do at this point from a tactical sense, assisting the chained people could yield rewards, the risk it carried was making more enemies. He did not want a repeat of his mistakes that led to his gas town troubles. But he had crossed a powerful bandit leader, so he already gained one new enemy. As the survivalist pondered his options, a sharpshooter was scanning the perimeter, and spotted the black car and its driver. He called out the alarm to his fellow white fang members and the whole gathering lit up with raised weapons. The sharpshooter then started taking potshots at Max who was quite experienced with dodging sniper fire. He pulled out a hunting rifle he'd been given as part of his reward and used the hood as a stable platform for the shot. Another round whizzed past his head, Max took aim and fired, hitting his target in the head with deadly accuracy.
Max pulled the bolt back and chambered another round. He began sniping at the scurrying enemies on the ground, picking them off one by one. Max had spent a fair amount of time on the hill and caused enough havoc down below to make it easier to go down and finish the job. The little woke with a start from the gunfire and saw max doing his thing. She huddled down and waited for the combat to end. Max hopped back into the interceptor and drove head on into the chaos below. He ran over a group of enemy combatants like bowling pins and one managed to hop top of the hood. Max brought up his sawed-off and fired, blowing the head off of the hitchhiker. The other enemies had re-organized and began firing at him from range. Max ducked his head down, and drove over to the stage area. He was lucky he'd armored the fuel tanks so they wouldn't be vulnerable to gunfire, making him safe from gunfire from his rear. He positioned the interceptor for use as cover and reached in back to pull out the bolt cutters he'd acquired. He then saw the little girl huddled next to Dinki-di. This was not the time for him to deal with that, so he grabbed the cutters and ordered the dog to keep the girl safe. The dog barked in agreement, and Max went on cutting the chains.
Max was hurrying this along as the masked enemies started huddling around the stage area and rushing in to try and take on their human aggressor. Max snapped the last chain and the prisoners took off running into the distance. He didn't blame them, and hopefully they'd come back to reward him when he was done here. Max spotted an opponent coming at him from behind and pulled out his shotguns. He blasted the guy into next Tuesday and reloaded for another four-shell blast. Just as he finished, another one came at him with a mace. Max parried the strike, twisted his enemy's arm took and his weapon. The white fang grunt crapped his pants when he got a clear look at the furious human who stood before him, and took his own weapon.
Max looked the grunt right in eyes and levied a punch to his gut, making him cough up blood. He followed it up with a heavy swing from the mace that sent its former owner into a group of even more enemies. Max charged into them and brutally swung the mace. He snapped the thing in half from how hard he hit the masked enemies. He pulled the sword from his back and started hacking through each one as if they were pieces of clay. He was lucky this thing hadn't cut him when the previous owner used it against him. he put it away, pulled out his shotguns and went on blasting the masked fighters to kingdom come. One four shell blast wiped out a group of attackers that were dumb enough to try and surround him. Max spotted a grenade next to a crate, grabbed it and tossed it into the crowd. It went off and they scattered, giving max the perfect opportunity to hop into his car and run. He did and stomped on the gas, the wheels spun leaving burn out tracks in their wake.
He glanced at the rear view mirrors and saw several desert trucks chasing after him. Max engaged the nitrous, hitting the pavement with a hard turn and skid. He didn't waste any time and hit another nitrous burst to outrun the trucks. They tried to chase after him but when he hit the road, the white fang's desert trucks couldn't keep up. They just watched him pull away down the road into the desert. Max circled back and perched just behind the crest of a dune near the road and his pursuers. He then floored the pedal and slammed head on into the side of the lead truck.
He fired his shotgun into the cab killing the driver. Several grunts who were standing in the bed were unable to take any shots at him. The truck flipped and they appeared to be crushed, but then max didn't see them die. The other trucks swerved and spun out flinging their occupants all over the road. Max ran right over some of them, they barely even acted as speed bumps. He fired his shotgun at the driver of another truck. Blowing his head clean off of his body, Max just kept on going. He drove off, free and clear, no one following him. He had unknowingly just kicked the asses of an entire budding cell of the white fang.
The white fang grunts that were still alive would spread the word of this. He had torn through them and left their whole recruiting/execution operation in shambles. It was clear that whoever he was, they would come after him for this. Max focused on the road and contemplated what to do about the young girl in the back seat with the dog. He glanced back at girl, she was hanging on to the dog who kept licking her face and trying to comfort her. She wore a tattered little black dress, her hair was long and black, and her eyes were blue, her ears looked just like the dog's. Max was irritated that she had snuck into his car but for now he had to put some distance between them and those strange people he'd angered. He kept thinking to himself about the whole ordeal, he knew it was real. He was alive, so was the dog and the girl. That was all that mattered at this point, nothing else. Max decided to ask the girl some questions.
"Who are you, and why are you in my car?" Max demanded as he drove.
"A-Anya, Anya Onyx. I'm sorry, I just started playing with your doggy and he liked me. I thought you would be mad if you caught me, so I hid in here. You are mad, aren't you?" Anya answered max's questions.
"I'm going to find somewhere safe, then you're getting off." Max said stoically.
"Please don't make me leave! I can help!" Anya tried to reason with the man who had saved her village, and by extension her life.
"I'm better off alone." Max's tone didn't change.
"I want to stay with you, please! Out there, people hate me, and hurt me really bad because of my ears! I don't want to be out there, please!" Anya begged him to changed his mind as she clung to the dog.
"You're not safe, even with me. Where's your family? Don't you have a home?" Max asked her, not taking his eyes off of the road.
"Mama and Papa died, I wandered around until a nice man who found me brought me to Riverdale-junction. He disappeared, I think the monsters killed him, and I'm all alone now. Everyone there hates me because I'm different. They all hate the ones who look different like me." Anya explained herself to Max. This struck something within Max's scarred and solitary heart. He failed to protect glory and hope because he ran from them, he was too late because he tried to let them go to save himself. He forced them away when he could have protected them from the warlord. This girl, was she the first step on his path to forgiveness? Was she the 2nd chance he'd been granted? God died in his world, he knew that. But this was a different place, this world hadn't fallen yet. Perhaps here, god was still alive. He wouldn't let it happen again, not this time, this girl's blood would not be on his hands.
"…Can you count?" Max asked Anya with a slightly warmer voice after thinking for a moment.
"Yes, my Papa taught me how, and Mama taught me to read. Papa used to make guns and stuff, he taught me some of that too. He showed me how to fix them and make bullets." Anya told Max what she knew how to do that would be useful.
"There's a bag back there that says ammo on it. Open it up, and count what's inside, then clean and fix the guns as best as you can." Max told her what to do.
"You mean I can stay?!" Anya's eyes lit up with hope.
"Get to it, now." Max ordered to the orphan faunas girl with a forceful tone.
"You got it!" Anya said as she got to work counting the rounds, all of them. She matched each round type with its weapon while Max stuck to the road. He turned the headlights on, and saw a lone dark wolf creature in the road. He ran it over, he just barely caught a glance of it fading into ashes as he drove off. The little Anya smiled and sang a song with her cute little voice as she worked. This softened Max's heart even further, he felt warm again inside, He felt like a father again. One last little thing he noticed, was that her eyes were blue like his own.
Nearby on a hill, a certain mystic grinned to himself as he watched the Road Warrior's vehicle zoom down the desolate road. He thought to himself how it took this little nudge for his friend to live again. Max had taken the next step in crossing the true plains of silence. The wise wasteland mystic then walked away. "You've finally done it wanderer, congratulations." Then a dark figure appeared before him, someone ancient and truly the antithesis of both himself and the god of this world.
"Well, well, Griffa, what a nice surprise." Salem said in mock joy.
"I had expected you Salem, my world has no more need of me for now, so I sought further purpose somewhere else." Griffa explained his reason for being here.
"You shouldn't be here, Griffa." Salem said coldly, her tone changing.
"Yet I am, is that not the true mystery? We all have somewhere to be on the long and never-ending journey that is the struggle of eternity. I am simply serving my purpose in a broader sense." Griffa continued his explanation.
"Leave or be destroyed, I will not warn you again. I shall destroy this world, and you will die with it as your own world did if you choose interfere with my plans." Salem warned the unflinching mystic.
"I am not here to interfere, merely to observe. You are another matter for another authority, I will not be the one who does that work. It is not my place to do so." Griffa said calmly.
"Then observe, nothing more. The end shall come, the light will fail and fade." Salem said with a dark smile.
"We shall see Salem, we shall see. I wouldn't go so far as to discredit those who oppose you." Griffa retorted with a wide grin on his face.
"Watch your tongue mystic, for I will be watching you. Here I reign sovereign with my power over my dominion." Salem said in an attempt to frighten to powerful mystic, her dark smile had disappeared.
"Your eyes cannot see, and foresee everything. Even the tiniest sparks can be invisible, like myself. Yet great flames of hope can still arise from them." Griffa replied without a hint of fear.
"Remember your place here." Salem said coldly.
"This is not entirely your domain, Salem. That lies somewhere else. I still carry enough power to defend myself, I did wander my apocalyptic world after all. It is not dead, simply experiencing another bloody chapter of history. Do not threaten a wise old dog that bears sharp teeth." Griffa replied, his tone unchanged. Salem did not answer Griffa, and simply returned to her domain in this world. Griffa then looked back to the road, he grinned knowing that Salem did not mention or even notice Max. "You will have to continue your fight my dear friend, but fear not. I will still be by your side to aid and guide you." Griffa said as he disappeared in a plume of desert dust.
-END CHAPTER-