Faden sat in the cab of the old pickup truck alongside the grizzled haulier Granes and the wirey, leather-skinned Banak, who drove the heavily laden truck ponderously along the narrow road. The desolate road was lined with the ashen, skeletal remains of bare trees. His muscles ached after another long day of hauling scrap iron into the back of the truck from an old shopping complex on the outskirts of the city. He was glad of the rest as he leant back in his seat on the journey back to his clan’s camp, which was stationed several miles outside the city. He looked up at the dull glow of the sun as it sunk down through the grey cloud towards the western horizon. It would be the last trip of the day. All of the other scavenging crews would be heading back now too.
“How long do you think it’ll be until we can get out of the barrenlands and back to the bloc?” he said lazily to Granes.
“Those freighters have loads of room left yet,” grunted Granes, “Don’t matter that we have filled up three truck fulls today, there’s loads left in the complex and ol’ Fobes won’t want to head back until each of the lorries is brimming.”
Before Faden could reply the truck lurched to a halt and Banak leaned out of the window and shouted, “Oi, move it, can’t you see this is a road!”
Faden peered through the dusty windscreen to see a hunched man in a long, dark brown cloak sitting in the middle of the roadway facing away from the truck.
Banak shouted again, “Move it or I’ll run yer over!”
The man rose slowly and turned. Faden saw that he had dark-tinted glasses which stood out in contrast to his pale bald face. On his left cheek, he had a faded purple tattoo of a scorpion rearing to strike.
“Is that so?” the man hissed menacingly at them. “You should be kinder to strangers.”
As Banak angrily began to reply, the stranger threw back his cloak and pulled out a pistol. The muzzle flashed rapidly in quick succession as he squeezed down on the trigger and Banak’s face disappeared in a welter of blood as bullets punched through his skull. His body slumped down against the door, his ruined head still leaning out of the window. More bullets glanced metallically off the hull of the truck as Faden and Granes rapidly dropped behind the dashboard desperately seeking cover.
“Shit!” Granes gasped, “Look, there’s more!”
Faden glanced up quickly; he saw another three dark-cloaked men emerging from the shadows, surrounding them.
“One to the left, two to the right,” Faden muttered.
“We got to get out of ‘ere,” Granes replied as he frantically tried to open Banak’s door and push him out.
“They’re too close, we’re not outrunning bullets!” Faden said. His eyes searched for a weapon, anything to defend himself with, and he saw the crowbar that he had been using for prising apart tangled iron earlier in the day lying in the footwell. He reached out and clenched it in one hand. He heard the soft sound of footsteps approaching cautiously down the left-hand side of the truck towards his passenger door. Faden felt a cold sweat running down his back. The footsteps got closer and closer. And then stopped.
The soft, rasping breathing of his hidden assailant echoed in Faden’s ears. He knew he needed to act now. Steeling himself, he swung the door open and flung himself out of the cab, his arm swinging around in an arc; his first sight of the man was of the surprised look on his face moments before the crowbar caved in the side of his skull.
Bullets erupted once again from the gun of the cloaked figure on the road as the two fighters to the right of the truck rapidly closed with the door that Granes was trying to fumble open. The first of them pulled the door open, raised his pistol and a single shot rang out, silencing Granes.
Faden grabbed the fallen gun of the man he had battered to the ground and keeping low used the cover of the truck to dash into the treeline. A couple of shots followed him, splintering the trunks of nearby trees as shards of wood flew through the air.
Faden kept running until he realised he could hear the sound of the truck moving off in the distance. They had their prize and he was alone and lost.
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