The Tank

The Tank, Chapter 6

Chapter 6

        I watched anxiously while Cordite’s group slowly siphoned the ethanol from the technicals’ tanks into gas cans. “Why not just drive them?” I wondered.

        “We don’t want to needless waste any of the ethanol,” Cordite replied.

        “Bullet Magnet’s a gas guzzler,” Maverik explained. “We need every drop.”

        I glanced nervously over my shoulder. “But they’ll be back, you know.”

        “Who’ll be back?” Cordite asked.

        “Axel and his gang. He said he’d be back soon.”

        “You mean those guys weren’t the gang?”

        “No, Axel just left them behind to keep an eye on me.”

        Cordite looked around at the others. They all seem concerned. “So this Axel, how many gunmen does he have?”

        “I dunno. Maybe fifty or sixty.”

        Ratchet’s eyes widened in fear. “That’s not a gang, that’s a militia.”

        “Change of plan,” Cordite commanded, “We’re driving.”

        The team piled into the two technicals, dragging me with them. Maverik and Ratchet slid behind the wheels of the two trucks, while Cagney and Tex commandeered the respective bed-mounted machineguns. I sat in the bed beside Tex, bouncing uncomfortably as Ratchet re-traced her steps back to the tank. As we bounced toward the interstate on-ramp I saw a cloud of dust and exhaust rising into the sky behind us.

        Cordite saw it, too. “The girl was right!” he yelled to us from the bed of the other technical, “Let’s move!”

        Maverik and Ratchet accelerated up the off-ramp and bounced the four-wheel drive trucks along the highway embankment. The actual road was too choked with abandoned cars to navigate, so they stayed on the shoulder, weaving in and out of the trees like slalom racers.

        Cordite was standing in the bed, staring into the distance through a pair of binoculars. I have no idea how he kept his balance. “We got scouts, five o’clock!” Two small jeeps emerged from a copse of trees behind the technicals, trying to shadow Cordite’s team.

        Cagney and Tex immediately opened up with the machine guns. The sound of the weapon discharging right beside me was deafening. Tracer bullets flew wild; some smashed into the ground and others zipped toward the clouds. None of them come close to the pursuing jeeps, because the uneven terrain caused the technicals to bounce, ruining the gunners’ aim. But the gunfire did spook the jeeps’ drivers, causing them to veer out of sight.

        “Where they going?!” Cagney wondered.

        “Back to report our position and direction!” Cordite theorized. “That’ll give us a little time!”

        “Assuming they don’t have radios!” Tex pointed out.

        “Hope for the best; prepare for the worst!” Cordite responded with a nod.

        Moments later we arrived at the abandoned tank. I stared at it as Maverik and Ratchet careened past and around it, circling to the rear and entering the highway using the path the tank created when it smashed away the abandoned cars. I’d never seen a tank before, not in person. It may have been dented and blackened with battle damage, but I thought it was beautiful. I didn’t stop staring even when both technicals stopped next to Bullet Magnet’s fuel tanks and Cordite’s team jumped to the pavement. “Maverik, fire up the battery. Tex and Rachet, man the turret. Cagney and I will start transferring the fuel.”